Deniz Küstü : The sea-crossed fisherman
- Submitting institution
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University of Bristol
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 93242404
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- June
- Year
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This is a major piece of music theatre: it is 75 minutes in length, constructed in a four scenes. It is highly interdisciplinary and comprises a multi-layered process of collaborative and individual investigation, drawing on extensive research over a five-year period. It breaks new ground by integrating Turkish instruments into contemporary music; combining singers, dancers and video projection; and developing new insights into collaboration between music heritages, performance and video art.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- A 75’ piece of total music theatre: music by Ellison; libretto, stage-adaptation, dramaturgy, direction by Jones*. Adaptation of Yaşar Kemal’s novel The Sea-crossed Fisherman. It broke new ground by integrating Turkish instruments into contemporary music; combining singers, dancers and video projection; and developing new insights into collaboration between music heritages, performance and video art.
Research questions (Ellison):
1. Could traditional Turkish instrumentalists be integrated to perform effectively within a large, conducted contemporary ensemble, navigating differences in musical culture (orality vs. notation), tuning, and performance practices, including performing a complex, contemporary score?
2. Could the structures of makam music and its usuls bring new ideas into new music and vice-versa?
3. How could Kemal’s 1978 proto-environmentalist novel bring insights into humans’ current relationship with the environment and natural world?
4. How might different performance elements (singing, dance, video) express the novel’s complex concerns and worlds?
A two-year period of intensive workshops included a back-and-forth teaching of makam (especially ornamentation, tuning practices, improvisation) to Western-trained instrumentalists, while the Hezarfen players systematically coached makam musicians on contemporary rhythm, score reading, and following a conductor. These were combined in workshops with composition ‘interfaces’ by Ellison and Turkish composers that brought all these elements together; this training led into the Deniz Küstü rehearsal and staging process.
Research insights: The score proved on a scale not attempted before that Turkish instrumentalists could perform effectively within a conducted contemporary ensemble, while much of the score itself was shaped by makam music and significantly enriched by makam players’ interpretations. The ‘sea-music,’ ‘city-music’, ‘dolphin dances’ set Kemal’s novel in a way appropriate to Istanbul, while breaking from traditional associations with the instruments.
Premiere: 11th June 2016, Süreyya Opera House (Istanbul)
Output: score, video recording of premiere; Contextual information: see separate document for details and links, and files
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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