A little Turkish night music

Apparently it's straightforward to upload video content to my blog, but not pure audio - seems strange but as with so many aspects of the Internet the rationale may be obscure. In any case, the audio component of this is reasonable, even though the screen capture itself is spotty. I am playing a Turkish instrument called the baglama saz (pronounced bah-la-ma). It has three courses, each of which has either two or three strings tuned in unison or in octaves, depending on the exact instrument. There are alternative tunings, some typically used only for one particularly well-known piece. This tuning, called baglama tuning, is widely used for folk or religious melodies. You may hear strange notes, Turkish music as with other eastern styles utilizes traditional western pitches (tones and semitones) but also many in-between pitches - sometimes erroneously referred to as quarter tones, but microtones would be more accurate. Much has been said and written about middle eastern tonality, here's a good place to start although this is more for classical not folk music, but the two are often in sympathy. Turkish music, as with Balkan music, often also uses unusual time signatures, such as 7/8, 9/8, or 10/8, although you don't hear that in the particular pieces being played here.

This is a brief medley of two folk tunes, just to give a flavor of the instrument and the genre. I am certainly no professional, in Turkey the instrument is played as commonly as guitar in the west so there are lots of really good amateurs. But I love the sound and feel of the music. An asik (pronounced a-shuk) is a kind of roving troubadour, they are often highly regarded.