Colder than it looks!

Some weeks are made of wet cardboard, and that's the way it is. As you no doubt know, this city was once the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and like its western counterpart, it is built on seven hills. I think I managed to walk up and down at least four of them this week, in the sleet and rain with my bulky bag full of interview gear - computer, video camera, recording equipment, power converters, cables, etc., wrapped in plastic against the elements - trying to hook up meetings with people who, for one reason or another, weren't where I thought they'd be, just then, couldn't I come back tomorrow, lather, rinse, repeat? OK. More exercise than I'd really wanted.

But I finally did manage to meet everyone, and even to record a concert with some good geçiş taksimleri (solos going from one melodic mode to another to introduce a new pre-composed piece) - the concert was all 18th c. compositions by Sultan Selim III, done in honor of retired master singer Dr. Alaeddin Yavasça, who learned music in the lineage of the Sultan's teacher Tanburi İzak. Very nice, and the program notes included the notation for all the pieces (thanks to Prof. Şehvar Beşiroğlu!), so that's a big score for a future ensemble I hope I'll put together on the other side of PhD-dom.

Other silver linings were:

Beautiful weather X-mas day (see photo above) - took the ferry across to Anadolu Hisarı to hang out with ex-pat extraordinaire Bob B., who made Indo-Persian food for the occasion.

Bought new boots (they say it's going to start snowing, perhaps even tomorrow) - first socks, now boots and gloves, even - we're a long way from Southern California, Toto!

Spent a few hours on separate occasions with two students here, one an Australian singer who wanted a basic makam (melodic mode) crash course, and another a German grad student in Systematic Musicology (a cousin to Ethnomusicology, which I was surprised to hear is no longer taught anywhere in Germany - they were pretty seminal to the field, back in the day), who is taking a semester abroad here to study ethno, and who recently bought a cümbüş, and wanted a copy of my master's thesis on it. (As most of you know, by writing that thesis I de facto became the world's leading expert on something extremely obscure - which only means that if someone famous is ever killed by, or perhaps marries, a cümbüş, I'm the one NPR will call for an interview.) Anyway, so much of what I have learned on my long weird path through musicianship has been either given freely or from beyond the normal duty of paid teachers that I like to spread the good karma around a bit, even if it means retracing Roman hills in the sleet.

With that I wish you a Happy New Year, and hope that your holidays were good ones. More soon!