During the last twenty years, musicians and researchers alike, have shown a great interest in the music traditions of the greater Eastern Mediterranean, and especially so in the turkish music tradition. Despite this ever increasing interest however, a concise book on the theory of turkish music has remained absent from greek bibliography.
The Turkish Makam Guide, written by the great Turkish tanbur virtuoso, Murat Aydemir, presents sixty makams from the Classical Ottoman music tradition, in a way that is both simple and understandable. The book is strictly structured , presenting the basic elements of which each makam is comprised (tonic, dominant notes, cadences, melodic line etc), while at the same time it interprets and offers morphological analyses of two music examples: a piece of improvisation and a composition. Most importantly, he manages to transmit valuable knowledge concerning the melodic movement, the phrasing and the tanbur playing technique, through a combination of theory and practice.
Written in simple language and without being addressed to a specialized or initiated reader or musician, this book - the first of its kind to be translated in greek - presents a condensed body of knowledge which the virtuoso Murat Aydemir has derived from years of music practice as well as long term apprenticeship near great teachers.
This edition includes two CDs which contain invaluable music examples.The improvisation as well as the compositions, which Murat plays on the tanbur, are combined with the condensed rendition of theory and together they contribute in the best possible way in the better understanding of the makam music system of the turkish tradition but also of the modal soundscape of the greater Eastern Mediterranean.
