Our Hoopa has been filling our home with music during lockdown and today he received his baglama saz, all the way from Istanbul. There is lots to sniff and discover.
The saz is played in many countries and the tradition is thousands of years old. It made its way from Persia via Azerbaijan, Anatolia, Istanbul, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Berlin to the rest of Europe and across the Atlantic and is played in the rest of Asia too.
People play the saz to accompany poems, songs and stories that are handed down from generation to generation. Ali Ulutaş, a musician, says the saz is a door of secrets. When people play it, listen to it, they get to know the essence within themselves and from that place, they can understand the other.
southern wind
warm notes and harmonies
fill the room
© Xenia Tran
A warm-hearted thank you to Veysel and his colleagues at Sala Muzik in Istanbul for sending the saz safely to the Highlands.
Wishing you all a blessed day and a peaceful rest of the week,
with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Settings: f/4 – 1/1000 s – ISO 1600, f/2.2 – 1/640 s – ISO 1600 and f/3.5 – 1/250 s – ISO 400.
Below is a video of Ayşe Şewaqî performing Şîr Û Kef from the beautiful Saz Film:
… and for an instrumental performance by Bangladeshi artist Emon Chowdhury you can listen to his beautiful rendition of Tri Bhubon below:
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