Monday 2 June 2014

Music in Turkey - Sari Gelin/Sari Gyalin

For this blog post, I used the CD from the book called 'Music in Turkey' by Eliot Bates, and this song was track 32. I also got the background information from the book on page 104.

Sari Gelin in Turkish translates to "yellow bride" or "blonde-haired bride." This song is about impossible love, typically between a Christian and a Muslim.

The song opens with a riff from a lute (I believe), which is repeated many times throughout the song, mainly after the words 'Sari Gelin' have been sung. The introduction is very short, and the male and female lead voices enter very swiftly.

I think that they have used a male and female voice as it represents the two lovers who are not allowed to be together. The male voice is quite low and steady, but the female voice is in a mid-register and seems quite shaky and unsteady. There is also another voice/voices in the song, but this voice(s) is mainly in the background and is not a lead voice in the song. The voice(s) seems to be improvising around a few notes that are used by the two lead voices.

At the end of the song a Ney is heard, and this is a type of woodwind instrument. This plays a short melodic sequence that has been taken from the voice part. This is what finishes the song, and is, perhaps, showing the dismissal of the two lovers who are not allowed to be together.

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