SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The Şelpe technique of Saz/Bağlama goes a long way back, having its roots in various pastoral-nomadic communities of Central Asia and Middle East. Recently, The Saz/ Bağlama artists of urban centers re-explored the traditional Şelpe technique by learning directly from the local artists or from their recordings. Especially, during the 1980s and 90s, Şelpe technique and its almost forgotten Parmak Vurma sub-technique employed by Yörük community from Teke region, were main subjects to re-exploration and revivalist research of a couple of Saz/Bağlama artists with musical backgrounds based on the urban music tradition. Furthermore, they hybridized the techniques taken from classical or flamenco guitar, dutar, and dombra and alike with the traditional Şelpe technique. Hence, a particular musical component of Anatolian folk music, Şelpe technique, became a subject of revivalist studies aiming at opening new paths for Saz/Bağlama music in a new musical environment. One of the core aims of the re-invention and modernization process of the Şelpe technique was to invent the new multipart musical textures by the way of achieving a sort of synthesis with traditional harmonic practices of the Şelpe and Western harmonic practices. In this direction, various arrangements and compositions have been produced and presented through public performances of the contemporary Şelpe by the Saz/Bağlama masters in the cities. The genuine multipart musical textures of traditional Şelpe performance and the synthesis produced by the incorporation of tonal harmonic practices into Şelpe technique have called forth a systematic approach and theoretical models forming the performance standards of the modern Şelpe. The main objective of this analytical approach would be the creation of a system displaying Şelpe’s all vertical musical structures pertaining to traditional, modern, and mixed harmonic practices, indicating the related positions on the Saz/Bağlama fingerboard