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SAZ means “instrument” in Turkish, and is the nickname for the BAĞLAMA*. The body is mulberry wood, the face is spruce and the neck beech or fir. The traditional saz has a body hollowed out of a single piece of wood (“oyma”-carved), to which the face and neck are attached. Due to scarcity of suitable wood, and high prices, the “yaprak” (leaf) saz is becoming popular, with a body made of strips of wood shaped around a mold and glued together, as on an oud. Sazes come in different sizes; the common ones are (starting from the largest), meydan, divan, tambura, bağlama, çoğur and cura. Saz has six or seven strings: 2+2+2, or 2+2+3. (There are other varieties: nine string, twelve string and most recently, four double strings, but none of them are widespread) There are many tunings, two deserve mention here as the others are either very regional or designed for a specific mode. They are: Bağlama düzen (tuning), the notes (for tambura saz) are from top downward A-G-D; and Kara düzen (also called Bozuk), with the notes C-G-D. The pitches may vary according to the size of the instrument, as well as the range of the vocalist. The bağlama düzen is specific to the bağlama saz, which has a shorter neck by 4 half steps (minor third) and is mostly used for the traditional folksong style. The saz is usually played with a pick (tezene), traditionally made of cherry bark but nowadays made of thin plastic. There is also a style of playing with the fingers called “şelpe” which used to be rather obscure but is now gaining in popularity.
Sivas, located in the high plateaus of east-central Turkey, is home to a large Alevi population. Descendents of nomadic tribes, Alevis are a sub culture within Shiite Islam. Their religious beliefs contain remnants of the shamanism of their pre-Islamic ancestors. They use the saz in their religious ceremonies held in the “cemevi” (meeting house) rather than in a mosque. Men and women worship together and the ceremony features a sermon, followed by dancing in a circle and singing hymns (deyiş) to saz accompaniment. Alevis in general do not perform the Sunni prayer ritual of “namaz”.
The Aşık tradition, while not exclusive to the Alevis, is closely identified with them and the large majority of practicing aşıks are Alevi. Generally speaking, the difference between an aşık and a saz playing folksinger (“türkücü”) is that one becomes an aşık by being the apprentice of another aşık. An aşık has a responsibility to do more than entertain; he (or she) must be a vessel of the folk wisdom. In addition to having mastered a respectable amount of traditional repertoire, aşıks are also expected to compose their own songs, thus making their own contribution to the folk wisdom.
The province of Sivas contains more villages than any other in Turkey, and even though musicians with professional aspirations tend to migrate to the urban centers such as Istanbul and Ankara, there are still hundreds of aşıks to be found in that area, many of whom have professions outside of music. They perform for weddings and private gatherings and those with larger reputations make recordings and give concerts. There are many events and festivals, including annual celebrations of Pir Sultan and Aşık Veysel, which receive great interest from the public, who are proud of their traditions even as they embrace the modern technological way of life.
The aşık tradition is on the decline in today’s Turkey. The aşıks are being more and more replaced by türkücü and singer/songwriter sazplayers. Most of these artists have a background in the traditional music and blend it with other contemporary styles. They accompany saz with western instruments, including programmed drumbeats. Recently however, there has been some movement back toward more acoustic, traditional instrumental accompaniment.
The saz began its journey of expansion from the confines of its traditional folklore roots in urban centers like Istanbul and Ankara as artists, always looking for fresh sounds, began to incorporate it into other Turkish genres. This was accelerated in the sixties with the creation of the electric bağlama and the growing internationalization of music in general. The definitive breakthrough however, must be credited to Orhan Gencebay and Arif Sağ in the beginning of the seventies. There was already a very open and creative climate in Turkish music at that time with many pop musicians going back to their roots and playing Turkish melodies with Western instruments. Erkin Koray, Barış Manço, Cem Karaca, Moğollar and Edip Akbayram were some of the important names of that period. Turkish instruments had cameo appearances in their recordings, but it was mostly a Turkish sound using the standard Western guitar, keyboard, bass and drum setup.
Orhan Gencebay took that inspiration and applied it to the saz, developing a style combining triad chords, western pop riffs and authentic saz techniques. A singer and prolific composer, he was very influenced by Arabic music in particular and was the fore figure in the music that came to be known as “Arabesque”. Although his recordings were banned from government- controlled media (all radio and TV at that time) for being “too Arabic”, he was one of the top selling artists of the decade, and spanned countless imitators. The first recordings of Arif Sağ, in the early seventies, were experiments with pop, often with electric saz. His technique however, was primarily based on Turkish traditions, which he took to a higher level of virtuosity than his predecessors and set a new standard. After a break from music in the 80’s, when he entered politics and served in the Turkish parliament, he embraced the “deyiş” form of Alevi music and has since been one of the strongest proponents of that tradition.
Two other sazplayers of note during the seventies were Aşık Veysel and Ruhi Su. They both made a great contribution to repopularizing the folksong tradition that had been in decline, increasingly regarded as “rural” or “unmodern”. Aşık Veysel was a purely authentic minstrel whose personal insight and inspiration resulted in poetry that reached the soul of the Turkish public. Ruhi Su was an opera singer who began playing saz and interpreting folksongs. He didn’t employ any specific innovations, such as modern instrumentation or harmony, just his training as an opera singer and passion for the folk music resulted in an unmistakable sound which no one since has imitated. His numerous historical recordings are still available and being listened to by new generations.
The next major development was set in motion in the early eighties by Zülfü Livaneli. He made the transition from performer of traditional repertoire to composer setting his own melodies to the works of great Turkish poets, like Nazim Hikmet and Sabahattin Ali. He incorporated an authentic style of saz playing into a modern orchestral setting. He used modes such as “Nihavent” (harmonic minor) and “Kurdi” (phyrigian) which had not been used much in folk music, and penned simple catchy melodies that captured the spirit of the Mediterranean. After him, the singer/songwriter sazplayer became a real trend, a genre that became known as “özgün müzik” (original music). He was also responsible for a movement back to the “bağlama düzen”, which wasn’t being used anymore outside of a pure folklore setting.
The bağlama has now secured its place as an important instrument in contemporary Turkish Music. There are many young students learning it and professional players with both Turkish and Western Music education. A rich bağlama etude repertoire is developing which requires great skill in performing. The use of chords has become standard. Some of the leading names in the new generation of sazplayers are: Erdal Erdinç, Erol Parlak (şelpe), İsmail Tunç, Erkan Oğur and others too numerous to mention. The future of sazplaying is in good hands!
*Key to Turkish pronunciations: Turkish is strictly phonetic with the five vowels a-e-i-o-u having standard “continental” pronunciation (as in Spanish). The unique vowels are: ö, sometimes phonetically shown as oe, pronounced pursing the lips while drawing down the corners of the mouth- similar to ö in German; ü, also similar to same letter in German, pronounced with slight pursing of the lips, closest English equivalent “suit” and ı, similar to “fur” or “bird”. The consonants are all the same except for c, pronounced like j as in Jerry; ç, pronounced like ch as in children; ş, pronounces like sh as in shine; and ğ, silent g which serves to lengthen the preceeding vowel.