dilek türkan

You came to İstanbul from Balıkesir alone at the age of 16 to receive conservatory education.

My interest in music started in the middle of the first grade. My brother joined the Balikesir public education center choir, and I would chase him. I was eleven years old; everyone was over forty-fifty years old, only I would go out of school in a black apron. I loved this music in a very short time, after a while my mind was set that I should study music. I finished high school when I was sixteen and took the conservatory exam, I got in and my music adventure in Istanbul started. My family was not able to come to Istanbul because they lived there, I came to Istanbul alone, and my father had passed away a year before. In fact, my family was shattered in a very short time. My determination to succeed was due to this, I was alone; I would either do it or not. I chose to do, to succeed. Dilek Türkan

Until the conservatory, you have not played any instruments except block flute. Unfortunately, we are trying to understand, to learn other cultures while we do not know our own culture, music and instruments. Playing an instrument is not an easy task, especially Turkish Music instruments. Block flute or mandolin are instruments that are easier to learn, so at shcools they have a priority in education. It’s not an unfair reason; you cannot give Tanbur or Istanbul Kemenche to the hands of a child. It takes years for you to get the right sound from the Istanbul Kemenche, you know it very well. The important thing is not to play or sing well; the important thing is to know. If you are in this culture, you should have this knowledge. It is not difficult to

know composers, songwriters and authorities, but families should listen to and speak to them. Unfortunately, this music is not listened to in most families. The only method of placing this music in people is to learn. We can make our own format in music for children to love. Children’s albums, children’s songs, beautiful lullabies are so few. Children will be familiar with these if they have good execution skills.

I listened to you on the radio years ago. You said “People reach out to old artists and their music through knowing me. However, it shouldn’t be like this; they need to know them before me.” Why do you think this is wrong?

Because of getting the right criticism. If there are serious critics around you, your seriousness will increase in your work. You try harder to do better. A music listener who has never heard of this music immediately embraces whatever sounds good. This seems nice from the outside but is not a good thing for the performer. It is not good at doing better, it makes you lazy. In the past, Turkish Music had very good performances. In my early days, I listened to a great performer, and I thought about quitting this job. “She covers so well, she sings so well, what do I have to add to this?” They were far superior to me, still they are, but when I found my own way of playing and started making the music that I heard inside, my faith increased. I started to question why I made this music. Of course, you do it with your own faith and love at first, but you also do it in order to reach an audience of a quality. If the audience knows what you are doing there, this time you have to “work even harder to add to what you already have”. I wish it was a really conscious society. I wish there would be a really conscious society that does not reach to them via my work but with knowing them before me they would comment “ah, this is the cover of that.” I think that some constructive comparisons and criticisms will be of great benefit to the artists.

You were involved in a project with the Band Kargo. We listened to the song “Mazi Kalbimde Yaradır” with a completely different interpretation. Today, there are such studies. Do you think today’s cover makers are sufficient for this?

These are cover songs. In my opinion, this is a burnout syndrome. In order to reach a wider audience, many artists live and survive only with this. Here, the situation is a little different. We started a friendship with the band Kargo and it was a work that was born with that friendship saying “let’s play together.” It wasn’t such an idea as “we will reach so many people” by preparing a planned programed cd. It was a friendly thing. It was nice, some people liked it, I am sure there were some critics; how beautiful, I wish, I wish more. But creating something new is the hardest and most accurate. In my opinion; in the name of consumption, it is not right to constantly repeat something that happened, but this is done a lot since the audience has such a demand. How do I do it for myself, on the one hand, I am doing new things. If I wasn’t doing anything new, it would not be right. I add this to the innovations I have made.

Can we talk about the term “Turkish art music?” The one that its actual name is “Turkish Music.”

How did this come about, how did it happen, I could not tell; under the name of “art music” and why did it come out with that name? Musicologists need to investigate this. We have a lot to research and find; Meanwhile, I am not bad on these issues, I wonder, I try to find. A concept called “Turkish art music” is a wrong concept. I do not know how it was found, how it came to today, but it is definitely a wrong concept. Actually; it is Turkish music. These lands, this climate, this geography has music. Just as Portugal had Fado Music, Turkish music needed such a name. I think; that a name called “Turkish art music” emerged in order to distinguish it with “folk music.” But I think this was not necessary, and many Turkish music works are actually folk music of Istanbul. The main source of Turkish music is Istanbul. In fact, Turkish music works are the music of Istanbul. Yes, its composers are obvious, and who owns some works of folk music is certain.

There is a perception towards our Turkish music; this music is only for older age group. Whereas Zeki Müren was only seventeen when she wrote the book “Zehretme Hayatı Bana Cananım” What would you like to say about this subject?

Your approach is very correct. Maturity is not about the age, it is about the mind. Yes, Turkish music requires a certain maturity, but I do not mean age. A

sixteen year old girl who came to Istanbul from Balıkesir has this maturity. That’s why she realizes this music, loves it. I am not saying this in terms of glorifying music, shrinking the other, every person has a degree of maturity. This is the way you look at life. Some people prefer it, some people do not. Some people can understand this music, some people cannot. It is all a matter of taste; maturity is also a matter of taste.

If you want, let us talk about the songs that have been touched by women. You recently had such a concert. March 8 was a concert you have prepared for International Women’s Day. It was very special. I liked the songs that women touched a lot. Because throughout the history, so many women are gone, who worked in different fields including music, without explaining and completing themselves. It hurts so much. This is a problem women has experienced all over the world. There are many beautiful works that have emerged, I want to explain them a little more and I want to enter the inner world of these women; The life of Seyyan Hanım, Safiye Ayla, Neveser Kökdeş… I feel like I have written the book of their lives while listening to them. I wondered so much and researched how their singing style, songs and lyrics came out... And at that moment, very mysterious things came up. I wanted to explain these, because there is a lot to consider, many things remained under the ground as these women migrated from this world. I wanted to make them remembered. And really, the songs that women touched, just like in its name, were very naive and beautiful. I have voiced them, loved it, maybe I can grow a series of concerts in the future.

I was going to mention some names that you mentioned; Neveser Kökdeş, Perihan Altındağ Sözeri, Sabite Tur Gülerman, Seyyan Hanım and even, going back further, Dilhayat Kalfa. These names managed to exist as a “musician woman” during the times when the woman was difficult to exist in social life. Such great determination, a great success. You give something valuable to a person, then you push them, they somehow reach a point. It is a miraculous thing for me to add value to something that has not yet gained its value despite the burden and difficulty of life. And something that needs to be told frequently today.

According to a rumor, at the time, women were writing male names under the songs they wrote, hiding themselves.

Or vice versa; some people wrote female names under songs they believed that were not good enough.

I listened to you in the conversation at Hezarfen Art School. You mentioned that Safiye Ayla took stage without a microphone and that it was stated on the posters. When we look at this day, it is not possible to take a stage without a microphone. Can we say that the absence or widespread use of the microphone at the time brought real audio artists forward? Having a microphone actually killed one side of the art. In other words, it has decreased the value of very strong sounds. In addition to the conversations we have with our friends at home, we also make music. This is what my friends who have come to my concerts say before; “the microphone kills your voice, the taste here is completely different.” When they hear the bare voice, they are more than impressed by the concert. Because everything is in there; you have breath, excitement. A lot has died with technology rising, and this is one of them. Today, the recording is done in the studio, and even someone who cannot sing can make an album. When you listen, you say “how beautiful, well said.” But listen to it in a bare voice, then will you be able to say the same thing? This is also a reality.

“Aşk Mevsimi” is an album made with Western music orchestra, with works of the Republican era. In addition, the album consists of a concert recording. People’s applause is also included in your album recording. This leaves a very warm intimate effect. How did you decide on this?

I can perform live and it is a valuable thing. I wanted to explain and convey this. The beautiful things that are done in most concerts are fading, the recordings in the album remain, and the listener can only reach them. But the concert has an enthusiasm and energy; not everyone can come to the concert and not everyone lives in big cities. We want to go anywhere in Turkey, but our desire is not enough, unfortunately. I wanted to give them a moment of the concert. I believed I could do this, so I wanted to record a concert, well I did. It

was the first concert, especially I wanted it to be so, and I wanted to make them taste it. In my last album, I made two CDs, one was studio recording and the other was completely live. I always wanted to do this, I hope I will do it even more. Because I love what is alive, I love everything alive. For example, I do not like the perfect gardens and scrumptious stones, but stones with various shapes that have been washed from the sea; I love the natural one. Since I live my life the same, I try to convey it to my music.

“I needed to show the affection I have accordingly in the Aşk Mevsimi album” you said. What accords are you talking about?

Many of those songs were written on piano. Kaptanzade Ali Rıza Bey composed those songs with piano and played them. However, almost all of those records have disappeared or have not been recorded at all. That period; Turkish musicians went to Europe and they started to transfer what they had saw there into their music. I reflected that period, I did not want to take those songs and present them in another format.

There are two CDs in the album “An.” One is the 1918 period songs, the other is the 2018 period; so you have your own songs. The works of two different periods are mutually greeting each other. You recorded this album live in Sirkeci station in Stone record format. Is there a special reason why it is in Sirkeci station?

The reason for being in that place is that it was alive with the period it lived. Sirkeci station witnessed that music. All of the composers and songwriters in this album passed through that station. While that building was being made, these songs were being written. I wanted to bring them together there again. I wanted to feel like going back to then. With that music, with that place, with that period’s performance.

For the album “An”, you said, “We created a colorful blend in addition to the blend I heard on traditional music, in an effort to discover today’s music.” What did you discover in today’s music?

So many different music emerged that there is a serious erosion in Turkish music. Unfortunately, we did not improve Turkish music, we changed it. New names appear in every period of music. When only traditional music existed, which you can count the Western music is also, out of nowhere a lot of genres formed. Rock music, arembi, jazz music came out. But jazz and blues’ source were already the traditional music. Then Turkish music remained where it was. It was also given a wrong name. When they all overlapped, it created a serious earthquake in our music and everything began to collapse. It is necessary to find a name for today’s modern way of performing this music. Musicologists are the ones who can create this name, but unfortunately we do not think about it, and I wanted to think about it a little bit. Because having an identity means having a name. If I call you Zeynep, this is not true. You are Elif and if I call you with another name, it is not healthy for anyone. That’s why it needs a name that suits its characters. In this last album, we started to make some differences on the music; we brought differences with arrangements, orchestrations and new songs. But it needs to have an identity and a name. Music is the one, not an album, needs a name, now I am in search of it.

I watched your interview with Yekta Kopan. You said “If only you can put the song ‘Kimseye Etmem Şikâyet’ next to ‘Sabah Yıllardan Beri’, you would have reached the purpose of the album An.” I believe it has achieved its goal, I can see it because I follow your concerts.

It realle has. After the last album (you know which one, you follow), I put together a section of 1918 songs, just traditional music. I was a little nervous at first, because the audience; awaits new songs, modern things, or what they know. “Do they get bored in that section? What would happen?” I did not know. Fortunately, there is something called applause for us to understand it. This gives us very serious information on the subject. Traditional songs started to get the biggest applause and it made me so happy that I cannot tell you.

I think they find themselves, because these tunes are from our land.