KRAGULJ, BOJA, D.M.A.

, The Turkish Clarinet: Its History, an Exemplification of its

Practice by Serkan Çağri, and a Single Case Study. (2011)
Directed by Dr. Kelly Burke. 49pp.

I. Solo Recital: Sunday, April 24, 2009, 7:30 p.m., Recital Hall. Der Hirt auf
dem Felsen, D. 965 (Franz Schubert); Clarinet Sonata in F minor, op. 120
(Johannes Brahms), Contrasts for violin, clarinet and piano (Béla Bartók)
II. Solo Recital: Sunday, February 28, 2010, 5:30 p.m., Recital Hall. Dance
Preludes (Witold Lutoslawski); Trio for clarinet, violin and piano (Alexander
Arutiunian); Black Birds, Red Hills (Libby Larsen); Bling Bling (Scott
McAlister)
III. Solo Recital: December 16th, 2010, 6 p.m. Westminster Presbyterian Church,
Greensboro, NC. Quintet for clarinet and strings, op. 115 (Johannes Brahms).
IV. Solo Recital: January 8th, 2011. London, England. St. James Picadilly. Sonata
in Eb Major, op. 120 (Johannes Brahms), Sonata for clarinet and piano
(Leonard Bernstein), Scaramouche (Darius Milhaud), Premiere Rhapsody
(Claude Debussy), Piece en Forme Habenera (Maurice Ravel), The Winter of
our Discontent (Caleb Burhans—world premiere).
V. D.M.A. Research Project. THE TURKISH CLARINET: ITS HISTORY, AN
EXEMPLIFICATION OF ITS PRACTICE BY SERKAN ÇAĞRI, AND
A SINGLE CASE-STUDY. This document provides a first glimpse into the
world of Turkish clarinet performance. Intended for a Western audience, the
work investigates three primary research areas: 1) The history of the Turkish
clarinet, 2) An exemplification of its practice by Serkan Çağri, and 3) A
summary of the author’s own private study in Istanbul, Turkey. Written text
is supplemented with video and audio recordings referenced by track number.
  

THE TURKISH CLARINET: ITS HISTORY, AN EXEMPLIFICATION

OF ITS PRACTICE BY SERKAN ÇAĞRI, AND

A SINGLE CASE STUDY

by

Boja Kragulj

A Dissertation Submitted to
the Faculty of The Graduate School at
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Musical Arts

Greensboro
2011

Approved by

Committee Co-Chair

Committee Co-Chair

 
  

© 2011, Boja Kragulj

 
  

APPROVAL PAGE

This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of

The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Committee Co-Chair _______________________________________

Committee Co-Chair _______________________________________

Committee Members _______________________________________

_______________________________________

March 24, 2011

DATE OF ACCEPTANCE BY COMMITTEE

March 16, 2011

DATE OF FINAL ORAL EXAMINATION

  ii  
  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to my teacher in Turkey, Serkan Çağri and his management including

Nazım Tuncer, my committee at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Dr.

Kelly Burke and Dr. James Revell Carr, co-chairs; Dr. Guy Capuzzo and Dr. Anthony

Taylor, members), and Dr. Adam Ricci for his support and technical know-how.

  iii  
 
  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TERMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLARINET IN

TURKEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Brief History of the Clarinet in Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Alla Turca fashion becomes Alla Franga necessity; How the
West influenced the East as the Ottoman Empire Fell . . . . . . 2
Atatürk’s establishment of the Turkish Republic, TRT, and the
clarinet as the new instrument of the ‘folk’ . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

II. THE TURKISH CLARINET AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE LIFE AND

CAREER OF SERKAN ÇAĞRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Serkan Çağri’s Life and Career: Portrait of a Turkish Clarinetist . 11

The Clarinet and its Rock-Star Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Turkish Traditional Meets Turkish Pop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Ne fe sim “My Breath” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Iğde Kokulum (Åla) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Remembering the past: Sükru Tunar Eserleriyle . . . . . . . . . . 20

III. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO TURKISH MUSIC . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

IV. A SINGLE CASE STUDY OF LESSONS WITH ŞERKAN ÇAĞRI . . . . 28

Makam and Technical Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Lip Factor: microtones and embouchure flexibility . . . . . . 35
The Use of Vibrato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Finger Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Ornamentation and Improvisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH . . 41

WORKS CITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

  iv  
 
  

DISCOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

APPENDIX A: LINEAGE OF TURKISH CLARINET PERFORMERS . . . . . . . 47

APPENDIX B: LETTERS OF CLEARANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

  v  
 
  

LIST OF TERMS

Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal: (1881–1938), writer, army officer, founder and first President
of the Turkey. Notable especially for his successful attempts to define and establish a
Turkish culture in the wake of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse.

Janissary bands: In Turkish, identified as either the “meterhane” or “davulhane”. The

Ottoman Empire recruited army members throughout Eastern Europe, often taking boys
by force from families. These army members formed what the West would later call
janissary bands, important because many Western classical composers were exposed to
“Ottoman” music through this medium. Janissary bands were traditionally comprised of
percussion (including instruments that resemble bass drums, kettle drums, cymbals and
bells), brass instruments (similar to trumpets), and zurna (double-reed wind instruments
that resemble oboes).

Sultan Mahmud II: ruler of the Ottoman Empire from 1808–1839 who disbanded
janissary bands in favor of European style marching bands, a beginning Western
influence in the region that would become Turkey.

Giuseppe Donizetti: (1788–1856), Italian composer hired by the Ottoman Empire as

master of music. Donizetti’s presence encouraged the influx of Western classical music,
and it was Donizetti who ordered G clarinets from Germany to be brought inside
Ottoman boundaries.

Muzika-i-Hümayun Mektebi: a school developed in the late nineteenth century for the
training of Ottoman palace musicians.

TRT: Turkish Radio Television, the first radio broadcasting system of the newly formed
Turkish Republic, founded by Atatürk.

Efendi, Ibrahim: the founder of Turkish clarinet performance.

Fasil: a term that refers both to a nightclub in Turkey and the type of music that is
performed there. The clarinet is often a member of fasil ensees.

Sükru Tunar: famed TRT clarinetist known for his improvisatory abilities. His
performances inspired the long lineage of Turkish clarinets through Serkan Çağri.

Makam: a term that refers broadly to microtonal systems throughout the Middle East,
Central Asia, Southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin and specifically, Turkey.
Makam can refer either to a scalar pattern or more broadly to an entire work that uses
makam.

  vi  
  

Gam: a more specific term that refers to the scalar pattern of makam made up of eight
pitches, or the penta-tetrachords that comprise eight note patterns.

Basic makam types: Çargah, Buselik Basit, Sehnaz, Beyati Basit, Isfahan, Hiçaz,
Humayun, Uzzal, Zirgüleli, Hiçaz, Hüseyni, Muhayyer, Gulizer, Neva, Tahir, Arcigar,
and Basit Süznak.

  vii  
 
  

List of Figures
Page

Figure 1: Serkan in performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Figure 2: Serkan in performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Figure 3: accidentals and their relationship to comma and letter-designators. . . . . . . . 25

Figure 4: accidentals represented between one whole step, D to E. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Figure 5: Combination of Uşşak tetrachord and Hiçaz pentachord to create the

Uşşak Gam:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Figure 6: Serkan and author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Figure 7: Serkan and author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Figure 8: Uşşak makam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Figure 9: Uşşak Gam transposed to begin on G. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Figure 10: The Hiçaz family of makam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Figure 11: Buselik family of makam, with pentachord and tetrachord bracketed. . . . . 32

Figure 12: Hiçaz patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Figure 13: Kürdi patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Figure 14: Etude using all Hiçaz types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Figure 15: Rast etude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Figure 16: Hiçaz etude written by Çağri, video track 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Figure 17: Ornamentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Figure 18: Boja’s Melody. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

  viii  
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLARINET IN TURKEY

Introduction

As the Turkish national identity was formed, so was the genre of Turkish clarinet

performance. While the clarinet was an important instrument in the West whose

performance practice developed within Western Classical music, a unique and separate

tradition of clarinet performance developed in Turkey. The clarinet is more celebrated

within Turkish culture than perhaps in any other culture in the world today. Turkish

clarinet performance is a unique genre for the instrument, the result of Western influence

combined with Turkish folk culture. This synthesis has transformed the instrument into a

defining “voice” of Turkish popular culture.

Aside from a limited number of theses written in the Turkish language, the topic

of the Turkish clarinet is little explored. The following study serves to provide a glimpse

into the world of Turkish clarinet performance by addressing three research areas: 1) A

brief history of the clarinet in Turkey 2) The life and career of Turkish clarinetist Serkan

Çağri and 3) A single case study of Turkish clarinet performance practices, prefaced by a

general, yet brief discussion of Turkish music generally to orient the reader. An

examination of these areas provides an introduction to the unique instrument that is the

Turkish clarinet.

  1  
 A Brief History of the Clarinet in Turkey

Because the clarinet occupies a prominent place in modern Turkish culture, an

investigation of the instrument’s evolution throughout Turkish history is warranted. By

using print resources on related topics, the translation of Turkish theses into English, and

the author’s own research in Turkey, the following section provides a brief overview of

the history of the Turkish clarinet as it relates to 1) influences from the West in the

Ottoman Empire 2) Atatürk’s establishment of the Turkish Republic, Turkish Radio

Television (TRT) broadcasts corresponding with the development of clarinet as the new

instrument of the ‘folk’ and 3) the lineage of performers who have popularized Turkish

clarinet performance.

Alla Turca fashion becomes Alla Franga necessity; How the West influenced the
East as the Ottoman Empire Fell

As Catherine Schmidt-Jones writes, “The primary influence of the Ottoman

Empire on Western music, including a significant influence on the composers of the First

Viennese School, came through the Ottoman military bands.1 The most lasting effect of

this influence has been on the band traditions of Western Europe and the U.S.” (Schmidt-

Jones 2010, 1). Several authors have pursued this topic to explore how the janissary

bands influenced the composition of Western Classical music.2 Far less is written,

                                                                                                               
1  These Ottoman military bands were known in the West as “janissary” bands, but were

in the past Ottoman Empire and Turkey known as meterhane or davulhane. Scholars
often interchangeably use the terms..
2
See, for example: Matthew Head. 2002. Orientalism, Masquerade, and Mozart’s
Turkish Music. London: Royal Musical Association.; Paul Christiansen. 2008. The Turk
in the Mirror: Orientalism in Haydn’s String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2
(“Fifths”).  

  2  
however, on the topic of how the West influenced music in the nineteenth century

weakened Ottoman state and newly founded Turkish Republic of the twentieth century.

Once the janissaries were disbanded in 1826 by Sultan Mahmud II, ruler of the

Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839, European style marching bands were

developed in their place and these European bands likely included clarinets. Mahmud

invited Giuseppe Donizetti (1788–1856) to establish these early bands in the empire

(Reisman 2008, 7). Donizetti was likely the first person to bring clarinets from Germany

into Turkey. As Emre Araci (2002) reports, there are “…copies of invoices and payments

for musical instruments ordered for the court in Constantinople…” These records are

currently stored in Topkapı Palace in Istanbul (54). Further research is required to

confirm whether or not there is documentation for clarinets in Donizetti’s instrument

orders, but based on the writing of Albert Rice, it is known that Donizetti did order G

clarinets for the Ottoman palace:

The clarinet d’amour was called various names in printed sources and in music.
The earliest known music, Gossec’s 1760 Missa pro defunctis (published n 1780
as Messe des morts) includes parts for clarinettes G…advertisement[s] impl[y]
that the clarinet d’amour was also known under the name of G clarinet…At the
Turkish court of Mahmud II from 1828 to 1839, the low G clarinet, called “aşk
klårneti” (love clarinet”, either the clarinet d’amour or alto clarinet, was
introduced by the teacher and composer Giuseppe Donizetti Paşa (Rice 2009, 27).

Rice’s research corresponds with that of authors writing in Turkey; the clarinet formally

entered the Ottoman palace in the 1820s (Çağri 2006, 36 and Şen 2008, 8–9), although

the G clarinet did not become a commonly used instrument until the late nineteenth or

early twentieth century (Çağri 2006, 37). Because these G clarinets were made in

  3  
Germany they were likely Albert system instruments. To this day, Albert system G

clarinets are used in Turkish performance and are still ordered from Germany.3

As early as 1827, numerous Turkish students traveled to Paris to study music

(Araci 2002, 51). One of Klosé’s students, “Francesca” arrived in the Ottoman palace,

circa 1850, to teach Böehm system clarinet (Şen 2008, 8), although today the Böehm

clarinet is used primarily for Western classical performance and to train very young

students whose hands are too small to cover tone holes on a G clarinet.4 While a student

at the Notist Group in Istanbul, I met a six-year old boy who was taking lessons with

Serkan Çağri on Böehm instument: Serkan explained that the student would eventually

play a G clarinet and that it was more important to develop his ability to hear at this point

in his studies.

In addition to introducing the G clarinet, Donizetti popularized Western Classical

Music in the late nineteenth-century Ottoman state by first forming an ensemble Muzika-

i-Hümayun to perform Western and Ottoman classical music followed by the

collaborative development of the Muzika-i-Hümayun Mektebi, a school for the training of

palace musicians (Woodard 1999, 14–15). Following the trends of the palace musical

culture, Western Classical opera performance eventually became commonplace; operas

by Rossini, Verdi, and Gaetano Donizetti were all premiered in Turkey shortly after their

European debut, with their original scoring for orchestra with clarinets: these operas

included Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Rigoletto and Gaetano Donizetti’s

Lucrezia Borgia (Reisman 2008, 7-12).

                                                                                                               
3  Serkan  Çağri.  2010.  Interview  by  author.  Istanbul,  Turkey.  July  5.  
4  Serkan  Çağri.  2010.  Interview  by  author.  Istanbul,  Turkey.  July  10.  

  4  
 As Classical clarinet performance found its beginnings in Turkey, so a new

tradition of Turkish folk clarinet performance also began. These distinct approaches to

clarinet performance emerged almost simultaneously at the end of the nineteenth century.

Early attempts to incorporate the clarinet as an instrument of Turkish folk music were not

highly successful, primarily because it is more difficult to produce microtonal pitches on

the clarinet as opposed to a string instrument with frets. The clarinet did, however,

quickly gain acceptance for use in villages ouside palatial borders; as early as 1860, the G

clarinet was present in the countryside of modern day Turkey (Şen 2008, 9).

Atatürk’s establishment of the Turkish Republic, TRT, and the clarinet as the new

instrument of the ‘folk’

Once the Ottoman Empire officially ended its reign at the beginning of the

twentieth century, new borders were drawn and the Turkish people decared their

independence as a republic in 1923. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938)

Atatürk, the Turkish culture was newly defined as that which belonged to its citizens; the

citizens of Turkey were, however, a diverse people with a diverse musical past. As

Macfie (1998) identifies, residing within the borders of the newly founded Turkish

republic were, for example, Greeks (209–210), Kurds (211-213), Armenians (214-218),

Arabs (219–223), and Jews (34–35). Atatürk knew Constantiople as a cosmopolitan and

multi-cultural city long before he became the president of Turkey; it was his dream to

propogate a multi-cultural tradition for the nation of Turkey at-large (Kinross 1964, 22).

Atatürk worked to establish a new Turkish national identity through the

unification of Western ideals and the retention of all folk culture that fell within the

  5  
country’s newly formed borders. “...Attempts at redefining and reconstructing the folk

and folk culture are to be seen as the main tenets of the process of constructing the

category of nation” (Degirmenci 2006, 51).

In order to achieve a new culture of music, monophonic Ottoman music education

was outlawed in both public and private schools as early as 1927 and was banned from

radio broadcast in 1935. This allowed for the expansion and diversification of ensemble

instrumentation. While the modal system of Ottoman music was retained, Atatürk

actively recruited Western artists to advise the development of new Turkish cultural

centers including schools of music: Paul Hindemith arrived in 1935 to open the Ankara

School of Music (Degirmenci 2006, 57–58) and Béla Bartok arrived soon after to

complete research and begin cataloguing folk melodies (Woodard 1999, 10).5

By quickly closing Ottoman institutions and establishing democratic educational

institutions in their place, including schools for the study of fine arts and music, Atatürk

carried out a powerful plan for the establishment of a new musical Turkic identity

(Reisman 2008, 14 and 19). Ziya Gökalp, political social scientist and advisor to Atatürk,

said the following about Turkey’s newly formed musical identity: “Our national

music...is to be born from a synthesis of our folk music and Western music. Our folk

music provides us with a rich treasury of melodies. By collecting them and arranging

them on the basis of Western musical techniques, we shall have both a national and

modern music.” (Gökalp 1959, 300) Atatürk defined all that fell within the newly formed

borders of Tukey as “Turkish”. From its beginnings, therefore, the Turkish folk culture
                                                                                                               
5  Bartok’s collections were published in book form as Turkish Folk Music from Asia

Minor, edited by Benjamin Suchoff. Princeton University Press, 1976.  

  6  
was multi-cultural: a conglomeration of many folk musical cultures became a unique

Turkish musical culture.

The Turkish national identity was in effect resurrected and newly assembled from

the multi-national remains not of the Ottoman elite, but of the folk culture that co-existed

during Ottoman decentralized reign and was sustained during the Empire’s slow collapse.

The influx of technology from the West upon establishment of the Republic was an

important means by which a Turkish national identity was synthesized: the clarinet was

introduced to the Turkish public via radio and television broadcasts concomitant with

governmental effort to define the national musical culture. These early broadcasts were

an important means by which a Turkish identity began to be created.

The establishment of Turkish Radio with first the Ankara station founded in 1927

followed by a second Istanbul station founded in 1949 allowed the broadcast of folk

songs collected by Bartok and other scholars. It was TRT broadcasts that brought Turkish

clarinet performance to a wide audience (Çağri 2006, 36), popularizing the performance

genre and intitiating the placement of the clarinet as a defining instrument of Turkish

popular culture.

The father of Turkish clarinet performance is Ibrahim Efendi: it is not known

where or when Efendi was born—he passed away in Baghdad in 1925 (Çağri 2006, 36).

Efendi was the first to successfully apply the Turkish maqam system using microtones on

the clarinet. Although Efendi did not perform on TRT, he caught the attention of Mesut

Cemil, the chief executive of TRT music broadcasting who subsequently hired Turkish

clarinetist Şükrü Tunar to perform in Istanbul (Çağri 2006, 37). Tunar’s performances on

  7  
TRT radio, nationally broadcast, inspire clarinetists through the present day. With the

ability to manipulate pitch, the clarinet joined the ranks of popular string-folk instruments

in Turkey, appearing with a variety of n my studies with Serkan Çağri, he helped me

compile a list of clarinetists to outline the lineage of Turkish clarinet performance6: this

list is critical in that it shows the consistent use of clarinet in radio broadcasts beginning

in the 1920’s through today.7

The popular evolution of Turkish clarinet performance is likely linked to its

widespread dissemination via media sources—the instrument found its beginnings with

the rise of the new Turkish state and was popularized through a medium that dispersed

the newly defined musical culture of Turkey, TRT. Atatürk’s goals for the new republic

was an abandonment of the Ottoman past in favor of a merged Western and newly

defined Turkish folk culture. The Turkish folk culture is diverse and includes as many

cultural traditions as the nationalities that comprise it—Armenian, Greek, Middle

Eastern, etc. Because the clarinet never belonged to the classical music of the Ottoman

Empire, it was an ideal instrument with which to showcase Turkey’s new Folk-West

merge that began in the 1920s:

To create the best synthesis for Turkey’s culture, Atatürk underlined the need for
the utilization of all available elements in the national heritage, excluding most of
the Ottoman elements. Included were ancient indigenous cultures...Atatürk
[stressed] the folk arts of the countryside calling them the wellspring of Turkish
creativity (Reisman 2009, 46).
                                                                                                               
6  See Appendix A. Information has been provided for each performer as known. Further

research is needed to document information on each performer’s life and contribution to

the field of Turkish clarinet performance.  
7  Serkan Çağri. Interview by author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 10.  

  8  
Turkish clarinet performance was born and grew simultaneously with the birth and

development of the Turkish nation; an instrument important to Western Classical

traditions developed a unique voice in Turkey. It as though the clarinet is Turkey’s voice,

speaking something about the creation of a new culture through retention of the past with

an amalgamation of Western influence.

  9  
 CHAPTER II

THE TURKISH CLARINET AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE LIFE AND CAREER

OF SERKAN ÇAĞRI

The Turkish clarinet’s distinct timbre and microtonal inflections are stylistically

unique in the large general field that is clarinet performance. It is therefore disappointing

that the Turkish style is drastically underexposed in Western Europe and the United

States. Western musicians take pride in their knowledge and amalgamation of styles;

thus, the clarinet community is in need of exposure to Turkish clarinet performance. It is

difficult, however, to understand the genre without direct exposure to its performers and

their sounds. In an attempt to better understand the instrument, I traveled to Istanbul to

take private lessons and experience Turkish clarinetistry directly. Walking down Istiklal

street, a busy avenue of commerce, clarinet street performances are commonplace as are

fasil “night-club” performances that feature the clarinet.8

The Turkish clarinet can be heard in a variety of performance venues, from bar to

stage—the instrument traverses many performing venues and is widely recognized in

Turkey. The instrument’s performance belongs to amateurs and professionals alike.9

                                                                                                               
8
See DVD Example 1 and 2.
9  Street performers might not be termed “professional musicians” in that they are often

not professionally trained, but many of these performers earn money by playing, as do
fasil performers. The Turkish clarinet is still an instrument that is, for the most part,
handed down from father to son, or teacher to student, outside a University or
Conservatory system.  

  10  
Despite Turkey’s inheritance of the instrument from the West, and the general trend,

especially in Istanbul, to fuse Turkish music with jazz Balkan, and Greek melodies, the

instrument and its performers retain identities as unique performers of a unique style. The

following examines the performing style and career of Serkan Çağri, perhaps Turkey’s

most famed clarinetist. Çağri is, in Turkey, a clarinetist of celebrity status; his popular

status is more that of rock star than anyone in the West knows as clarinetist. His name is

spoken in homes throughout Turkey and he is recognized in public. While a description

of his life and career is provided in prose, audio-video examples are also provided to give

the reader a direct and immediate experience of the instrument and Çağri’s performance

of it.

Serkan Çağri’s Life and Career: Portrait of a Turkish Clarinetist

Figure 1: Serkan in performance Figure 2: Serkan in performance

Serkan Çağri is one of Turkey’s most celebrated performers: his career continues

the lineage of clarinet performance that began in the early years of TRT and is evidence

of the instrument’s popularity and widespread acceptance in Turkey. Çağri has recorded

  11  
over thirty albums, three of which are solo CDs, and the remainder of which are

collaborative projects with musicians in Turkey and Eastern Europe.

Born in 1976 in the Keşan district of Edirne, Turkey, Çağri learned to play the

clarinet first from his father and then by listening, watching, and imitating both what he

heard around him and on radio and television broadcasts. Because Çağri was the first

clarinetist in Turkey to earn a Master’s degree in Turkish clarinet performance,10 marking

the official entry of Turkish clarinet performance in higher education, he symbolizes a

pedagogical pillar in the history of the field. What was exclusively a system of ‘folk’

learning has become a part of Turkey’s university system–the instrument’s growing

popularity and significance for the country from the 1920s until the present day

warranted this inclusion. One can now earn a master’s or doctoral degree in Turkish

clarinet performance from two institutitons of higher education in Turkey, including

Haliç University and Istanbul Technical University. Of course one can also study

Western Classical clarinet performance in Turkey’s conservatory system, and Turkish

and classical clarinet performers do not study together nor do performers typically study

both styles of performance at an advanced level.11

From a young age Çagri was successful in his attempts to study the instrument: at

thirteen he began wining prizes for performance, marking the development of a style that

was uniquely his own. In interviews, Çağri is careful to point out that he learned to play

                                                                                                               
10  There are currently only three men who hold graduate degrees in Turkish clarinet

performance. After Çağri, Mert Can Selçuk and Onur Aydemir also earned degrees.
There will be new graduates of Turkish clarinet performance in future now that the
degree has become available.
11
Nazım Tunçer. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 5.

  12  
by listening to his father and imitating radio performers; his ability is therefore a

continuation and development of a traditional style. He cites Şükrü Tunar as prominently

influencing his understanding of improvisation and ornamentation.12

Çağri began his undergraduate education at the State Turkish Music Conservatory

of Ege University in 1995 and completed the degree at the State Turkish Music

Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University in 1998. After graduating, he was hired to

teach clarinet at the same University for a period of three years. He continued teaching

and earned his master’s degree in Turkish clarinet performance from the Department of

Social Sciences Institute of Haliç University in 2006, completing a thesis that detailed the

tuning requirements of Turkish clarinet performance.13 He is currently finishing a

doctoral degree in Turkish clarinet performance and will likely hold the first doctoral

degree issued in the field.

Throughout his graduate studies, Çağri has pursued his performing career and his

popularity has increased exponentially. As the instrument is malleable and capable of

success in multiple performance venues, Çağri has collaborated with musicians from the

Balkan Jazz Project and Rumeli Band; he has additionally collaborated with musicians

from Germany and Switzerland. While in Turkey I traveled with Çağri to watch him

perform with international artists. Despite different tuning systems, different sound

                                                                                                               
12
Serkan Çağri. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 5.
13
Serkan Çağri. “Historical Development of Clarinet in Europe and Turkey, a Study of
the conformity of clarinet types in Turkish music performance in terms of note fields and
finger position.” Halic University Social Sciences Institute, Turkish Music Division,
2006.  

  13  
concepts and variable technique, Çağri was able to alter his performing style to create

successful concerts.

Çağri is a versatile artist and his flexibility as a clarinetist, in addition to his

ability to create the microtonal Turkish system on the clarinet, defines his style.

Specifically, his ability to create the Turkish microtonal system, highly complex and

intricate, and to improvise freely within this complex system, allows him to adapt to other

styles of clarinet performance.14 This adaptability made an impression on me as a

Western Classical clarinetist. While I am capable of performing with international

musicians who also study Western Classical performance, I perform from a score with

limited differences in tuning among musicians. The Turkish system of clarinet

performance is as adaptable as it is intricate—this characteristic may additionally

describe the instrument’s popularity in Turkey, a country that has always been a

crossroads for many cultures.

The Clarinet and its Rock-Star Status

It may be difficult for Western Classical performers to appreciate how popular the

clarinet is in Turkey. One might draw a parallel between Benny Goodman in the United

States in the mid 1930s and Serkan Cağri in Turkey to understand the impact clarinet

performance has had on Turkish popular cutlture. Interestingly, in an interview with

Çağri, the performer mentioned that Benny Goodman may have visited Turkey sometime

in the first half of the twentieth century15: stories have been passed down of Goodman’s

                                                                                                               
14
See DVD video examples 3 and 4.
15
Serkan Çağri. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 18.

  14  
visit from Mustafa Kındırali, a perfromer who became known as the “Turkish Benny

Goodman.” (Ellingham, ed. 1999, 401) This visit may have occurred during one of

Goodman’s many European tours. Certainly the influx of jazz influenced Turkish

music.16

Like jazz, Turkish clarinet performance has retained its mass popular appeal

despite its entry into national universities and conservatories of Turkey. The clarinet’s

popularity in Turkey has grown steadily but exponentially in the last five years and as a

result, Çağri’s career has catapulted him to the height of popularity: he travels with an

entourage and his own band and his face is recognized throughout the country.17

While in Turkey, I accompanied Çağri to two of his local performances that

occurred outside Istanbul, one of which was a duo performance featuring Çağri and

clarinetist Stavros Pazarentsis of Greece. Two aspects of this performance surprised me:

first, the venue, number of attendees, and environment of the performance were that of a

rock concert. With personal experience playing in concert or recital halls exclusively, it

was odd to experience a clarinet performance outdoors in a soccer stadium, on a large

platform stage equipped with colored lights and various sound equipment, a full band to

back up the clarinet soloists (including violin, electric bass guitar, percussion, electric

keyboards and a female vocalist) and bodyguards to protect the performers onstage. At

one point in the performance, several men jumped onto the stage to hug the clarinetists

and were quickly removed by Çağri’s management and security. I viewed this concert

from the side of the stage, watching both the audience and the performers and found
                                                                                                               
16
See DVD video example 5.
17
Nazım Tunçer. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 17.  

  15  
myself wondering for the duration of the performance how ‘that’ was a clarinet, a clarinet

with which I could play the Mozart Concerto, could practice my scales, and was yet

being used for a drastically different and beautiful purpose. After the concert I was told to

wait inside Çağri’s van as he came off stage with Pazarentsis: they went directly from the

stage to the van and we were led by police escort through the crowd and back onto the

highway.

I was secondarily impressed by the merging of distinct and multi-cultural musical

styles in Çağri’s performances: in the performance with Pazarentsis, the concert consisted

of both Turkish and Greek tunes. As I watched the performers also rehearse, I learned

that they were happy to make intonation, ornamentation, and stylistic adjustments for the

better success of performance. I witnessed Çağri’s continued versatility at a recording of

his program at the TRT broadcasting station in Istanbul. For the past three years, Çağri

has regularly hosted his own TRT programs including Düyanın Türküsü and Serkan

Çağri ile Bir Nefes, both of which feature Turkish clarinet performance as a regular part

of each show.18 While the broadcasts feature Turkish music, it is not uncommon for

musicians from other nations to be hosted by Çağri on the program and the clarinetist

always participates and performs with this diverse number of musicians. The clarinet is

therefore a regular feature of all Turkish homes via TRT and it serves as a type of

instrumental ambassador between Turkey and culturally diverse experiences for the

                                                                                                               
18  Nazım Tunçer. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 11. See DVD

Video track 6.

  16  
nation as a whole.19 When I went out to dinner with Çağri and his family, fans of his

television program regularly approached Çagri to give their thanks for the program.

Turkish Traditional Meets Turkish Pop

As evidenced by the wide variety of Çağri’s recording projects, he is highly

adaptable as an artist. He is both capable of promoting the retention of traditional Turkish

music and performance as well as appealing to the mass of popular culture. Perhaps

because Turkey is a relatively new nation, extant only since 1923, the culture of

traditional music and pop genres seem to be more closely interwoven: the clarinet is an

important instrument in both folk and pop music and its popularity might be the result of

its ability to make this transition between traditional and pop genres. A comparison of

Çağri’s albums demonstrates the instrument’s adaptability as well as the performer’s

ability to express a variety of styles. Audio samples of each album are included in

supplemental materials and tracks are referenced in footnotes within sections.

Ne fe sim “My Breath”

This 2005 release by Çağri on the Akustik label is on its own an example of the

Turkish clarinet’s diversity as it features jazz-inspired tracks, a Macedonian folk-song,

traditional Turkish Taksimi “Improvisation” without accompaniment, and orchestrally-

backed tracks written by Çağri himself. The album is an example of why the clarinet

maintains a broad fan base in Turkey: there is certainly a track or two that would appeal

to every musical taste.20 From the included tracks, inclusion of Klarnet Taksimi, inspired

                                                                                                               
19
See DVD Video track 3.
20
See Audio tracks 1–4.

  17  
by famed TRT artist and great improviser Şükrü Tunar, is Çağri’s recognition of the

clarinet’s past and his desire to continue the tradition of solo improvisation.21 Performed

by clarinet alone, the listener hears the instrument’s remarkable ability to bend pitch,

perform microtonal makam, sing through phrases as a vocalist might, and to manipulate

time and the listening experience. This taksim contrasts with the tempered piano

accompaniment of the Maziden track that precedes it, demonstrating use of the clarinet in

a tempered and tonal context with microtonal inflection. Çağri performs and records with

a variety of instrumental accompaniment, indicative of the performer’s adaptability.

Iğde Kokulum (Åla)

The 2008 release of Çağri’s Sony album, Åla is a testament to the continued

popularity of the clarinet Turkey. Although the instrument had steadily gained in popular

status since the 1930s, the release of Åla marks an important point both for Çağri’s career

and the life of the instrument in Turkey: As Åla achieved record-breaking sales in

Turkey, an observable competitveness emerged between Serkan and other clarinetists,

most notably Hüsnü Şelendirci, well known to the media. A viewing of the video that

accompanied the Åla track “Igde Kokulum” (“My perfumed one”) might help the reader

understand the broad mass-appeal and interest in Çağri’s career. Çağri is not unique in

that he appeals to the masses as a musician, nor is he necessarily unique in that he appeals

to the masses as a clarinetist. What is unique is that a clarinet performer, be it Çağri or

Selendirici, has assumed a role of unprecedented mass popularity in the Turkish state—

                                                                                                               
21
Serkan Çağri. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 18.  

  18  
the instrument belongs to the mainstream pop culture. The Iğde Kokulum video

represents well the pop phenomenon that is the Turkish clarinet.22

As the video scene opens with a line of women putting on makeup in a nightclub

environment, Serkan arrives with his band. In a purely instrumental track of clarinet solo,

brass, percussion, and saxophone with some brief vocalization that mimics the arguing

between the “perfumed one[s]” (igde kokulum), the music is up-tempo and visually

enhanced with video that looks like it belongs to a rock or pop-singer, not a clarinetist.

And yet, Çağri is clearly the star of the track, surrounded by beautiful women and backed

instrumentally by members of his band. Carefree, dancing, and acting as both ensemble

member and solo star, the music is entertaining and tells a story without words in its

depiction of an environment. In this medium, Çağri takes on the status of solo-vocalist,

an odd role for a clarinetist-at-large, but no longer unusual in Turkey: with the release of

the Åla album, Çağri gained as much exposure as many of Turkey’s well known solo

vocalists.

It was not the Igde Kokulum track alone that enhanced Çağri’s visibility; the CD

as a whole was designed to appeal to a diverse segment of the music buying public.

Tracks such as “Nihavent Orient”, and “Concerto de aranjuez” sound like they might

belong more generally in the category of world music instead of specifically Turkish

music.23 Because many of the tracks were written by Çagri, we know the resultant effect

of the album’s sound was intentional: in an interview, Çağri explained his rationalization.

Because Turkey and specifically Istanbul, Turkey’s musical capital, exists at a cross-road
                                                                                                               
22  See DVD video track 7.  
23  See  Audio  tracks  5  and  6.  

  19  
of cultural influence, and because the clarinet is such a prominent instrument in the

Turkish nation, it inspired Çagri to think of music that would be appreciated by listeners

in the Middle East and Balkans as well as his native Turkey.

I first heard Çağri’s playing while on a trip to visit family in Bosnia in 2007.

Sitting in a distant relative’s living room, watching a small television, I witnessed a

broadcast of Çağri’s weekly TRT program. After listening to him speak of his desire to

represent Turkey with the clarinet, I remembered my first exposure to his playing through

the TRT broadcast and believe that he has in many ways achieved his goal—he is a

clarinetist acting as musical and cultural representative of Turkey. Of course, his

popularity and ability to perform a diverse body of repertoire and styles made this

achievement possible. This is not to say, however, that Çağri is unaware of his musical

past and the role past artists have played in his career success. Capable of both a pop and

traditional style of performance, Çağri’s latest album was a dedication to TRT’s first

famous clarinetist, Sükrü Tunar.

Remembering the past: Sükru Tunar Eserleriyle

Just as the Igde Kokulum video was telling of the clarinet and clarinetists’

popularity in Turkey, the subsequent release of a CD dedicated to Şükrü Tunar is equally

telling of the clarinet’s persistent prominence in Turkish society dating as far back as the

1930s. In an album of old folk songs that features both voice and clarinet, Çağri

demonstrates Tunar’s famed ability to blend with vocalists and improvise or embellish as

a soloist. Despite the album’s emphasis on music of the past and a performer of the past,

its distribution was as successful as that of Åla. The first CD of the album features folk

  20  
songs for voice accompanied by clarinet whereas the second CD features the same folk

songs with Çağri performing the vocal lines.24

As the Nefes Nefesim and Åla albums demonstrate, the Turkish clarinet is both

unique and adaptable, but as Sükrü Tunar Eserleriyle demonstrates, the Turkish clarinet,

in the capable hands of Çağri, can display the complex microtonal melodies of Turkish

folk music as well as any singer can: as can be seen in my lessons with Çağri, this is very

difficult to accomplish on the instrument. Because vocal text is so imortant in the musical

culture of Turkey, Çağri’s ability to mimic the human voice on the clarinet may be

another reason for the instrument’s extreme popularity. Çağri often performs folk

melodies on his TRT programs; nationally broadcast, one can imagine the entire country

singing along.

Çağri’s performing style and recording career are representative of the larger

genre of Turkish clarinet performance. While his live performances demonstrate a

malleable and sometimes international style, this flexibility is part of what makes Turkish

clarinet performance unique—it is a flexibility requisite for the performance of

microtonal makam. And it is this flexibility that allows the instrument to participate in

both folk and pop genres just as a vocalist might. As the listener can hear in Çağri’s

recordings, the Turkish clarinetist is at home in a variety of stylistic settings, it is an

instrumental cornerstone of Turkish musical culture. Çağri’s career exemplifies the status

of the clarinet in Turkey.

                                                                                                               
24  Listen to audio tracks 7–12 for audio from the Sükrü Tunar Eserleriyle album.  

  21  
 CHAPTER III

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO TURKISH MUSIC

Although the uninformed listener can enjoy Çağri’s performing style, some

knowledge of Turkish music generally informs both the reader’s appreciation of Çağri’s

performance and the development of my lessons in Istanbul (Chapter V).

A complete introduction to the variety of music that might be called Turkish is as

complicated as it is to define the music of any culture. Because the Turkish state was

formed in 1923 from the rubble of the collapsed Ottoman Empire, an empire that

absorbed many cultures, Turkish music is as complex as the many nationalities that

comprise it. It is an impossible task to describe all types of Turkish music in detail, even

as they relate only to clarinet performance. Generally, however, there are some

characteristics and categories of Turkish music that might provide the reader some

insight.

Music that was performed under the Ottoman rule is commonly referred to as

“classical music”, whereas all music not related to the empire is generally termed “folk

music”: even pop genres are frequently folk-based. The delineation between Ottoman

classical and Turkish folk music is clear for political reasons: Atatürk outlawed Ottoman

classical performances during his early presidency, but there of course remained

important unifying elements for all music of the region. This unifying element is that of

makam. In fact, the musical tradition of Turkey has much in common with traditions in

  22  
the Middle East, Central Asia, Northern Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin because all

these traditions are makam- (maqam, or maqamat) based.

Makam, or “gam” as Çağri often said, refers to the arrangement of a scalar

pattern, the resulting intervals, and the system or progression of melodic organization that

belongs to the pattern: makam are the building blocks of Turkish modal and microtonal

music and have no true counterpart in the Western Classical tradition. They are not

simply scales. Although beyond the scope of this paper, the makam also guide the rules

of composition and melodic progression in performance.25 The melodic domain of

makam seems to be as diverse, complex, and critical as the harmonic domain of Western

Classical music.

It was the Arabs who introduced makam to the region that would become Turkey

although scholars recognize the Arabs were previously influenced by their study of Greek

modes. This is particularly interesting given that the West often identifies its culture of

learning with the Greeks—both East and West lay claim to independent musical roots of

either monophonic modality or polyphonic tonality originating geographically, at least in

part, in present day Turkey. Musicians native to Turkic lands regularly interacted and

exchanged music with Arabian cultures (Touma 1996, 15), strengthening and maintaining

the makam tradition.

There is debate as to how many microtones exist in a variety of musical makam

cultures due to various differences in intonation and performance practice, but Arabic

music is often identified by its use of twenty-four evenly spaced microtones

                                                                                                               
25
Serkan Çağri. 2010. Interview with the author. Istanbul, Turkey. July 18.

  23  
(quartertones) within the octave. Turkish music, perhaps because it couples Arabic

traditions with traditions from the Mediterannean, Southeastern Europe, and Byzantine

Empire, is said to have thirty-one or more pitches regularly used, dividing each whole

step into as many as five smaller intervals. This is not to say that the octave is regularly

divided into such small intervals between whole-steps: different makam make use of

different intervals and basic scalar makam patterns utilize only seven to eleven intervals

before a return to the “finals”, or starting pitch (Özkan 1932, 46). Patterns of

ornamentation often use the smallest microtones available in the system: ornamentation

and improvisation is an important component of all makam musical cultures.26 Thirteen

basic makam types include the following: Çargåh, Puselik, Kürdi, Rast, Uşşak, Hüseyni,

Nevå, Hicaz, Hümayun, Uzzal, Zengüle, Karciğar, and Suzinåk (Signell 1977, 33).

Prior to the establishment of the Turkish state, notated music was somewhat rare

in Turkey: with the influx of Western traditions came the develoment of a standard

notation for the makam system, a useful attempt, especially for scholars who study

Turkish music or those who do not play by ear. The prevailing system of notation and in

Turkey belongs to theorists Yekta, Ezgi, and Arel. This system is commonly referred to

as that of Ezgi-Arel: relying on Western notation and accidentals, these theorists added

accidentals to account for microtones in Turkish music. Figures 3 and 4 display these

accidentals:

                                                                                                               
26
Serkan Çağri. 2010. Interview with the author.

  24  
 Figure 3: accidentals and their relationship to comma and
letter-designators

Figure 4: accidentals represented between one whole step, D to E

As seen in figure 4 above, five utilized pitches within a whole step are accounted for by

accidentals. Those pitches represented have letter designators that accompany intervals in

the makam: F, B, S, K and T. For the sake of theoretical calculation, however, within

each whole step there are nine commas present. One Turkish comma, so called because it

is closely related to a Pythagorean comma of 23.46001 cents, is equal to 22.641509 cents

(Marcus 2007, handout from UCSB). With five whole steps plus two half steps within an

octave, the fifty-three comma and corresponding cents value of the Turkish system are

calculated as:

Non equal-tempered whole 9 commas 203.77 cents

step =
Non equal-tempered half step 4 commas 90.56 cents
=
5 whole steps X 9 commas = 45 commas 1018.87 cents
2 half steps X 4 commas = 8 commas

  25  
TOTAL = 53 commas per octave 1200 cents: a consonant
octave

While all intervals are mathematically derived, only the octave is of calculable

equivalence to that of Western Classical music. To further complicate the Turkish system

of notation, accidentals often only approximate pitch—it is up to the performer to be

familiar with the sound of each makam. Because the clarinet is not a stringed instrument

on which the fingers can be slid to achieve intervallic comma, this makes the

performance of Turkish music very difficult: the fingers alone cannot produce the correct

pitch. The clarinetist must instead manipulate the embouchure to make microtonal

adjustments. While there are fifteen basic makam, there are well over one hundred

varieties of transposed and compound makam: tetrachord plus pentachord fragments of

basic makam can be combined to form new makam patterns (Signell 1977, 32–33). Even

basic makam are made up distinct tetrachord (4) plus pentachord (5) units:

Figure 5: Combination of Uşşak tetrachord and Hiçaz pentachord to create the Uşşak Gam

Combination of tetrachords in performance allows the artist to move between

makam in complicated patterns that are not accounted for by any theoretical system.

Distinct from Western Classical music, Turkish music is a monophonic tradition: it

displays single melodic lines and their variation. Although supported by harmonic

progressions that create vertical chords often similar to that of Western music, the

  26  
complexity of Turkish music exists on a horizontal plane. The melodic line is often

heavily ornamented by pitches both within and distinct from Gam patterns—

improvisation is expected even when musicians are reading from notation. It is for these

reasons that Turkish music is difficult to codify, notate, and describe: it is a musical

culture, whether classical, folk or some variation of these, that is highly complex and

without a notational system to fully account for that complexity even in the melodic

realm. (Signell 1986, 37)

The students of Turkish clarinet performance must therefore be able to listen

carefully and adjust the performance based on an aural understanding of Turkish music.

For those musicians who grow up in Turkey listening to the division of a whole step into

many parts, private lessons often consist of listening to the teacher and imitating what is

heard. Successful Turkish clarinetists are able to adapt to a variety of performing styles, a

variety of tuning and ornamentation systems, and a variety of repertoire primarily by

listening. Because the makam system permeates all forms of Turkish music, however, an

introductory study of the clarinet must begin with makam basics. The lessons that follow

therefore consist largely of my introduction to the makam tradition as it relates to Turkish

clarinet performance.

  27  
 CHAPTER IV

A SINGLE CASE STUDY OF LESSONS WITH ŞERKAN ÇAĞRI

Figure 6: Serkan and author Figure 7: Serkan and author

As musicians devoted to the practiced perfection of often a single instrument in

the Western Classical tradition, it is easily and frequently the case that we are limited by

performance practice in our appreciation and understanding of an instrument. While

Western-classically trained clarinetists often experiment in the realm of jazz, klezmer,

and extended techniques, many of us fail to consistently recognize that these forms of

clarinet performance are not mere variations or extensions of Western Classical

technique: these forms of clarinet performance are their own unique and demanding

schools for the instrument. Given Western clarinetists’ desire to experiment with new

  28  
styles of performance, I am surprised that Turkish clarinet performance is grossly

underexposed in the Western world. Were it not for my travels in Eastern Europe, I

would not have discovered the sonically and culturally unique instrument that is the

Turkish clarinet. I was fortunate enough to hear part of Serkan Çağri’s television program

while staying in Bosnia and resolved subsequently to learn something more about the

man and instrument he played.

I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to study with Serkan Çağri for a period of four

weeks from July 4 through August 6, 2010, not only to witness the popularity of the

instrument evidenced by Çağri’s career, but also to develop an elementary understanding

of what Turkish clarinet performance requires. While in Istanbul I had twelve lessons

with Çağri at the Notist School, an institution founded by Çağri to promote Turkish

clarinet performance in the city.

The data supporting my study was captured in audio-visual recordings, a log of

lessons, and notes on my experiences and interviews with Çağri. While I made

generalized observations about the instrument and Çağri’s technique in each lesson,

including his use of embouchure, finger movement, breath control, vibrato, equipment

used, repertoire performed, ornamentation and improvisation, many lessons contained a

diverse range of topics that were either related to prior lessons but in need of repetition or

were the result of our attempt to get through as much information as possible in a short

period of time. I therefore draw conclusions based on my experience as a whole because

the instrument was in that month of study, and still is, very new to me. My experiences

are that of a Western-classically trained clarinetist and her first encounter of the Turkish

  29  
clarinet. The conclusions I draw are therefore seen through the lens of my prior training.

I consolidate my lessons through a discussion of the following categories: makam and

technical studies, the embouchure and microtones, vibrato, equipment used, finger

motion, and ornamentation/improvisation. Each topic is accompanied by a video, cited

immediately below topic headings and accessed through supplemental materials

accompanying the prose, to provide the reader some audio-visual reference.

Makam and Technical Studies

(video track 8)

The foundation of my studies with Çağri was a study of makam: in each lesson a

new makam was introduced with exercises and etudes that Çağri wrote specifically for

me. I hesitate to compare the study of makam with the study of scales in the Western

Classical tradition, but to a limited degree, there are commonalities. Western clarinetists

practice scales to develop technical facility while simultaneously, although less

commonly perhaps, developing breath control and refining the quality of tone. A study

of makam achieves much the same and was an important first step for me as a beginning

student so that I could hear intervallic patterns within each makam. Makam studied

included Uşşak, Hicaz, Çargah, Buselik, Kürdi, Rast, Hüseyni, Karciğar and Suznak.

Figures 8–11 show examples of makam as Çağri notated them for me:

  30  
 Figure 8: Uşşak makam

Figure 9: Uşşak Gam transposed to begin on G

Figure 10: The Hiçaz family of makam

  31  
 Figure 11: Buselik family of makam, with pentachord and tetrachord bracketed

Çağri’s notation of makam and our performance of makam forced me to begin adjusting

my Western performing tendencies to match his: trying to achieve correct intonation in a

microtonal system was a challenge for the duration of my study. All makam can be

transposed to begin on different pitches: for this reason Çağri also encouraged me to

practice makam patterns as those shown below in figures 12 and 13.

Figure 12: Hiçaz patterns

Figure 13: Kürdi patterns

  32  
I initially thought these patterns were the equivalent of returning scales practiced in the

Western tradition but subsequently realized that returning scales are usually restricted to a

single mode with changing intervallic patterns as the clarinetist ascends. Çağri’s patterns

preserve the bottom tetrachord of the Hiçaz and Kürdi makam and therefore retain the

intervallic pattern of those makam. Familiarity of intervallic makam patterns beginning

on various pitches allows the clarinetist to improvise more freely within the makam.

These technical exercises were, as are the etudes that follow, intended to develop the ear

rather than the visual acuity of reading notation. Once a basic makam pattern was

introduced, Çağri also wrote short etudes that allowed me to practice new material (see

figures 14 and 15).

Figure 14: Etude using all Hiçaz types

  33  
 Figure 15: Rast Etude

I was not surprised by the use of an etude based on makam because it is similar to the

Western tradition of assigning etudes in a particular key. More telling was that Çağri

composed and wrote each example for me during the course of the lesson, taking time to

devise a musical exercise specific to my study and inserting ornaments, glissandi, and

vibrato markings. This on-the-spot composition that he produced in every lesson

demonstrates the creativity of the Turkish performer, not always restricted to the page,

free to ornament and improvise.

The Lip Factor: microtones and embouchure flexibility

(video track 9 and 10)

Of greatest import and distinction from Western Classical clarinet performance is

the use of the embouchure to create microtonal variation. Although the Turkish clarinet is

pitched in the key of G and some instruments feature minute differences in tuning from

  34  
Western instruments,27 the Turkish clarinet is essentially a classical clarinet. One can, for

example, play the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, K. 622 on the instrument and students of

the Notist School in Istanbul do study classical performance on the same G clarinet as

they study Turkish performance. It is, therefore, the performer and his manipulation of

embouchure (in addition to equipment, discussed below) that primarily allow for the

bending of pitch essential in the performance of songs that use microtonal makam

including ornamentation and improvisation.

DVD video track 9 shows the opening minutes of my first lesson with Serkan in

which he warms-up on a plastic B-flat Boehm system clarinet. The listener can hear him

transition from standard classical articulation and sound production into the Turkish style.

Because I was worried that I could not perform Turkish music as a classically-trained

clarinetist, Çağri was demonstrating some technique and Turkish style on the Boehm

system that was familiar to me.

Çağri’s initial introduction of microtonal glissandi is the most important lesson of

Turkish clarinet performance: The performer must be capable of controlling the pitch to

either create makam pitches that are a part of the Turkish “scalar” system, or for the sake

of moving between notes of the makam in ornamentation. As I try to mimic Çağri’s

descent from G4 to F4, he motions with his hand that there are “two down” or two

“comma[s]” between the pitches G and F. As later lessons would confirm, Çağri is able

to produce whole step glissandi through the full range of the clarinet, but he is also able
                                                                                                               
27  The Serkan Çağri model clarinet, produced currently by Hammerschmidt in Germany,

is the only G clarinet that utilizes slight variations in placement of tone holes and
keywork to enhance performance in the Turkish style. The instruments’ keywork and
tuning is otherwise the same as Albert system clarinets pitched in A or Bb.  

  35  
to sustain microtonal pitches on the instrument between the semitones used in Western

classical music. This control is the result of extreme embouchure flexibility, strength, and

an ear that perceives the intricate patterns of makam, in addition to the use of an open

mouthpiece and very soft reed. Mouthpieces are typically opened using sand paper and a

flat surface, while a razor blade is used to carve the inside of the mouthpiece giving more

“buzz” in the sound. During the lesson, I switched from my classical mouthpiece to the

Vandoren B45 that came with the Çağri Hammerschmidt model I had purchased: while I

was more easily able to produce the microtonal “comma” Çagri requested, it was clear

that production of microtones required more than a different mouthpiece and reed

combination.28

The Use of Vibrato

(video track 11)

In addition to my first lessons in microtonal creation, Serkan also introduced the

use of vibrato in Turkish clarinet performance, which is in itself a technique. Turkish

clarinetists always try to imitate the human voice. Çağri emphasized the dynamic quality

of vibrato, that its speed should never be even in Turkish clarinet performance, always

moving from slow to fast or fast to slow. In addition to pitch manipulation, vibrato is

therefore a critical component of his technique (see video 10). After hearing my attempts

to create vibrato, Çağri proposed that I should try to slow the vibrato down. He also

suggested I imagine the air circulating from my nose, past the chin, and then around the

                                                                                                               
28  See Chapter IV for a discussion of “comma” which Çağri references frequently in

lessons.  

  36  
back of the head in a vertical diameter: to make this point he referenced how one can

make sound by running one’s fingers along the edge of a water filled glass. In this way,

the creation of vibrato should feel circular in the head. The lips should be kept soft to

facilitate this circular air motion.

From lessons and discussions on this topic I learned that while vibrato might

occasionally be used by the Western clarinetist to enhance tone-quality or to finesse a

phrase, it is always used by Turkish performers and is an integral part of the Turkish

technique. It is simply not acceptable to play the Turkish clarinet without vibrato and

with a vibrato style that is as variable and malleable as that of the human voice. Because

the mouthpiece is very open and used with a soft reed, the effect of vibrato is enhanced.

Finger Motion

(video track 10 and 11)

While most microtonal variety in Turkish performance is created through

embouchure flexibility, finger motion also facilitates the manipulation of pitch,

particularly as it relates to glissandi. In Turkish music, it is very common to slide from

one pitch into the next, particularly when a melodic line is descending. Some half-holing

of keys and sliding of fingers to the left and right of the instrument also occurs.

My impression of Çağri’s finger motion was, first, that it is quite different than

that of a Western Classical clarinetist. While we seem to pop fingers on and off the

clarinet on a singe plane of motion, the Turkish clarinetist is very aware of and uses both

the on-off motion and a more up-down motion, creating a circular pattern while the

fingers stay close to the keys.

  37  
 As Western Classical clarinetists also know, the way the fingers come off and are

placed on keys affects the sound; Çağri seemed to make good use of this information and

takes it to another level, allowing him to play fast grace notes and even ghost some

pitches. The highly refined conjunction of embouchure manipulation and finger motion

may contribute to the overall effect of the Turkish sound. A viewing of video example 21

shows the intricate, although sometimes so refined as to be imperceptible, motions of

Çağri’s hands. Video track 13, in which you will hear the notation below (see figure 16),

allows the listener to compare my finger motion with Çağri’s. Although the viewer

cannot see Çağri’s hands in the footage, he/she can see mine. Coupled with Çağri’s

ability to manipulate the embouchure and use vibrato, his style is still drastically different

than mine.

Figure 16: Hiçaz etude written by Çağri, video track 13

  38  
 Ornamentation and Improvisation

(video track 10 and 12)

Perhaps because the complexity of Turkish music exists in the horizontal, melodic

realm, ornamentation and improvisation are essential features of the art form. Students of

the Turkish clarinet are expected to listen and produce ornamentation to enhance

notation. These embellishments are not limited to the ends of phrases but are instead used

liberally throughout. My study of repertoire with Çağri involved some study and notation

of ornamentation, although his primary students do not notate ornaments—they are

expected to just listen and appropriately apply them. Common ornament types, in

evidence in figure 17 (accompanied by video track 10), might include upper and lower

neighbor notes, turns, and glissandi.

Figure 17: Ornamentation

  39  
 The practice of ornamentation and improvisation seems to be allied with the

practice of composition for Çağri and for many of his students as well: the teacher writes

much of the music he performs and it was not uncommon for me to sit with his students

as they devised new melodies. Despite my uncomfortable new association with the

instrument while I was in Turkey, I did begin experimenting with improvisation while

waiting for Çagri to arrive for a lesson. After overhearing my Hiçaz musings from

outside, he encouraged me to write my own melody, the result of which follows:

Figure 18: Boja's melody

Although I made an honest attempt to incorporate some ornamentation, even including

markings for vibrato, the listener will hear in video track 12 that there remained lingering

differences between my and Çağri’s approach to the clarinet. With embouchure

manipulation, vibrato, finger motion and equipment accounted for, it is clear that Turkish

clarinet performance is not a variety of Western classical technique: Çağri and I play the

same instrument, and yet it does not sound like we do. Turkish clarinet performance

requires an entirely different approach to the instrument, an approach from which

Western performers might gain new perspectives on their own practice of the instrument.

CHAPTER V

  40  
 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

An understanding of the Turkish clarinet’s history, its rise to popular status in the

musical culture of Turkey provides the reader a glimpse into the unique world of Turkish

clarinet performance. The clarinet is a defining instrument of Turkish culture, unusual

because its popular practice and birth began with the founding of the Turkish nation.

Beginning with the Ottoman Empire’s decline and Atatürk’s establishment of a new

Turkish culture, the clarinet was introduced and has maintained a growing popularity.

Serkan Çağri’s career is evidence of the instrument’s popular status and its unique place

in the musical culture of Turkey. As his recordings demonstrate, the instrument is used in

a variety of musical settings, moving freely between more traditional Turkish folk music

and modern pop. My lessons with Çağri further show the instrument’s unique place in the

world of clarinet performance, highlighting the subtleties of Turkish clarinet performance

as distinct from practices of the Western Classical tradition.

While knowledge of the Turkish clarinet, its history, sounds and performers, is in

itself interesting, the question remains what benefit a reader of the Western Classical

tradition might derive from knowledge of the Turkish clarinet and its performance

practices. My experience with the instrument allows me to apply some of what I learned

to Western clarinet performance.

First, Turkish clarinet performance requires a highly flexible embouchure. Çağri

and his students are capable of bending the pitch over one whole tone even in the lowest

register of the clarinet. Within this whole tone, they can alter the pitch to account for five

  41  
or more divisions between one pitch and the next, in any order. While I cannot say with

certainty how this achieved, I do know they use the embouchure as a very flexible

generator of sound. I contrast this with my general impression of Western performance

and pedagogy in which the student is taught to maintain a consistent embouchure. I

question how our performance practice might be enhanced or just altered if we were

capable of the same level of embouchure manipulation as a Turkish performer. While

Turkish clarinetists aim to imitate the human voice as literally as possible, we claim to do

the same in the Western tradition. How would we play if we could accurately reproduce

the portamento of the human voice or violin? Can we employ vibrato as a more

prominent feature of our Western clarinet practice?

Turkish clarinet performance additionally makes use of ornamentation and

encourages improvisation and composition. It is expected that Turkish clarinetists not

only read notation, but also embellish notation. Çağri and his students have developed an

acute ability to listen, imitate, and then improvise. While of course the Western Classical

tradition has some restrictions on ornamentation, there is no reason we should study

etudes and scales exclusively from pre-printed sources. Why do we rarely write our own

exercises or our own melodies?

Whether it be finger motion or the use of amplification systems, Turkish

clarinetists are pushing the limits of what the instrument can achieve, demonstrating a

performance practice that is entirely distinct from that of the Western Classical clarinet

tradition. While composers of contemporary Western music continue to expand repertoire

  42  
for the instrument, knowledge of Turkish clarinet performance and repertory might

generate new compositional ideas in addition to inspiring performers.

Because there are few print resources in the English language on the Turkish

clarinet, including its history, performers, or practice, further research is needed in each

of these areas. There are records stored in Topkapı palace that detail instrument orders in

the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries: these records have not been thoroughly

examined. The stylistic evolution of Turkish clarinet performance also needs to be

explored, particularly as it relates to the establishment of conservatory systems in Turkey.

The relationship of Turkish clarinet performance to the clarinet performance practices of

surrounding nations in Eastern Europe should be considered. And most importantly, the

Turkish clarinet should be recognized and studied by the international clarinet

community as a unique and valuable instrument and style of performance.

  43  
 Works Cited

Araci, Emre. “Giuseppe Donizetti at the Ottoman Court: A Levantine Life,” The Musical
Times, 143 (Autumn, 2002): 49–56.

Çağri, Serkan. “Historical Development of Clarinet in Europe and Turkey, a Study of the
conformity of clarinet types in Turkish music performance in terms of note fields and
finger position” (master’s thesis, Halic University Social Sciences Institute, Turkish
Music Division, 2006), 1–37.

Christianensen, Paul. “The Turk in the Mirror: Orientalism in Haydn’s String Quartet in
D Minor, Op. 76, No. 2 (“Fifths”),” 19th-Century Music, Vol. 31, No. 3 (2008), 179–92.

Degirmenci, Koray. “On the Pursuit of a Nation: The Construction of Folk and Folk
Music in the Founding Decades of the Turkish Republic,” International Review of the
Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 37, No. 1 (June, 2006), 47–65.

Ellingham, Mark, Duane Orla, and Vanessa Dowell. World Music: Africa, Europe and
the Middle East. Rough Guides, 1999, 401.

Gökalp, Ziya. Turkish Nationalism and Western Civilization. Columbia University Press,
1999, 300.

Jones, Catherine Schmidt. “Janissary Music and Turkish Influences on Western Music,”
http:/cnx.org/content/m15861/1.2/ (accessed October 2, 2010).

Kinross, Lord. Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation. Morrison and Gibb Limited, 1964, 22.

Macfie, A.L. The End of the Ottoman Empire: 1908-1923. Addison Wesley Longman
Limited, 1998, 34–223.

Marcus, Scott. “Turkish Music Theory” Handout from a course offered at the University
of California, Santa Barbara: Temperment and Tuning, Mus 260D, 2007.

Özkan, Ismail Hakki. Türk Musikisi Nazariyati ve Usulleri. Ötüken, 1982.

Reisman, Arnold.Post-Ottoman Turkey: Classical European Music and Opera.

Charleston, SC: Book Surge, 2008, 7–19.

Reisman, Arnold. Arts in Turkey: How Ancient Became Contemporary. Charleston,

South Carolina: Book Surge, 2009, 46.

  44  
Rice, Albert R. From the Clarinet d’Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of Large Size
Clarinet 1740-1860. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Şen, Nilüfer. “Studying Clarinet Usage In Ethnic Music in Turkey,” (master’s thesis,
Gazı University: Ankara, Turkey, 2008).

Signell, Karl. “Esthetics of Improvisation in Turkish Art Music,” Asian Music, Vol. 5,
No 2 (1974), 45–49.

Signell, Karl. Makam, Modal Practice in Turkish Art Music. Sarasota, Florida: Usul
Editions, 2008.

Touma, Habib Hassan. The Music of the Arabs. Portland/Cambridge: Amadeus Press,
1996, 15.

Woodard, Kathryn. “Creating a National Music in Turkey: The Solo Pıano Works of
Ahmed Adnan Saygun,” (master’s thesis, The University of Cincinnati, 1999), 10–15.

  45  
 Discography

Çağri, Serkan. Ne Fe Sim (My Breath), Akustik Music CD 496026972, 2005.

Çağri, Serkan. Ala, Sony Music BMG CD 289401066, 2008.

Çağri, Serkan. Igde Kokulum, Sony Music BMG, Video, 2008.

Cagri, Serkan. Sükrü Tunar Eserleriyle. Sony Music CD, 2009.

  46  
 APPENDIX A: LINEAGE OF TURKISH CLARINET PERFORMERS

Circa 1900-1950
Salih Orak First clarinetist to perform on TRT radio in Ankara
Sükrü Tunar (1907- The first clarinetist to join the Istanbul TRT radio orchestra; also a popular
1962) composer
Hamdi Tokay Followed Tunar’s pioneer performances on TRT radio
Nuri Gun “ “
Ruhi Gunal Turkish clarinet artist popularized in radio performances other than TRT
Tevfik Oksar Radio artist
Mustafa Kandıralı The most popular clarinetist to perform since the invention of the Turkish
(1930- ) clarinet style; known through widespread radio broadcasts, particularly during
holiday seasons during the 1970s and 1980s. A direct descendent of Sükrü
Tunar.
Mehmet Ayar Radio artist
Seyfettin Sigmaz Radio artist
Suleyman Sen Radio artist
Turhan Askin The first clarinetist to perform in the Turkish ministry of culture
Barbaros Erkose TRT artist and the first Turkish clarinetist to become simultaneously known for
his presence on the international jazz scene

Circa 1950-1980
Ahmet Kusgoz Radio artist
Naci Gocmen Radio artist
Ismail Bergamali Performances can today still be heard on Turkish radio stations
Turgay Ozufler First clarinetist to record a substantial number of albums
Alaattin Gozetlik Radio artist

Circa 1980-2010
Sukru Kabaci TRT performer and clarinetist for several bands in Turkey
Goksel Kabaci Radio artist and band member
Salih Caglar Radio artist
Durmus Kisaoglu Radio artist
Burlen Altinbas First clarinetists to perform on more albums since Turgay Ozufler
Serkan Çagri First clarinetist (of three currently: The other two include Mert Can Selçuk and
Onur Aydemir) to earn a graduate degree in Turkish clarinet performance, but
also known as a current popular performer in Turkey. Çagri and Senlendirici
rival one another for fame in Turkey today
Goksun Cavadar Current clarinetist with the Turkish ministry of culture orchestra
Hüsnü Şenlendirci Perhaps Turkey’s most popular clarinetist, making regular television and
magazine appearances

  47  
 APPENDIX B: LETTERS OF CLEARANCE

  48  
   49