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Prof.Dr. Ş. Şehvar BEŞİROĞLU

ITU TM STATE CONSERVATORY

DEPARTMENT OF MUSICOLOGY

Tel: 0212 29313 00/ ext. 2795

Fax : 0212 2485316

e-mail : besir@itu.edu.tr

ABSTRACT


THE ÇENG THROUGH TRADITIONAL TO MODERN: STYLE, STRUCTURE, CONSTRUCTIONS, AND PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES IN ANATOLIA

Organology is a study of musical instruments in terms of their history, design, construction, developments and change (also culturally) social and identical function, relation to performance, authenticating and dating old instruments by scientific means, discerning the methods by which instruments of different cultures have been designed and produced and investigating the musical influences. As folklore of instruments is also subjects that organology shares with music iconography and ethnomusicology. Çeng is a musical instrument with 14 to 24 strings Asia originated that is played by two hands and keeping perpendicular to the lap. It is classified as “open harps” under the sub-category of harp of main category chordophone in Hornbostel-Sachs system received as the recent classification in 20th century. The Çeng; it can be called a “Eastern Harp”. In the long history of the Çeng in the Near East, preserved mostly in poems and visual materials, it is assumed to be an important and vital tradition, even though it is rarely treated in any detail. In Ottoman-Turkish period Çeng adapted from Iranian and Central Asian origin. It was the most popular and important instrument until beginning of 18.th.cc. It was accompanied entertainment musical style and dance. After this period it was disappeared.




THE ÇENG THROUGH TRADITIONAL TO MODERN: STYLE, STRUCTURE, CONSTRUCTIONS, AND PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES IN ANATOLIA

To give a single civilization as an origin of the harp like instruments is difficult. The findings as a result of archeological excavations prove that the harp like instruments were used in eastern civilizations, especially in Egypt, Assyria, Iran, Greek, Central Asia and Caucasus and spread to the other civilizations and countries. The origin of this instrument as of other stringed instruments is, in fact, arrow and bow. The sound produced by the stretched bow used in hunting resulted in a new instrument class, i.e. stringed instruments. There are many different kinds of stringed instruments. On the other hand, the instruments were made by stretching strings in the cavity formed between two wooden pieces in the earlier times. Initially, these strings were played by hand, but later the bow was put into use after strings were played by striking or pulling with other tool. Lots of researchers produced many thesis on this approach, accepted this idea after the archeo-organologists’ studies and proved that the initial stringed instruments had been formed by hunting bow.






Photographs related to hunter’s bow

Although some archeo-organologists claim that the “bow string” found in Magdalenian civilization was the first stringed instrument, more commonly shared view is that the first stringed instruments appeared in Mesopotamian Civilizations and Egypt.



One of these researchers, D. Rokal-Levitski claims as follows;



Information that we have leads us thinking that the primitive man felt to incline to music with the effect of the sound produced while shooting arrow with a tightly stretched hunter’s bow.We can regard this era a beginning of the formation of the musical instrument, harp. (D. Rogal-Leviski, Sovremennõy orkestr , t. 4 , Moskova , 1956 , p. 6.)

B.C.Deva, also, states the following about the origin of the stringed instruments while telling about the instruments in Indian culture;



There is a nice passage in the ancient work called Ramayana, in which bow is compared with the harp and the arrow with the plectrum. (B.C.Deva, New Delhi Music, India, 1995, p.127)


  1. HISTORY OF THE ÇENG :

Manuscripts and visual materials produced in all civilizations and especially in Timurid, Ottoman and Mughal courts are the most important written sources in studying the musical instruments. Together, manuscripts and miniatures provide valuable information about the instruments' physical properties, their structural and acoustic characteristics, and about the social context in which these instruments were used. Visual materials from these sources provide useful information for music historians. On the basis of sample gathered for this paper, representational art gives insights into the types of instruments in historical use and their appropriate musical functions, and shows us something of the musician's social role as courtier, guild member, and participant in public and private ceremonies and rituals. Researchers observe the importance of music and musicians in court and daily life.



Çeng is a musical instrument with 14 to 35 strings Asia originated that is played by two hands and keeping perpendicular to the lap. Çeng considered as an important instrument in Turkish music history but having rise and falls according to the periods has a Persian etymological root. It can be called a “Turkish Harp”. It is classified as “open harps” under the sub-category of harp of main category chordophone in Hornbostel-Sachs system received as the recent classification in 20th century. Hornbostel and Sachs describe the harp as a chordophone whose the plane formed by strings are positioned perpendicular to the soundboard.



Necked Strings

Sound board

In the work of Hornbostel and Sachs, the harp is studied under two titles. These are frame harps and open harps. Open harps are classified into two; curved and angular harps. The strings are stretched between the pegbox and soundboard in open harps. The neck of the angular harp constitutes a right angle whereas the neck of the curved harp becomes distant from the soundboard in a curved shape. Bow harp is usually used for the curved harp. On the other hand, some researchers use the term bow harp for the musical bow with resonator box. Bow harps are the most primitive harps, pegs and soundboard of which are carved from the same wood piece, so that an arc is formed where the strings are stretched.





Bow Harps

Straight or curved soundboard of the angular harps has an angle of 70° to the pegbox. In some pictures, this angle can be seen as 90°. The most distinctive feature of the frame harps is their fore pillar which is an additional part to structure and helps to support the tension of the strings. The harps without the fore pillar are the open harps.

Çeng; used in the Ottoman society belongs to the angular harps class, second type of open harps. However, its usage as a bow-harp was widespread before Ottomans when the accourse of the çeng is examined in the Turkish history.
HARP IN MESOPOTAMIA:

Mesopotamia had been a cradle for many civilizations since 4000 B.C. In this rich region, Sumerian, Akat, Babylon, Assyrian, Hittite, Kalde, Elam and Persian civilization had settled. Beginning about 4000 B.C., there had been two different ideas about the classification of the instruments. There were two types of lyre among the instruments old Sumerians after 4000 B.C. which were called “ALGAR”. While the low pitched one was named “SAGGAL”, the high pitched “ZAGSAL”. No information about the timbre, tuning way and musical signs of these instruments, however, has reached today. In the embossed pictures found in the excavations, it is seen that the lyres have strings and a resonator bow which is decorated with the animal heads. The instruments called “LYRE” according to the Galphin’s classification are actually named as harp by Gönül Alpay Tekin who indicates in the translation of the “Çengname” that there is a discussion on the word “harp” between philologists and musicologists. In the museum in Baghdad, there is a Sumerian Lyre, where Galphin’s estimation about Lyre is correct, from the region Ur taken from the tomb of the Queen Po-Obi pertaining to the year 4500 B.C. The resonator box of the lyre with 11 strings is made of wood on which there are silver and golden ornaments and an ox head.

But the other comment of Tekin about Harp in Mesopotamia is right about her argue. She remarks that two instruments called “BALAG” and “BALANG” in Sumerians and defined as drum by Galphin are in fact harps; moreover they with that name are met first time in the period of UR IV (3000-2800 B.C.) as Hartman indicates, and this instrument is an upright, three stringed harps with a boat-shaped belly. Here are samples of angular harp from Assyrian civilization that had dominated in Mesopotamia for a long time from 2500 to 600 B.C.

HARP IN ANCIENT EGYPT:

The existence of the harps in Egypt is known with the interaction of Mesopotamia from 3000 to 500 B.C. Egypt is accepted as the native country of the harps since some researchers argue that there were not harps but lyres in Mesopotamia. The existence of the Egyptian harps is found in visual and written documents (tablets and papyrus) and it is known that the harps as tall as the human had developed to be played especially in the religious ceremonies. The most favorite instrument of Egyptians is the harp called “Ben”. The first harp was made in Egypt in 2400 B.C. and it is observed that they were influenced by the Mesopotamian people.







HARP IN ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS

Goddess Ishtar depicted standing in the scene on a cylindrical seal from the early Hittite age found in the Konya - Karahöyük excavations plays two stringed angular harp.





A detail from cylindrical seal from the early Hittite age. Goddess Ishtar playing angular harp.

HARP IN CYCLADIC ISLANDS

These islands covering the islands in the north of Crete in Aegean Sea, today known as the Greek Islands, were a steppingstone for the immigrant groups. These islands were a significant culture center before Bronze Age Crete Civilization. Cycladic Civilization had a synchronic progress with Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations (3000-2000 B.C.) and became a foundation of the Greek culture which is the basic culture of the European civilization. It is supposed that the society of this island had migrated from the western Anatolia and is known that they had relation with the Anatolian civilizations at the same period. Marble and stone, most important materials of the islands became most significant substance to create idols. Among these idols, statues of goddesses like fertility goddess are found as important cultural matter. One of these statues is Cycladic harp which is the sample of first stringed instrument and harp discovered in this area. Seven, small, 15-30 cm high statuettes from 2700-2100 B.C. portraying sitting harpists are found out in Cycladic Islands.





HARP IN ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMA

Apollo was regarded as the inventor the harp according to the Greek mythology in the ancient Greek where each tree types of the harp were used. Hellenes called this instrument "Trigonos" because of its structure similar to a right triangle. (West, 1992, f.22) These instruments were brought from Anatolia to Greece. Romans did not invent new instruments but adopted the ones arrived from Greek, Egypt and Anatolia. Harp was brought from Anatolia to Rome like Greek. Harp had never reached to the status of other stringed instruments; aristocracy generally preferred the lyre, therefore, it remained as an instrument played only by the slaves.

The figure on a vase dated 5th century B.C. expresses that a muse called Terpsichore plays an angular open harp like other Greek women from higher classes. The performer plays the instrument, which is fixed on the left knee, by using both hands’ fingers. (Anderson, 1997, p.197 ) The tip of the vertical sound board, on which the strings are attached, is curved. ( Pfhul, 1923, p.555 ) On the other hand, it is seen on a vase from 425 B.C. that the player holds the instruments so that the long strings are closer to him/her. The strings of the instrument having an oblique sound board are stretched vertically to the pegbox different from other Greek harps.



A detail from a Hellenic vase: A musician playing harp.

In other vase picture (See: f.5.33) (Pfhul, 1923 f.796) and in a relief on a decorative object, a closed angular harp with 10-12 strings is portrayed. (See. f.5.34) (Boardman, 1970, f. 517 ) (See. f.5.35) In both harp descriptions, it is very obvious that the players hold the instruments so that the short strings are closer to them and the strings are attached to lower neck with about 45 degree.





A detail from a Hellenic vase: A musician playing harp.

In the figure on other decorative object dated back to classical era, about 30 strings are seen in the same musical instrument. The player holds the instruments so that the short strings are closer to him/her. The oblique sound board widens towards the tip of the instrument. (Figure 5.36) ( Boardman, 1970, f.472)




A musician playing harp figured on a Hellenic decorative object.

Sambuka is a bow harp used by Hellenes. The performers of this instrument named by some Latin writers as "iambyke " or "zambyke" are called "sambykai" or "sambykistrati", "sambucistria". (Sadie, v. III, p.288)

It has short string and a boat shaped sound board which is coated by leather. The instrument of which sound board is made of turtle shell is seen on the left hand of a woman figure on a vase from 5th century B.C. (West, 1992, p.75-77) (See f.4.37) ( West, 1992, f.23)



HARP IN ANCIENT INDIA AND MUGHAL PALACE

Stringed instruments of India appear in the cave pictures from pre-historic ages and documents obtained from the excavations. Some cave pictures in central India, tablets and ancient writings of Indian civilization shows the harp and lyres. In these pictures, the belly of the harp is generally curved, i.e. bow shaped. It is known that the bow with the harp and the arrow with the plectrum are compared in the work named Ramayana. (B.C.Deva)

The shared idea of the most researchers is that curved and angular harps in Mesopotamia moved from the origin to the East. It is stated that the angular harp traveled to the Far East whereas the bow harps to the south and the South Asia. The bow harps seen initially in Mesopotamia in 3000’s B.C. are came across in India from 2nd century B.C. onwards. According to the researchers, last findings indicate that the curved harp had reached to Burma across the south coast of India before 500’s A.D. In the present time, Burma bow harps are the unique representative in the Southern Asia, of those which have leather sound board, 13-14 silk strings, boat shaped body and are played by plucking with the fingers.



Harp Miniatures From Mughal Palace

HARP IN CENTRAL ASIA

Soviet researchers named Rudenko and Gryaznov investigating Pazırık and Başadar valleys of Altai at the beginning of 20th century, found out pieces of very old rugs and the çeng, a Turkic musical instrument. Rudenko takes the history of the people living in that areas up to 1700 B.C. Hun-s, a Central Asian state, liked the instrument çeng very much. It is supposed that the çeng had been used in Caucasian states since the first societies with classes.

Ancient stringed instrument similar to the harp was called as çeng or ceng in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani archeologist found out that the first finds of the çeng reaches to years before Christ. There were excavations by the scientists in the fields of the village Şaturlar, near the city, Berde, being one of the ancient civilization centers of Azerbaijan. A piece of earthenware pot on which a woman figure playing çeng was portrayed was found. It belongs to 4th-3rd centuries before Christ. (Mecnun Kerimov, Azerbaycan gedim simli çalgı aletleri, Çeng, not printed work, p.35.)

SANJ OR CANG IN ARABS

This instrument had been used in the Arab Peninsula from the pre-Islamic era to 15th century. Farmer mentions about a harp among the instruments used by the Arabs in Pre-Islamic era between 1st and 6th centuries. The name of this instrument is Sanc and Cang which vary according to the diversity of the centuries. There are two harps, named cank and cank acemi mentioned in 1001 Night Tales. (H.Goerge Farmer, A history of Arabian Music, London,1929,p.16) Cank Acemi, the çeng used in Iran, was given this name to distinguish from the çeng used in Egypt.

Starting from 10th century, instrument articles mentioned in the books examining the Islam music theory give us information about the performance of the instruments, their structures and historical development. Among these books’ writers, Farabi in 10th century, Safiyuddin in 13th century.

Harp In Arabs Harp In Safiyuddin

ÇENG IN IRAN AND PALACE OF TIMUR

Researcher state that the vertically held angular harp spread from Mesopotamia and Egypt to Iran and there were the harp in Iran in the Pre-Islamic age. On the mosaic panels found in the ruins of the palace having by Sassani ruler Şapur I built in Bişhapur, there is an angular harp with six strings on the stone floor of a large lounge. On this mosaic, the harp played by a woman at a banquet has a thin neck, a large sound board and a height taller than the performer. Some harp pictures are observed on the wall pictures in a large cave named Taki Bustan in the period of Sassani ruler King Husrev II. A woman playing a level angular harp accompanied to the king in the king’s boat in a relief describing the palace life. There are three types of harps in these reliefs: right angled harps; vertical, oblique angled harps; and level, angled harps played with a plectrum.

In the rising period of Sassani dynasty, Behram Gür (421-439 A.D.), son of YazdgirdI, and Azade who is known with his musical talent, plays harp and chosen among the 40 Greek slaves are illustrated together in the miniatures. The name of the harp is çeng in Iran in the Islamic period.

The belly is made of vine stock or plum tree, its length is about four spans and width about one. Sound board is decorated with ivory or mother-of-pearl and pasted with beaten glass to increase the volume. The strings made of goat hair are stretched between the neck and soundboard coated by leather, and are about 24. (Farmer, Iranian musical Instruments in the Fifteen Century, Studies in Oriental Music, Frankfurt, 1986, p.179)

In addition, Farmer reports that Iran çeng has about 20 up to 35 strings, high pitched of them are played by plucking by the left hand’s fingers while low-pitched ones by right hand’s, whereas the thumb is used for some specific pitches. A supporting bar standing on the lower part of belly downwards is seen in the miniatures. This straight or curved bar is attached to the belt of the player, so that harps stands without a need to other support.

Abdülkadir Meragi noticed following for the çeng in his work Kenzi’l Tuhaf in 15th century;



Çeng; is a very well-known instrument. Leather is stretched on it. The number of the strings passing over a nut varies according to the request. Generally, they are 24, but 35 is also attached.

In the same work, there is an other instrument similar to the çeng and called eğri. Meragi describes it as such;

Eğri ; looks like the çenk, but the belly of the çeng is covered by leather, eğri’s belly is made of wooden.



Miniatures – Nizami Hamse –Timur
ÇENG IN OTTOMANS

After the establishment in 1299, the Ottomans spent most of the 14th century expanding and securing their territory and organizing their administrative structure. During this period cultural activities under the leadership and patronage of the court were limited in scope and practice. Starting with Sultan Murad II., however, Bursa and Edirne courts were frequently visited by scholars, poets, artists and musicians from several Timurid courts of Asia. As it is stated in Encyclopedia of Turkish Music;

During the 15th century, the Istanbul court was actively trying to occupy the place of Herat as a cultural center, and the Ottomans viewed the Herati court of Sultan Hüseyin Bayqara (1469 – 1506) as a model of royal patronage for all arts.

Walter Feldman states in his book titled;

Music of the Ottoman court”, “From the Timurid era until the end of the 16th century in an area stretching from Transaxonia to Anatolia, there was a mixture of several core instruments known to most Islamic musical cultures...” .

In Ottoman Music history; Timurid and Hüsyin Baykara Court has very important role till 17th.cc. Huseyin Bayjara court has very imprHhhTimurids first conquered Semerkand and Horasan, they made Herat their capital and this city became the most important cultural center in 14th and 15th centuries. Rulers of the empire were instrumental in developing a cultural movement which is now referred as “Classical Herat School of Art”. Timur’s sons and his grand children were among these rulers. Babur, a descendent of Timur established the Mughal Empire in which this artistic tradition continued, his sons Humayun and Akbar followed their father’s footsteps. During those times, Istanbul was actively trying to occupy the place Herat as a cultural centre. However, Istanbul was only able to take the place of Herat in the last years of Sultan Beyazıt (1481-1512). This was only possible due to the very grate political patronage. It appears that the Ottoman viewed the Herati court of Sultan Hüseyin Baykara as a model of Royal patronage for all arts.(W.Feldman).

Until 17th century, Ottoman artists traveled extensively within the neighboring cultures providing mutual cultural exchanges among different societies. Miniatures produced in cultural centers such as Baghdad, Heart, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tebriz, Samarqand, Bukhara, Horasan, Edirne, Bursa and Istanbul provide valuable visual information about the music. Historical records indicate that Ottoman music assumed its “Ottoman” character after the 17th century with the emergence of composers like Hafız Post and Itri.

While examining these sources, the necessity to cover the geographical area with a great perspective from Northern India to the palace of Timur which is the most important palace taken as a model and Istanbul arisen when we look the Ottomans before 17th century.

In 15th century, Abdülkadir Meragi wrote about the musical instruments used in the courts of Timur and Ahmet Han Celayir. Contemporaneously, in the Ottoman court, Ahmedi Dai, Ahmetoğlu Şükrullah, Hızır bin Abdullah, Kırşehirli Nizameddin and Ladikli Mehmed Çelebi, Dursun Bey, Nihani’nin Sazname of Nihani from 15th century, being a poem with a literary value, Telli Sazlar Münazarası, Çengname of Ahmed-i Dai, described the musical instruments of their time in their works. These instruments were similar to the ones described by Abdülkadir of Maraga in Timurid court, suggesting similar cultural and musical practices.

Ahmedoğlu Şükrullah lived in the 15th century during the Murat II era mentioned about the çeng while describing nine instruments used by Turks in that period;

The soundboard is solid, long and curved like a neck of a horse and made of wild apricot or dried cypress. The soundboard becomes narrower from the bottom to the upper parts, is 4 spans long, one span wide and 4 open fingers deep. The bowl is covered glass glue tutkal (granulated glass) and coated by gazelle leather; if not, it is called Eğri. There is an inner nut, which is solid, for attaching the strings made of horse hair or silk and 24 or 25. These strings are tuned by tightening or loosing. Moreover, if silk strings and horse hair strings do not become friends,it is impossible to tune harmoniously. These strings are attached to the supporting bar which helps to hold the instrument and has length of three spans. The instrument is played under the left armpit. It is tuned diatonically according to the modes. It is played by the right nad left index fingers and thumbs. Higher pitched strings are short and closer to the player whereas the lower pitches are those that are stretched downwards. The right hand plays the low-pitched notes, while left hand higher-pitched notes by dragging them.”

Seydi from 15th century mentions about çeng under the title “Der beyan-ı Talim-i Çeng” in his work El-Matla;

If someone wants to learn playing the çeng, should count eight strings from the higher pitch to lower pitch and then tune the ninth as Rast mode, the eighth as Dügah, the seventh as Segah, sixth as Çargah, fifth as Pencgah, fourth as Hüseyni, third as Hisar, second as Gerdaniye and the last string as Muhayyer, the higher pitch of Dügah; then turn back and the strings lower than Gerdaniye are harmonised in octaves until Rast pitch. This pitch is the main one as in the traditional system; by practicing, it is easy to play”.

The most striking feature of this century is that the performers of the çeng are generally women as understood from both the phrasings and visual materials. When famous 16th century historian Gelibolulu Mustafa Ali described musical instruments of the period, he categorized some of the instruments as "male instruments" and others as "female instruments". Çeng is described as female instrument in these groups. This suject is to be studied in the contexts of gender. But there are very few studies about the gender in the Ottomans; also the female identity is researched.

Looking from this point of view, gender and instruments are less considered identically, however, it is possible to determine it in the visual materials. When the classification made in 16th century is examined, and also when the Arab sources in 9th century and formerly the Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources, the harp players are all women. That the çeng performers are women, determined in the miniatures, beginning initially from the 14th century in Tebriz and also a woman figure playing the çeng is used as a symbol of the planet Venus in a manuscript about the astrology in Ottomans in 17th century, show that çeng in the context of gender is a significant field of study. Walter Feldman supports this idea by saying that;



The Çeng on the other hand, while it could be played at the court, had strong association with the realm of Venus. In Persian and Turkish poetry it is the çeng which plays while Venus dances. Hence, the çeng was the archetypical instruments of Harem (women court)

Additionally, well known historian Gelibolulu Mustafa Âli lived in 16th century classified the instruments as male and female instruments while describing the instruments in his work named Mevâ’idü’n Nefais fi Kavâ’idi’l Mecalis (Banquettes on Etiquette and Social Rules) which acknowledged Ottoman traditions and customs. Among female instruments, there are Çeng, Kemençe and Def. This proves that the çeng has an identity of female instrument and a representative of women idedntity in 16th century. The other matter is about its dimensions. There is not a standard dimension because of the varying size in miniatures.)



Another researcher Walter Denny coats;



The harp or çeng is generally associated with female players and appears in interior scenes of Harem activity.

The oldest one of the traveler books, that is determined, mentioning about Ottoman everyday life and having gravures and litographies in it, belongs to the Guillaume Postel writing in 1530’s. Postel, who was posted as Deputy Ambassador by Freanch King François I and came to Istanbul, wrote the book called Republique des Turcs” in 1560. In the chapter about the çeng illustrated and explained, he remarked the roles of the girls from the çengi group in the dances and music, their dance skills, that the çeng is used in çengi dance and that the instrument is played while sitting and placing between the legs.



"Another instrument used in entertainment is Çeng which is known for it's sweet voice. It is played by women musicians who like troubadours can be hired for daily fees. These groups usually consisted of two or three women, one plays the Çeng others play the tambourine, and dance."

A French tradesman, Du Loir who came to Istanbul with Jean de la Haye, French Ambassador in 1639 and stayed for seventeen months, recorded that the Turks listened to music while having lunch or dinner and told that women listened to music performed by male and later only by the female musicians backdrop when he observed in an invitation he attended:



"While the women called Çengi are playing the Çeng, other women play the “Rebab”, an instrument with a round vessel and a long neck, and the “Daire”, a percussion instrument, and all sing. In the middle of the stage, there are the dancers play in the “Çalpare"

By the late 17th century, the famous Ottoman traveler and writer Evliya Çelebi reported that there were twelve professional Çeng players in Istanbul. He described the Çeng as a “large instrument in the shape of an elephant’s trunk”, sometimes with as many as forty strings”



    Çeng –Evliya Çelebi

It is told that the çeng was invented by Fisagor in the period of Prophet Süleyman and had an elephant’ trunk shape with 40 strings giving life and pleasure to the person who listens to it.



Though being a member of the harp family with a long history, the Çeng, among other instruments of Turkish Makam music, began to lose its importance during the eighteenth century. In this period, two types of change can be seen in the musical instrumentarium in general: 1. The disappearance of those traditional instruments which could not sufficiently correspond to the rising popular needs and tendencies; and 2. The introduction of western musical instruments (e.g. clarinet) or relatively loud musical instruments of Asian origin (e.g. Kanûn). The introduction of tempered musical instruments (e.g. piano) to the world of Turkish Makam music can be observed from the late nineteenth century onwards. The cultural and economic constituents of everyday life implied more and more rapid and complex forms of organization. Yet, the forms of expression derived from them showed quite contrary characteristics, manifesting themselves through a more or less generalized adoption of simplified forms, in conformity with an accelerated process of social change. In fact, this is not exclusively a feature of the modernization processes in Turkish music; it rather shares some characteristics with the western European model of musical modernization, even though it developed under the specific sociohistorical conditions of its internal dynamics. Indeed, the increasing scientification of certain elements of music (eg. sound system, rhythmic patterns, instruments, etc.), together with a significant simplification of musical expressions to easily repeatable units, led to both the rise of a more complex world of musical expressions (refinements in art music) and a change in the social matrix of tastes and preferences (and consequently the rise of popular music). The Ottoman Empire certainly had its own contextual sociohistorical forces that shaped the very logic of the itinerary of its modernization, but at a basic level, a progressive rationalization of the social life, as found in the modernization processes of western cultures from the sixteenth century onwards, can be observed manifesting itself through an abandonment of traditional cultural codes, institutions and values. Nevertheless, this process went by in a manner far from being peaceful, consistent or linear. The 19th century instead presents us with a condensed history of conflicting political and social movements. Just like other elements of social life (conceptual as well as institutional), music was an important, even privileged domain, in which nearly all social changes were reflected by a highly pertinent symbolism. One might argue that music is the most uninterrupted and significant system of social indicators, presenting a to a high degree complete picture of the sociohistorical landscape in which it is produced, shared, consumed and encrypted in symbols. Concerning musical instruments, the disappearance of some traditional and technically less competitive ones indicates that newly emerging modernized forms and sensualities of everyday life were demanding louder sounds, fuller timbres and combinations of instruments suitable for public performance (from the circle of friends to the professional orchestra). This meant that the changes in social life and the legal and political framework of the Ottoman Empire implied, as it has been the case in several other modernization processes, a gradually diffusing adoption of a more worldly conception of being, rationalizing and therefore standardizing esthetic and ethic criteria, and an expressive form of everyday life, as components of a modern world. Such a conceptual and perceptual transformation of social life encodes itself in higher, wider and more impressive sounds, produced by more agile and complex musical instruments. A relatively rapid, constantly circulating, rationally organized urban life necessitates a massive adoption of quickly perceivable, therefore consumable constructs. As music was evolving from an inner journey to a public spectacle, those instruments with mystical timbres tended to progressively disappear. The Çeng perfectly coalesces with these modernization tendencies. First of all, its timbre, as it is the case with all musical instruments with strings running vertically to the ground, is conventionally perceived and accepted as mystical. The latter does not only function as a connotation to a traditional conception of life as a divine gift, but also to the intrinsic meanings hidden in it. Thus, the modern disappearance of the Çeng, also meant a systemic repression of the weak, irrational, and feminine, as it has been realized in other parts of social life. Weakness in sound can in a sociological context be translated as a lack of capacity for competitiveness in a world where performance, productivity, rationality and consequently masculinity were the dominating virtues. Dialectically, the modernization of social life prepared the necessary economical and ideological conditions for the emancipation of the oppressed (workers, women). Therefore, the constitution of a modern social life world assembled both changing and resisting actors. The entire history of modernization of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic presents a highly heterogeneous, partly discontinuous and contradictory process of social transformation. In this process, the Çeng plays both a demonstrative and symbolic role.

As a natural consequence of the global integration from the 1980’s onwards, the cultural phenomena of the world began to be interpenetrated in a way they never had been in the history. Cultural practices and productions served to convey a series of multiple synthetic expressions between peoples organized around a global economy. Music, again, can be conceived as the best catalyst in the global fluxes of goods, persons, ideas and values, throughout a more or less standardized universe of signs, therefore containing a significant sociological value for following up social changes occurring around it. Globalization as a cultural fact not only homogenizes but also gives rise to the recalling of the oppressed, repressed, and vanished, by an articulation of the global through the local and the historical. Consequently, the Çeng has been introduced to new musical syntheses and sonorities of the changing Turkish Makam music world.


Westernization and musicological studies in a westernized manner have had great impact on the revival of Çeng, and before that, on the revival of the Lavta and the Santur in Turkish Music.  Performance studies in European art music gained popularity with the impact of scientific investigations on music in the 19th century and the increase of interdisciplinary studies in the 20th century. With the help of studies of historical musicology and organology it created a new area of study, called “Early Music Performance”.  The basic concerns of those studies were performing the musical works of the Renaissance and the Baroque period on the musical instruments of the time and to interpret these works by depending on historical and written sources.  Parallel to those studies in European art music, early music performances and reconstructions of old musical instruments form a new field of study on Turkish Makam music for 20 years.  The Lavta and the Santur – one of the most important instruments played in early music performances – were the first to be analyzed organologically and to participate in Ottoman Turkish music performances.  Later, the Çeng was added to the instrumentarium and it was reconstructed in various sizes depending on the analysis of various historical, organological, and iconographic sources, using various construction techniques; moreover, while it is used in early music performances, it was also adjusted to play contemporary repertory. 

From this point of view, the contemporary performance of Turkish Makam music is the result of the transmission of the the musical performance style of the 19th century through the Meşk tradition (Oral Tradition).  However, in the last decades of the 20th century, the number of studies in historical musicology on music performances and repertories of the times before the 19th century – ie. the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th century - increased.  The new area of performance in Turkish Makam Music was formed through the efforts of new ensembles which were established to perform early repertories on old instruments, as well as through studies on the interpretation of the repertories. 

With this kept in mind, it is possible to see various interpretations of the performance and the construction of Çeng. The first studies on the use of the Çeng in Turkish music were done by Feridun Özgören and the performing artist Robert Labaree. They started their studies based on visual and written sources related to the Çeng. Later they added new apparatus to the instrument, which are not based on historical sources, and adjusted the instrument to play contemporary Turkish music styles. One of the innovations was the front column, which was added to the Çeng, in order to allow a higher tension of the strings, thus gaining it a higher volume and the timbre of the contemporary world. This led to the Çeng, originally an Open Harp, being categorized as a Framed Harps. Another important innovation on the instrument was the addition of pegs to enable the Çeng to play the modulations which are needed in Turkish Makam Music, the lack of which was one of the main causes of the disappearance of the Çeng, as it was not able to do modulations during the changing period of Turkish Makam Music and the Kanun replaced the Çeng because it had pegs and could meet the needs of the new musical period.


Feridun Özgeren’s Framed Çeng play by Robert Labaree.

From the Booklet in Çengname (Music for the Turkish Harp), Robert Labaree, Istanbul: Kalan Müzik, 2001, CD and cassette, no: 210
After that, the Çeng was reconstructed by depending on visual and written sources and it was used by the early music ensemble “Bezmara”, an ensemble which performs 17th century music on old musical instruments. The early music ensemble “Kantemir Ensemble” also reconstructed a Çeng and played it conforming to its time. The Çeng which are being played by these two music ensembles were reconstructed by depending on the presumed proportions of the Çeng on miniatures, as well as by depending on the information given by treatises and books on musical instruments, written form the 15th century onwards in the geographical regions of Persia and the Ottoman Empire.


Çeng constructed by Feridun Obul.

Şehvar Beşiroğlu Archive

Every technical object has its own genealogy, as a long history of articulating ancestral technologies. Although the technical object is transformed throughout time and space on its specific lineage of technical development, this accumulating continuity does not always appear as a linear and progressive history. Unlike high-technology products, musical instruments present a less continuous line of progress; they can be submitted to some fluctuations in their social perception, usage, meaning and functionality. According to the socio-historical circumstances that encircle the musical instrument, they can be created, forgotten, and then reconfigured for new purposes, giving rise thus to new cultural syntheses. As in the case of the Çeng, the Turkish harp, this assumption seems to perfectly apply: The Çeng, as part of one of the oldest families of musical instruments, has taken different forms and charged various functions in different cultural contexts. The technical lineage of the instrument seems to obey a very fundamental law in organology: The replacement of a relatively low-pitched instrument by similar ones with higher pitches, which is also a characteristic of the process of rationalization in modernization. Indeed, the Çeng has disappeared from the Ottoman culture, with the rise of a popular music and its market, and the structural transformation of the traditional music (Turkish Makam music), as an inevitable consequence of the rationalization of everyday life and culture, especially in the nineteenth century. At this point of the history of organology, the Çeng seemed to have disappeared and to have been forgotten. Nevertheless, the process of globalization, visibly accelerated since the 1980’s, gave way to a cultural osmosis around the world. Although the cultural globalization does not always present a democratic reciprocal opening of different cultures, because of a worldwide standardization through the expansion of popular culture, it also implied a remarkable encounter of different cultural specificities. Moreover, the globalization necessitated an articulation between local cultural units and the global actors of the culture industry. In such a dialectically dynamized process, old and long-forgotten musical instruments could be rediscovered, particularly by the musicians who try to mold new sounds and expressions, which would be syntheses of old and new, local and global. The Çeng was reborn, in such a fusional conception of global culture in the music produced by experimental musicians, who try to combine the traditional and the new. Therefore, what has been eliminated in the modern conception of the world has reemerged as a postmodern birth, as it is proved by the meaningful case of the Çeng.





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