Who is Ahmed Adnan Saygun?

Ahmet Adnan Saygun (born September 7, 1907 - Date of death January 6, 1991), Classical music composer, music educator and ethnomusicologist, who is among the Turkish Five.

One of the composers known as the Turkish Five in the history of Turkish music, Saygun was the composer of the first Turkish opera and the first artist to receive the title of "State artist". “Yunus Emre Oratorio”, one of the most vocal works of Turkish music in the Republic Period, is his most important work.

Coming from a long-established family from Izmir, who raised important religious scholars, Saygun's father is teacher Mahmut Celalettin Bey, who will later become one of the founders of the Izmir National Library, and Zeynep Seniha Hanım, the daughter of a family who came from Konya's Doğanbey neighborhood and settled in Izmir.

He started his primary education in the neighborhood school named "Hadikai Sübyan Mektebi" in Izmir and continued in a contemporary school named "İttihat ve Terakki Numune Sultanisi". At the age of 13, he started his music studies alongside İsmail Zühtü and Tevfik Bey at this school, which focuses on art education. In 1922, he became a student of Hungarian Tevfik Bey. In 1925, he translated articles on music from the French La Grande Encyclopedie, creating a large Musical Lugati of several volumes.

Ahmet Adnan Bey, who worked in various places such as the water company and the post office to earn a living, opened a stationery store in Izmir Beyler Sokak and tried to sell notes, failed in these attempts and turned to music teaching in primary schools. He wrote school songs on the poems of Ziya Gökalp, Mehmet Emin, Bıçakçızade Hakkı Bey while he was teaching in primary schools. The young musician, who wanted to take the exam that the state opened in 1925 to send talented young people to important conservatories in Europe for musical education, missed this opportunity after the sudden death of his mother. After passing the exam to teach music in secondary schools, he worked as a music teacher at Izmir Boys' High School for a while since 1926.

Student years in Paris

The artist who composed the "D Major Symphony" between 1927-1928; In 1928, when the government repeated the exam for music talented young people, this time he got the opportunity and was sent to Paris on a state scholarship. He studied with Vincent d'Indy (composition), Eugène Borrel (Fugue), Madame Borrel (harmony), Paul le Flem (Counterpoint), Amédée Gastoué (Gregorian melodies), Edouard Souberbielle (organ). While in Paris, Op. (Opus) wrote the orchestral piece with row number 1 called Divertissement. Saygun's composition won a prize in a composition competition in Paris in 1931, in which the chairman of the jury was Henri Defossé (Cemal Reşit Rey's conducting instructor), first performed by the Colonne Orchestra under the baton of Gabriel Pierné, first in Paris, Warsaw, then in Russia and Belgium. . The work thus became the fourth Turkish orchestral work performed abroad after Cemal Reşit Rey's three works - Anatolian Folk Songs (1927), "Bebek Legend" (1928) and "Turkish Landscapes" (1929).

Ankara years

Saygun, returned to Turkey in 1931 began a period in the Music Teachers' College music teacher, gave music lessons in spelling and counterpoint. In 1932 he married the pianist Mediha (Boler) Hanım; this marriage broke down after a while.

Ahmet Adnan Bey and his family received the surname "Saygın" in 1934 upon the request of his math teacher father, upon the Surname Law; However, their surname was changed to "Saygun" after a while on the grounds that it was taken by someone else.

Adnan Saygun, in 1934, president of the Ataturk's request, which will visit Turkey Open, the first Turkish opera in honor of the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi. 9 He wrote the Özsoy Opera in a very short time like a month. The opera, written by Münir Hayri Egeli of his Liberettos, expresses the birth of the Turkish nation and the brotherhood of the Iranian and Turkish nations, rooted in the distant history. The premiere of the work took place on the night of 19 June 1934 in the presence of Atatürk and Rıza Pahlavi.

The artist presented a report on Turkish music to Atatürk, who accepted him at his summer house in Yalova after the staging of Özsoy. This report, prepared by being influenced by Sun-Language and Turkish History theories, was published in 1936 under the title "Pentatonism in Turkish Music".

The artist, who was appointed as the Conductor of the Presidential Orchestra by proxy on his return from Yalova; He could only continue this task for a few months due to his bad health and his departure to Istanbul. He gave his first concert with the orchestra on 23 November 1934.

At the end of November 1934, Saygun received a new opera from Atatürk. The artist, who succeeded in composing the Stone Doll opera to be represented on the night of December 27, told the birth of the new Republican people in this opera. The work was staged at the Ankara Community Center on the night of December 27, 1934; Saygun led the orchestra himself, although he was very ill.

After the performance, Saygun, who went to Istanbul and had two ear surgeries at five-month intervals, was dismissed from the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and then at the Music Teachers School for neglecting his duty; He was also dismissed from the establishment of the Ankara State Conservatory. Saygun worked on opening ethnomusicology departments in State Conservatories, but these could not be implemented by the relevant institutions despite Atatürk's support.

Istanbul years

Saygun returned to teaching at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory in 1936 and remained in this post until 1939. The artist entered a period of disgrace that would last until the performance of his famous work "Yunus Emre Oratorio".

While Saygun was in Istanbul, the work to establish a new conservatory in Ankara was continued by those who supported the understanding of "universal music", not the idea of ​​"cultural nationality" that Saygun advocated. The conservatory was founded in 1936 in line with the universalist music views of the conservatory Paul Hindemith, who was brought in as a consultant for this job. The Hungarian composer Adnan Saygun came to Turkey upon the invitation of the Community Centers in 1936, and was accompanied by ethnomusicologist Bela Bartok on the Asian trip. Together, they notated the folk songs they collected especially around Osmaniye. Studies, "Bela Bartok Folk Music Research in Turkey" turned into a book titled Hungarian English knowledge was suppressed in 1976 by the Academy.

Saygun, in 1939 he accepted the inspector's duties as proposed Community Centers and traveled to Turkey on the occasion. In 1940 she married Irén Szalai (later named Nilüfer), a member of Budapest Women's Orchestra, who came to Ankara for a concert in 1940 but did not return from their country due to Nazi pressure; the couple did not have a child. In addition to his work at the Community Centers, Saygun founded a choir called “Turkish Music Association” in 1940 and gave regular chamber music concerts with this choir. He published a book called “Music in Community Centers”. "Kiss. He composed his works such as 19 Old Style Cantata, “A Forest Tale” and “Yunus Emre Oratorio” during this period. Yunus Emre Oratorio shared the first prize in the competition opened by CHP in 1943 with Ulvi Cemal Erkin's piano concerto and Hasan Ferit Alnar's Viola Concerto.

After the performance of Yunus Emre Oratorio

Yunus Emre Oratorio, completed by Saygun in 1942, was performed at the Faculty of Language and History-Geography in Ankara on May 25, 1946 and achieved great success. This work, considered to be his most important work, was later performed in Paris and in New York in 1958, under the direction of the famous conductor Leopold Stokowski. With this work, Saygun carried the melodies he heard from the Mevlevi dervishes on Dervişler Street (today Anafartalar Street) in İzmir Kemeraltı Bazaar to Europe and America, under the umbrella of the United Nations, to 5 different languages ​​to which the work would later be translated. After the first performance of the work in Ankara, the artist was appointed as a composition teacher to the Ankara State Conservatory in addition to the People's Houses advisor and inspector. Upon the invitations he received, he went to London and Paris, studied folk music; gave lectures.

After Yunus Emre, three operas, especially Kerem, Köroğlu, Gilgameş, choral works such as “Epic to Atatürk and Anatolia”, 5 symphonies, various concertos, orchestra, choir, chamber music, vocal and instrumental pieces, numerous He wrote folk songs, books, researches and articles. His works include ensembles such as New York NBC, Orcher Colonne, Berlin Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Moscow Symphony, Soviet State Symphony, Moscow Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Northern Symphony, Julliard Quartet and Yo-Yo Voiced by virtuosos like Ma. Adnan Saygun was awarded the title of the first State Artist within the framework of the State Artist Law enacted in 1971.

The artist died of pancreatic cancer on January 6, 1991.

He has many works on orchestra, chamber music, opera, ballet and piano, as well as publications on ethnomusicology and musical education. His works and other documents are in the "Ahmet Adnan Saygun Music Education and Research Center" established within Bilkent University in Ankara.

The rights of Ahmed Adnan Saygun's works over the voiceover belong to SACEM. Some of the published works are copyrighted by Southern Music Publishing, Peer Musikverlag of New York and Hamburg.

His comprehensive biography, written by musicologist Emre Arac, was published by Yapı Kredi Publications in 2001 under the name Adnan Saygun - Music Bridge Between East and West; Her life story was also novel by Mucize Özinal under the title "Dar Köprünün Dervishi" (2005).

The main street in Ulus district in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, is named Ahmet Adnan Saygun Street and there is a statue of the artist on this street. At the same time, Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center (AASSM), named after it in Izmir, was opened in 2008.

works 

1	Divertimentologist	for orchestra	1930
2	follows	piyano	1931
3	Laments	tenor and solo male choir	1932
4	Senses	two Clarinets	1933
5	Monastery folk song	choir and orchestra	1933
6	Turkish Red Crescent	soprano and orchestra	1933
7	Shepherd's Gift	choir	1933
8	music for instruments	Clarinet, Saxophone, piano and percussion	1933
9	Ozsoy	opera	1934
10	The Book of the Pearl	piyano	1934 (Orchestra arrangement 1944)
11	Doll	opera	1934
12	Sonat	cello and piano,	1935
13	Magic Raki	orchestra	1934
14	follows	orchestra	1936
15	Sonatina	piyano	1938
16	Tale	sound and music	1940
17	A Jungle Tale	ballet music for orchestra	1943
18	From the mountains to the plains	choir	1939
19	Cantata in the Old Style		1941
20	Sonatina	piyano	1938
21	My passing minutes	sound and orchestra	1941
22	A pinch of partridge	choir	1943
23	Three folk songs	bass and piano	1945
24	halay	orchestra	1943
25	From anatolia	piyano	1945
26	Yunus Emre	oratorio,	1942
27	1st quartet		1942
28	Kerem	opera	1952
29	Symphony 1		1953
30	Symphony 2		1958
31	Partita	cello	1954
32	Three ballads	voice and piano	1955
33	Bundle	violin and piano	1955
34	1. Piano Concerto		1958
35	2. Quartet		1957
36	Partita	keman	1961
37	trio	oboe, clarinet, harp	1966
38	10 Studies on Aksas Weighs	piyano	1964
39	Symphony 3		1960
40	Traditional Music		1967
41	10 folk songs	bass and orchestra	1968
42	Sensations	three female voice choir	1935
43	3. Quartet		1966
44	Violin Concerto		1967
45	12 Preludes on Imperfect Scales	piyano	1967
46	Wind Quintet		1968
47	15 Pieces on Imperfect Scales	piyano	1967
48	Four Lied	voice and piano (arranged in orchestra)	1977
49	dictum	string orchestra	1970
50	The Three Preludes	two harps	1971
51	Little things	piyano	1956
52	Köroglu	opera	1973
53	Symphony 4		1974
54	Lamentations II	tenor choir orchestra	1975
55	trio	clarinet, oboe and piano	1975
56	Ballad	two pianos	1975
57	Ritual Raki	orchestra	1975
58	10 Drafts on Imperfect Scales	piyano	1976
59	Viola Concerto		1977
60	Sayings on Human I	voice and piano	1977
61	Sayings on Human II	voice and piano	1977
62	Chamber Concerto	string instruments	1978
63	Sayings on Human III	voice and piano	1983
64	Sayings on Human 4	voice and piano	1978
65	Gilgamesh	opera	1970
66	Sayings on Human 5	voice and piano	1979
67	Legend to Atatürk and Anatolia	soloists, choir and orc	1981
68	Three Songs for Four Harps		1983
69	Sayings on Human 6	voice and piano	1984
70	5.Symphony		1985
71	2nd Piano Concerto		1985
72	Variations for Orchestra		1985
73	Poem	for three pianos	1986
74	Cello Concerto		1987
75	Legend of Dove	ballet music	1989