Baglama Techniques in the Classical Guitar Literature by Tolgahan ...

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Above: Some members of the bag/a ma family.

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Until the late 1970s, there were no academic institutions with classical guitar departments in Turkey. From 1977 onward, con-servatories in Istanbul and Ankara started guitar programs and the classical guitar world started to come alive in the region. The classical guitar repertoire in Turkey began to include new piece.~ that have Western and Anatolian folk music/Ottoman makam music charac-teristics. These pieces are divided into two categories, pieces involv-ing the arrangement of folk melodies and the compositions. The idea of composing/arranging this fusion with an equally-tempered

We.~tem instrument is not a phenomenon of the last thirty-five years in Turkey. The history of this synthe.~is in culture had already begun in the Ottoman Empire in the early nineteenth century and reached its peak after the foundation of the Turkish Republic (1923). Thus, this idea covers a period of almost 190 years and its reflection on the classical guitar repertoire was inevitable.

The composers/arrangers of this genre focus mainly on the harmoniz.ation approach, use of modal systems, the adaptation of Western music forms, and the utilization of bagfama performance techniques. Bagfama techniques in the classical guitar literature are categorized as ornamenrs, tapping techniques, and tezene (plectrum) ;efpe techniques.

I Anacolia (A~htMinor) n1akes up che A~ian pare of 1nodern dayTwkey and has been co1nprised of 1nany culcures such a.~Twkish, Kurdish, Annenian, Greek, Circassian, and La2. 1 ll1e re

Ornaments The characteristic bagfama ornaments, farpma (ascending slur),

f'ekme (descending slur), and the slur combinations are the most commonly used bagfama performance techniques in the classical guitar literature. Because many combinations of these ornaments have been applied to the classical guitar s ince the Renaissance era, it is difficult to differentiate bagfama ornaments from classical guitar ornamenrs. However, the left-hand horizontal movement ornaments are characteristic of bagfarn.a playing and have been applied to the classical guitar.

In baglama playing, it is common to play melodie.~ on the first string. This motion results in a horizontal movement of the left-hand fingers . This feature is very different from guitar melody playing in which vertical movements are much more common. On bagfama, the first finger achieves a significant emphasis on this horizontal movement and it is mostly the preferred finger. The other fingers are used in executing ornamental devices.

To get familiar with this horizontal movement, the following exercises could be played (Figure 1 and Figure 2).

Figure 1. Simple ornaments with the horizontal movement.

J ,..,... ~ ~ r-rr-rBtrrooa&r 1aqaor qaaer 1 .. Figure 2. Complex orna1nenrs with the horizontal movement.

One example from the repertoire is Behzat Cem Gi.inen

Baglama Techniques ... (continued) Dotted rhythms i,vith farpma are characteristic of baglama tech-

nique. Ertug Korkmaz used these kinds of ornaments in his Ya/an Dunya arrangement. He used both glissando and farpma in Figure 8.

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Figure 8. Excerpt from Ertug Korkmaz's Y'a!an Dunya arrangement.

Tapping Techniques The traditional tapping style on baglama is like the one-string

electric guitar tapping. Starting from the 1980s, finger tapping tech-niques became widespread in baglama playing and were developed by bagfama performers such as Hasret Giiltekin, Erdal Erzincan, and Ero! Parlak. Today if you go to a baglama concert in Istan-bul, you can watch a solo baglama piece played only with fingers (without nails and plectrum), using a combination of polyphonic tapping techniques and strumming patterns.3 Especially in the early twenty-first century, classical guitariscs started to be influenced by this development and some integrated these techniques into their arrangements and compositions.

In the contemporary form baglama tapping, the right and the left-hand fingers execute hammer-ons and pull-offi on the fret-board. There are four main types of baglama tapping techniques: hammer-on and pull-off in both right and left hands. The left-hand slurs have two functions. The first one is the completion of the tapping pattern that was started by the right hand. The second func-tion of the left hand is independent playing without the help of a right-hand tapping or plucking.

One example from the repertoire is Hasan Cihat Orter's Allz Turnam arrangement. Orter used tapping on the fourth string and the tapping style is similar to the monophonic electric guitar tapping (Figure 9).

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Figure 9. Excerpt fi-0111 Hasan Cihat Orrer's Allt. Turnam arrangement.

In Ceyhun ~aklar's composition, Folk Fantasy, the piece starts with a melody that uses tapping (Figure 10).

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Figure 10. Ceyhun Sal

guitar rasgu,eado patterns. In Ricardo Moyano's arrangement of A1k Veysel's Kara Toprak, Moyano uses down and up strokes on all strings, playing the melody from the bass fifth and sixth strings and using other strings as drones (Figure 13).

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Figure 13. Ricardo Moyano's Kara Toprak arrangemenr, measure 71.

In Mutlu Torun's izmir Zeybegi arrangement, the individual up stroke is used. In Figure 14, up strokes are on the last sixteenth notes and they should be played with accents.

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Figure 14. Mutlu Torw1's lzmir Zeyhegi arrangement, fifth- seventh bears, measure 3.

Gilbert Biberian uses down and up strokes together with ;arpmas and ;ekmes in his arrangement of Ali Ekber \:ic;ek's Haydar Haydar (Figure 15).

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Figure 15. Gi lberr Biberian's Haydar Haydar arrange1nenr, 1neasure 14.

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Baglama continuous strokes are also found in the repertoire. For example, continuous down and up strokes are executed with continuous flamenco rasgu,eados with e, a, m and i fingers on the fifth beat in Kagan Ko rad and Cihat A~ktn's Ferahi Zeybegi arrangement (Figure 16). ,

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Figure 16. Kagan Korad and CihatAktns Ferahi Ze)1hegi arrange1nenr, measure 37.

One example for the flamenco- like rasgu,eado is found in Mud u Torun's izmir Zeybegi arrangement. At the end of the third measure, we see vurma and the triplet rasgu,eado with m and i fingers (Figure 17).

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Figure 17. Murlu Torun's lzmir Zeyhegi arrangement, eighrh and ninm bears, rneasure 3.

One example of 1efpe technique in the classical guita r repertoire is found in my arrangement of Erdal Erzincan's Anadolu piece. I call this technique "EamiA1peggiAtedUp-Stroke." This technique is played with thee, a, m, and i fingers along the rosette in a contin-uous manner. It is a variation of the flamenco arrastre. The differ-ence is the continuous a1peggios of the fingers . Figure 18 shows the symbol and execution of the technique.

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Figure 18. The "Ezmi Atpe&iatedUp-$troke."

Tolgahan