Project Description
Panel on Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years
With the proposal of Turkey, UNESCO included the 50th anniversary of Aşık Veysel’s death in UNESCO’s Commemoration and Celebration Anniversaries Program in 2023 and declared 2023 as the year of Aşık Veysel all over the world.
A panel titled “Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years” was organized in cooperation with the Institute of Sufi Studies, Kerim Foundation and Ege University State Conservatory of Turkish Music. The panel was held on Thursday, May 11, 2023, between 14.00-15.30 at Üsküdar University Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall. It was also broadcast live on Üsküdar University Television.
For the details of the news:
https://uskudar.edu.tr/tr/icerik/12548/asik-veysel-vefatinin-50-yildonumunde-uskudar-universitesinde-anildi
Panel on Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years
“Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years”
Location: U.U. Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall
Date and time Thursday, May 11, 2023 14.00-15.30
Program Flow:
Presentation
Opening Remarks
14.00-14.30
Prof. Dr. Emine YENITERZI
Deputy Director of Sufi Studies Institute
Head of the Department of Sufi Culture and Literature
Prof. Dr. Nevzat TARHAN
Founding Rector and Chairman of the Executive Board of Üsküdar University
Panel:
14.30-15.30
Assoc. Dr. Sıtkı Bahadır TUTU
Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Department of Turkish Music
Prof. Dr. Lecturer. Member Hande DEVRİM KÜÇÜKEBE
Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Department of Turkish Music
Learn. See. Ali Hikmet GOKÇEN
Ege University State Turkish Music Conservatory, Department of Turkish Music
About the Program:
Panel: Singing Veysel, Understanding Veysel after Fifty Years
What determines the mastery of the asş is not how rhymed the poem is, how technically successful he plays the instrument, or how original he composes a melody. This is because the motifs, phrases, and sometimes even the whole melody of the melodies performed by minstrels, which have been perfected over centuries, are inherited from minstrel to minstrel and borrowed between minstrels. The important thing is to knead the new lyrics with traditional elements and to match and process them with the melody in the most successful way, so that when Veysel passes away, the saz left behind will not be like a strange nightingale. This is why Veysel is one of the pinnacles of Turkish cultural and artistic life; his success in combining words and melody enabled him to explain to all humanity the necessity and ways of unity.
Especially with metaphors such as “a long thin road” and “black soil”, he enriched our cultural world and beyond that our social values. He was one of us, Âşık Veysel was a phenomenon now referred to as “Veysel”. Veysel, the owner of the sightless eyes, advised us to look with the eyes of the heart and told us about the truths and beauties that can only be seen with the eyes of the heart, and in that world there was no contempt for you and me.
The panel will focus on the cultural accumulation that produced Âşık Veysel, how Veysel re-composed this accumulation and aroused aesthetic excitement, how he sang, what is understood/what can be understood from what is said and the reflections of Veysel’s influence. Moreover, during the evaluation of these issues, Veysel’s works will be performed, in other words, Veysel will be sung to understand Veysel.
