AHMED ADNAN SAYGUN AND 80. ANNIVERSARY OF YUNUS EMRE ORATORIO Cover Image

AHMED ADNAN SAYGUN VE 80.YILINDA YUNUS EMRE ORATORYOSU
AHMED ADNAN SAYGUN AND 80. ANNIVERSARY OF YUNUS EMRE ORATORIO

Author(s): İbrahim Şevket Güleç
Subject(s): Philosophy, Music, Sociology of Art
Published by: Sanat ve Dil Araştırmaları Enstitüsü
Keywords: Ahmed Adnan Saygun; Yunus Emre; republic period; oratorio; sufism; philosophy;

Summary/Abstract: Saygun’s father was a mevlevi (mawlawi, a follower of sufism) and he has been brought up with mystic ideas and philosophy, so he grew interest in Yunus Emre’s works and ideas since he was a child. He composed pieces on Yunus’s poems and ruminated over his ideas while researching musicology, so it was only natural that Saygun’s spiritual world took shape as his grand piece “Yunus Emre” in 1942. He emphasized furthermore with Yunus’s humanist and spiritual reaction to the Mongolian massacres in Anatolia. This was the way of communicating with God through rumination. Saygun’s goal was to communicate with the listeners by using Yunus’s language of friendship and peace. Yunus interpreted death as a way to reach to God and Saygun interpreted death as a new beginning. Sufism praised affection and tolerance against fear and Saygun praised the love towards God and God’s creations. In the oratorio the three phases of sufism is observed; “hamlık” (crudeness, immatureness) as the first act, “pişme” (to mature, to ripen) as second, and “yanma” (to be consumed by God’s love/ renouncing the ego and the self) as the third act. In this research oratorio’s identification and intertextuality with the sufism are mentioned. It should also be noted that the oratorio paved the way for Saygun to compose furthermore with this mystic context. The elements that shaped this oratorio, its credentials and its sufist context are mentioned.

  • Issue Year: 12/2023
  • Issue No: 108
  • Page Range: 1241-1248
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Turkish