The Tasawwuf music ensemble sort of hypnotised the audience which forgot
walking and fixed their attention on the touching music, writes Umer Nangiana
When they danced, everybody danced with them. It was irresistible. Soulful music by authentic ensemble topped with bold and striking moves by Turkish folk dancers would simply pull the audience into the loop.
This is exactly what Turks were doing for the four days they were here. Both male and female performers at the Turkish Festival at Katara Cultural Village remained the talk of the town.
Hundreds watched them perform at a beach-side outdoor theatre daily in the evenings. It was truly a Turkish delight.
Done dancing and you would move on to see some wondrous handiworks by Turk artisans and artists besides enjoying authentic Turkish food courtesy Suker Pasha, the restaurant in Katara, and some dessert brought specially from Turkey.
“With the festival we were aiming to promote the Turkish culture, art and music in all its varieties,” Alihan Tokmak, General Manager of Hexagon Qatar, told Community. The company put the show together.
More than 40 performers from two different dance groups, the Modern Dance Group of Istanbul Opera and Ballet Association and Turkish Folkloric Group from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Fine Arts Directorate, enthralled the audience for four days. They were accompanied by the Ankara Turkish World Music Ensemble.
The Doha audience had a glimpse of world-renowned Konya Tasawwuf Music on the last day of the festival. Established in the city of Konya in Turkey, this dance performance takes the audience on a ‘whirling tour of soul-searching’.
“This form of music reflects the philosophy of Mevlana (Mevlana Rumi). Normally, it is accompanied by whirling dervishes but this year we preferred not to have them here after discussion with the musicians,” said Tokmak.
“Tasawwuf music is very interactive. It is a sort of yoga, a meditation so it requires proper environment for it to be performed. It is preferably performed indoors, he added. “The essence of Tasawwuf music is that the audience connects with the whirling dervishes. They feel the emotion of the dervishes,” said Tokmak.
He hoped when the Turk performers return next year to Doha, the whirling dervishes might accompany them. The organisers were hopeful of bringing them back next year at the same time of the year as “the weather was perfect here in these days.”
The Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Konya Turkish Tasawwuf Music Ensemble was established in 1990 with the intention of carrying on these old traditions and introducing people to Turkish Tasawwuf music and tradition.
Sama Ayans (Whirling Prayer Ceremonies) in their purest forms are performed at the highest level. In Turkey, the ensemble performs yearly during the Mevlana Commemoration week (December 1st– 17th) and at the Shab-e-arus ceremony (Hazrat Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi’s passing from this world) besides at various special events in other cities from around the world.
Sema is part of the inspiration of Mevlana’s as well as of Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture. “It is what we do as a form of remembrance of God,” the ensemble states in its message.
At Katara, the Tasawwuf music ensemble sort of hypnotised the audience which forgot walking and fixed their attention on the touching music.
Then, they all swung with the chorus and the ‘whirling’ tunes of their music. The reason Tasawwuf music is captivating is because it is based on the science and philosophy of ‘life in revolution.’
Contemporary science confirms that the fundamental condition of human existence is to revolve. There is no object, no being which does not revolve and the shared similarity among beings is the revolution of the electrons, protons and neutrons in atoms, which constitute the structure of each of them.
As a consequence of this similarity, everything revolves and man carries on his life, his very existence simply by means of the revolution in the atoms, structural stones of his body, by the revolution of his blood, by his coming from the earth and return to it, by his revolving with earth itself.
Thus the “whirling dervish” or Semazen causes the mind to participate in the shared similarity and revolution of all other beings. The Sema ceremony represents a mystical journey of man’s spiritual ascent through mind and love to “Perfect”.
“He returns from this spiritual journey as a man who has reached maturity and a greater perfection, so as to love and to be of service to the whole of creation, to all creatures without discrimination of beliefs, races, classes and nations,” claim the ensemble. But the dervishes were missed this year at Katara.
The Turkish World music ensemble from Ankara showcased many parts of Turkey’s geography. They brought music from all seven districts of the large country. The costumes of dancers changed with every region, perhaps. They were so many and each completely different from other.
The beauty of the Turkish dance performances was in variety. There was almost no repetition of moves and compositions — the choreography was immaculate.
No dervishes they were, but Zeybek dance performers still did involve the audience.
Dozens of members of audience, mostly Turks, joined hands and started whirling every time the musicians plucked the chords on their instruments composing particularly for this type of dance.
“Zeybek is another traditional dance form, performed at marriages mostly before the actual ceremony. It is where the groom commits that he is giving his life in return of her love,” said Tokmak.
This widespread folk dances of the Western Anatolia are rendered by one person or two or by a group of people and its name changes with the region, but it is called ‘seyman’ in the central parts of Anatolia.
Zeybek dances are formed of 9/8 measures and have a variety of tempos such as very slow, slow, fast and very fast. Very fast dances, for instance teke (goat) dance seen in Burdur, Fethiye region, can be regarded as dances of zeybek character.
Particularly in slow zeybeks, the traditional instrument is drum-zurna combination. The choreographer allows the drum-zurna players to generate beats that thump at the listeners’ hearts. The use of two drums and two zurnas (a smaller drum) in combination is a tradition. The zurnas is there just to accompany the melody with a second constant tune.
Three double-stringed instruments such as baglama, reed, marrow bow are used for fast zeybek dances. Besides traditional food and music, the festival showcased works from Turkish artists such as rosary, the art of tile making (the famous Iznik tiles), art of Kilim weaving, calligraphy, paper marbling and traditional Turkish dresses of varieties.
For children, the famous Turkish Shadow Puppetry was a huge attraction.
