Ahmet Adnan Saygun (Turkish pronunciation: [ahˈmed adˈnan sajˈɡun]; 7 September 1907 - 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist, and writer on music. One of a group of composers known as the Turkish Five who pioneered western classical music in Turkey, his works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. When alluding to folk elements he tends to spotlight one note of the scale and weave a melody around it, based on a Turkish mode. His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola, and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works. The Times called him "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland, what Manuel de Falla is to Spain, and what Béla Bartók is to Hungary". Saygun was growing up in Turkey he witnessed radical changes in his country’s politics and culture as the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had replaced the Ottoman Empire-which had ruled for nearly 600 years-with a new secular republic based on Western models and traditions. As Atatürk had created a new cultural identity for his people and newly founded nation, Saygun found his role in developing what Atatürk had begun. Saygun was known not only as a composer but also as a scholar as he wrote and published many books on the teaching of music. He was also an ethnomusicologist and a teacher. He greatly influenced the development of western music in Turkey and helped to establish several new music conservatories, and was also a member of the National Education Council and the board of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Starting in 1972, he taught composition and ethnomusicology at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory (renamed "Turkish Music State Conservatory" in 1986) until his death in 1991. Following his death, the Ahmet Adnan Saygun Center for Music Research at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, was founded where his original manuscripts and archives are also kept. His works were played by orchestras such as NBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and numerous others. The German label CPO has launched a series of works in memoriam of the 100th birthday of the composer in 2007. The records are including Symphonies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Piano Concertos 1, 2, Violin Concerto, Viola Concerto, Cello Concerto, Anatolian Suite and String Quartets 1, 2, 3, 4. Turkish music historian Emre Araci published a comprehensive biography and catalog of Adnan Saygun in 2001 (Yapı Kredi Yayınları, in Turkish), based on his 1999 Ph.D. thesis from the University of Edinburgh. Wikipedia
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Ahmet Adnan Saygun (Turkish pronunciation: [ahˈmed adˈnan sajˈɡun]; 7 September 1907 - 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist, and writer on music.
One of a group of composers known as the Turkish Five who pioneered western classical music in Turkey, his works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. When alluding to folk elements he tends to spotlight one note of the scale and weave a melody around it, based on a Turkish mode. His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola, and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works.
The Times called him "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland, what Manuel de Falla is to Spain, and what Béla Bartók is to Hungary". Saygun was growing up in Turkey he witnessed radical changes in his country’s politics and culture as the reforms of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had replaced the Ottoman Empire-which had ruled for nearly 600 years-with a new secular republic based on Western models and traditions. As Atatürk had created a new cultural identity for his people and newly founded nation, Saygun found his role in developing what Atatürk had begun.
Saygun was known not only as a composer but also as a scholar as he wrote and published many books on the teaching of music. He was also an ethnomusicologist and a teacher. He greatly influenced the development of western music in Turkey and helped to establish several new music conservatories, and was also a member of the National Education Council and the board of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Starting in 1972, he taught composition and ethnomusicology at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory (renamed "Turkish Music State Conservatory" in 1986) until his death in 1991. Following his death, the Ahmet Adnan Saygun Center for Music Research at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, was founded where his original manuscripts and archives are also kept.
His works were played by orchestras such as NBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and numerous others.
The German label CPO has launched a series of works in memoriam of the 100th birthday of the composer in 2007. The records are including Symphonies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Piano Concertos 1, 2, Violin Concerto, Viola Concerto, Cello Concerto, Anatolian Suite and String Quartets 1, 2, 3, 4.
Turkish music historian Emre Araci published a comprehensive biography and catalog of Adnan Saygun in 2001 (Yapı Kredi Yayınları, in Turkish), based on his 1999 Ph.D. thesis from the University of Edinburgh.
Wikipedia