Program 693: Forgetting and Remembering in Anatolia
KALW Broadcast Date: April 24, 2022 | Host: Joseph Bohigian
On this Music from Other Minds, a program about memory and forgetting in Turkey. The program features music which brings forth suppressed memories of the country’s present and historical Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, and Kurdish populations. The memory of the forgotten and erased 1914-1923 genocide of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians is revived in works by Diamanda Galás, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Tigran Mansurian. Turgut Erçetin’s “… like dissolving ancient amber and letting a trapped insect fly away.” compares the architectural acoustics of the 4th century Greek Orthodox Church of Holy Apostles and the Fatih Mosque, which was built on the site of the demolished church by the Ottomans after the Fall of Constantinople. Yiğit Kolat’s Messenger of Sorrows imagines the resonant properties of a room in a Kurdish house as it is struck by a rocket during a curfew imposed by the Turkish government in 2015. Finally, Marc Sinan’s Hasretim is a musical search for cultural identity after generations of forced assimilation.
Program Audio
30-Second Spot
Track Info & Links
Title: Ter Vogormia
Composer: Diamanda Galás
Performer: Diamanda Galás
Recording Title: Defixiones: Will and Testament
Record Label: Mute Records
Catalog Number: STUMM 205
Title: Hastayım Yaşıyorum
Composer: Diamanda Galás
Performer: Diamanda Galás
Recording Title: Defixiones: Will and Testament
Record Label: Mute Records
Catalog Number: STUMM 205
Title: Silent Cranes, iv. you flew away
Composer: Mary Kouyoumdjian
Performers: Kronos Quartet
Recording Title: Silent Cranes
Record Label: private recording
Title: Three Arias – Sung Out The Window Facing Mount Ararat
Composer: Tigran Mansurian
Performers: Kim Kashkashian, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose (conductor)
Recording Title: Neharót
Record Label: ECM
Catalog Number: ECM 2065
Title: “… like dissolving ancient amber and letting a trapped insect fly away.”
Composer: Turgut Erçetin
Performers: Arditti Quartet, SWR Symphonieorchester, Michael Wendeberg (conductor)
Recording Title: “… like dissolving ancient amber and letting a trapped insect fly away.”
Record Label: private recording
Title: Messenger of Sorrows
Composer: Yiğit Kolat
Performers: Inverted Space Ensemble
Recording Title: Messenger of Sorrows
Record Label: private recording
Title: Tableau V – Kars: Aşık Günay Yildiz ve Aşık Bilal Atışması
Composer: Marc Sinan
Performers: Marc Sinan, Dresdner Sinfoniker, Jonathan Stockhammer (conductor), Aşık Günay Yildiz, Aşık Bilal
Recording Title: Hasretim – Journey to Anatolia
Record Label: ECM
Catalog Number: ECM 2330/31
Title: Tableau V – Kars: 99 Beautiful Names
Composer: Marc Sinan
Performers: Marc Sinan, Dresdner Sinfoniker, Jonathan Stockhammer (conductor), Seyit Ak, Ilhan Ak
Recording Title: Hasretim – Journey to Anatolia
Record Label: ECM
Catalog Number: ECM 2330/31
Title: Epilog
Composer: Marc Sinan
Performers: Marc Sinan, Dresdner Sinfoniker, Jonathan Stockhammer (conductor), Asiye Göl, Şener Gök, Ömer Parlak, Mesut Kurt, Seyit Ak, Turan Akdağ, Sercan Kaya, Eda Var
Recording Title: Hasretim – Journey to Anatolia
Record Label: ECM
Catalog Number: ECM 2330/31
