Mehmet Okonsar Newsletter-English Edition-Issue:1 -Sept.2010

Now at the end of the summer, I suggest you listen my recording of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach and watching a sample video recording of a "dance-piano" recital.
"Dance-Piano" recital is a concept I created while working on my Astor Piazzolla Tango CD.

The contrapuntal music writing styles (fugues and canons)

The very wide subject of Jewish music will be examined in this study for the contemporary composer.

I will try here to spotlight some key musical elements like modes, rhythms, maqams, timbre etc., show their usage in actual compositions by Jewish and non-Jewish composers like in Prokofieff's Overture sur des Themes Juifs (Overture on Hebrew Themes, for Clarinet, Piano and String Quartet, Op 34. Composed in 1919) or in the 13th. Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich Babi Yar.

Mehmet Okonşar pianist-composer-conductor-musicologist Newsletter ~ Online Edition Issue:1 - September 2010
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	Dear friends, I am happy to present you with this new form of my newsletter. During the past years some of you were receiving my newsletters in a simple email format and I thank you for your ongoing support of my artistic activities. Creating a renewed and reinforced presence on the web has been the focal point of my work during this summer.
I refreshed my Website: okonsar.com with more content and I made all my output available online. Now my CD's, compositions and writings are all available for listening, discovering and reading. I believe making them freely available will not be prejudicial to the artist's output but on the contrary. Actually this is one point of this edition: the "Free Music" ideology. With this newly formatted newsletters, about once a month and throughout the year, I will present you with some music, videos and readings from things I recorded, composed and wrote. The letters have the three main sections: Listen, Watch and Read, plus biographical informations and links. I hope you will enjoy them and I thank you for supporting my activities by sharing anything which pleases you in this message with your friends. You are more than welcome to forward that email to your friends.
	Now at the end of the summer, I suggest you listen my recording of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach and watching a sample video recording of a "dance-piano" recital. "Dance-Piano" recital is a concept I created while working on my Astor Piazzolla Tango CD.
The idea is to have a complete recital of Astor Piazzolla with an original choreography on stage. My friend Korhan Basaran, actor, dancer and choreographer created a bewildering modern-dance choreography and we performed this event many times throughout Turkey. Here is a recording of our performance in Istanbul. Jewish Music, A Concise Study is an extended article I wrote and it constitutes the Reading section of this edition. Thank you for your time and I hope you will enjoy reading this and even share this with your friends. Musically yours, Mehmet Okonsar
LISTEN
		The Goldberg Variations are often displayed as an unsurpassed model for contrapuntal composition. While the perfection of the canons are often emphasized by music theorists, the most important aspect of the work, in my mind, is the instrumental extravaganza. Those variations are the Études d'Éxecution Transcendantale of their time. They expand and raise the harpsichord virtuosity to levels never heard before. In this work, J.S. Bach has written the most fantastic and outrageous keyboard idioms of his time and he has pushed existing ones to their limits.
Visionary hand choreographies (Var.5, 20, 26), double thirds and sixths (Var.23) double trills (Var. 28), alternating chords (Var.29) and many other keyboard acrobatics make this work one of the greatest instrumental achievements of musical history together with the above-mentioned studies by F. Liszt, the Gaspard de la Nuit or the Three Movements from Petrouchka.
amazon.com	The contrapuntal music writing styles (fugues and canons)		read more...
have acquired an aura of seriousness and almost religiousness during the romantic epoch. After having been forgotten for a century or so, when J. S. Bach was "discovered" by Mendelssohn, he was seen as the musician par-excellence for the "salvation of romantically tormented souls". The prominence of J.S. Bach's church-commissioned works overshadowed his profane and purely instrumental works. In all his compositions, there was a "tradition" to seek the Divine Signs and connections to the Scriptures. This so called tradition led to such insanities as the "research" of divine numerology in his fugues, the "discovery" of the Holy Trinity when a voice jumps a step of third and other ridiculous things.
Listen all tracks here...
WATCH
		Dance and Piano Recital TANGO Best Tangos by Astor Piazzolla transcribed for the piano solo and performed by Mehmet Okonsar Choreography by Korhan Basaran
The Tangos by Piazzolla are not really for dancing. The composer created here an unique genre by mixing the essence of "tragedy" typical and omnipresent in the Tango with his own classical music background. This background has deeply tonal classical roots "stretched" with the jazz idioms of the forties. Even before getting into the class of Nadia Boulanger at the Paris National Conservatory, Piazzolla had a solid classical music background but this basic layer of classical music would have been remained somehow sterile and pedantic (as it is often the case with Boulanger's students) if not interweaved in a very interesting fashion with Jazz and "street-Tango". He was always "open" to a new musical language and grasp interesting ideas from the avant-garde experiments and provocative musical events-concerts-manifestos popular during his student years at Paris. He is like most innovative composers in the sense that he escapes any rigid categorization. He is not regarded as a "true Tango" composer by tango composers, not a "real" serious composer by "serious composers", he is not a jazz composer by jazz composers. That is exactly what it makes him interesting to me...

My "Tango" page	The TANGO CD available in Turkey only. You can listen all tracks here...		Dance-Piano

READ
		Jewish Music A Concise Study The very wide subject of Jewish music will be examined in this study for the contemporary composer. I will try here to spotlight some key musical elements like modes, rhythms, maqams, timbre etc., show their usage in actual compositions by Jewish and non-Jewish composers like in Prokofieff's Overture sur des Themes Juifs (Overture on Hebrew Themes, for Clarinet, Piano and String Quartet, Op 34. Composed in 1919) or in the 13th. Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich Babi Yar.
Musical form, prosody, timbre and other aspects of the traditional Jewish religious music types Piyyut, Zemirot, Nigun, Pizmonim, Baqashot will be shortly examined from a composer's point of view because the author believes they possess a high inspirational potential. This essay will first briefly present known archaeological information about the Jewish music in pre-Biblical and Biblical times. It will attempt to collect the most reliable information on the music as it was performed in the Temple of Solomon. Medieval Judaic musical practices will be searched in the Michna and the Talmud, those together with the musical score data collected by various researchers like Idelsohn (Abraham Zebi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development) or the Russian Society for Jewish Music and presently available in ethno-musicological archives in Israel (The Hebrew University in Jerusalem) and elsewhere will be used in an attempt to describe a generic Jewish music vocabulary with its most characteristic rhythms, modes and musical timbres.Some contemporary Jewish composers and their music, musical language and backgrounds will be presented. It is hoped that this material can be of interest to composers, presenting them with resources crystallized from joy, sorrow, despair, horror, dream and faith.
if you need a non-watermarked copy please email me			read more...
DISCOVER
Kaleidoscopes N.2 for 20 Solo Strings, Marimba and Piano by Mehmet Okonsar @ Yahoo! Video		Kaleidoscopes N2 For 20 Solo Strings, Piano and Marimba Dedicated to Mr. Hakan Şensoy World Premiere May 11th., 2009. Istanbul, CRR Concert Hall, Istanbul Chamber Orchestra, dir. Hakan Şensoy
All three compositions (Number 1 for Piano Solo, Number 2 [this one] and Number 3 for Viola and Piano) in the series Kaleidoscopes are based on the tone-row by Alban Berg as used by him in his own Violin Concerto to the memory of an Angel. The pitches are: G, b flat, D, f sharp, A, C, E, g sharp, B, c sharp, d sharp, F sharp. This particular tone-row, as created and used by Alban Berg, is unique in many ways. This row has all the named chords like mjor, minor, dominant all 5ths. and 7ths. It alsa has the starting three tones of a whole-tone scale at his end. I used this particularity as having "tonal" chords in "non-tonal" environments and I liberally applied serial composing techniques. As for the tone-colors, each of the 20 bowed string instruments (6-6-4-3-1) are notated as individual parts and in some places, polyphonies of up to 20 voices can be heard. Those extremely dense polyphonic passages are not intended to be perceived as distinct voices as it was the case in the traditional polyphonic music. But I rather aimed for extremely dense textures, perceived as a whole with a rich tonal animation within them. Furthermore, the possibilities of the bowed strings to modify a sustained sound in many ways are employed as "electronic sound effects" to enliven sustained sounds spectrally. The Marimba and piano, in contrast, were used for their short and percussive sound characteristics.

ACQUAINT
	Born in 1961 in Istanbul, Turkey 1969 to 1972 lived in Paris, France 1974 Started formal musical education, piano and composition at the National Conservatory of Ankara 1977 moved to Brussels, started studying piano with J. Cl. Vanden Eynden, Royal Conservatory of Brussels Continued studies with Alexis Weissenberg. 1982 Won First Prize at the "Young Virtuoses" competition in Antwerp, orchestral debut with the Antwerp Philharmonic (now The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, Het Koninklijk Filharmonische Orkest van Vlaanderen). 1986 graduated "Diplome Supérieur de Piano, Avec la plus Grande Distinction, Premier Nommé",and started studying composition and orchestration with Mme. Jacqueline Fontyn 1989 graduated from the composition-orchestration class. Won the Premio Etruria, Rome Chopin Academy 1991 Laureate of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Salt Lake City, Utah Performed, among others, with: Utah Symphony, Poznan and Lublin Philharmonic Orchestras, Brussels Opera Orchestra (La Monnaie), Antwerp Philharmonic, Presidential Symphony (Ankara), Istanbul State Symphony, Izmir State Symphony... Performed, among others, with the conductors: Joseph Silverstein, Charles Dutoit, Sylvain Cambreling, Ingo Metzmacher, Christof Escher, Alexander Schwink, Lucas Pfaff... 1992 Nominated State Artist by the Turkish Government, moved to Turkey 2000 Nominated one of the "2000 Outstanding Musicians of the XXth. Century" by the Cambridge Biographical Center 2010 London Recital début, Royal Opera House



Get bio in .pdf	Mehmet Okonsar on Wikipedia		Read biography
WITNESS
	My Recordings, Compositions and Writings
Discography:	J.S.BACH The Goldberg Variations (piano) [LMO-Records] J.S.BACH The Well-Tempered Keyboard (piano) (complete in 3 CD set) [LMO-Records] J.S.BACH The Art of Fugue (Organ and Harpsichord) [LMO-Records] J.S.BACH The Musical Offering (electronic instruments) [LMO-Records] Mehmet Okonsar Live at Salt Lake City. [LMO-Records]. Original and unedited recordings of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition (1991). TANGO Best tangos by A. Piazzolla transcribed for the piano by Mehmet Okonsar. [Rec-by Saatchi] Shadowy Arcade Free style improvisations by Mehmet Okonsar (piano). [LMO-Records] Mehmet Okonsar Plays Gershwin Complete piano music and original transcriptions (piano). [Rec-by Saatchi] TRT Youth Choir 20th. anniversary CD. Specially commissioned work "Two Seascapes" for a capella choir. TRT Chamber Orchestra Fall Concert CD. Bach keyboard Concerti Fm. BWV1056 and Gm.BWV1058
			Discography

Compositions:	"Shir Ha Shirim" שיר השירים For soprano and large orchestra (2010). "Tehillim-Zebur" תהלים For solo voice and small orchestra (2010). "Kaleidoscopes" (2006-2009) N1. for Piano Premiered by the composer in Ankara. Watch on Youtube™ N2. for Chamber Strings Orchestra, Marimba and PianoPremiere conducted by Hakan Şensoy in Istanbul. Watch on Yahoo™ videos N3. for Viola and Piano. Premiered by Çetin Aydar (viola) and the composer in Ankara. Watch on Youtube™ "Percussion X" (2005) For three percussionists. Premiered in Ankara by Trio SaNeNa. Watch on Youtube™ "Temples of Kyoto" (2004-2010) Three pieces for Piano N1. Kinkaku-ji 金閣寺, Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Premiered in Tokyo by the composer (dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Yasuko Fukuda) N2. Tetsugaku no Michi 哲学の道 , Philosopher's Walk (dedicated to Reiko and Masatsugu Sasaki) N3. Ginkaku-ji 銀閣寺, Temple of the Silver Pavilion "Two Seascapes" (2000) for a-capella mixed choir, commissioned by the Turkish National Broadcast (TRT). Premiere conducted by Prof. Mustafa Apaydın, Ankara. "Rhythm Studies for Piano Solo" series 1 (1999) and 2 (2000). Inspired from the "Schillinger System of Musical Composition" "Oannés" & "Mr. Dunne" (1990) Two improvisational charts of appreciatively 7 minutes each, for one or several pianos. Premiered in Brussels by the composer. "Unknown" (1989) for Bass Clarinet and Percussion. Premiered in Brussels. "Mandel Fractal Studies" (1997) Five pieces for Piano based on fractal iterations and Strange Attractors. "Emulation" (1989) Five Pieces for Piano. Premiered by the composer in Istanbul. "Chameleon" (1987) Three Pieces for Piano. Premiered by the composer in Brussels.
			Compositions

	Ligeti and Micropolyphony. Debussy "Etude Pour les Quartes". Stockhausen Klavierstück N.9. Structure and Spectra. Jewish Music, A Concise Study. Conlon Nancarrow. Masonic Signs in Music.
			Writings

UNVEIL
	The Free Music Philosophy
[quoted from: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp/fmp_gnu_article.html] The Free Music Philosophy is an idea, inspired by the efforts and successes of the Free Software Foundation, that encourages free copying, use, and modification of music. Like in the case of free software, the word "free" refers to freedom, not price. The basic philosophy is that abridging the freedom of use (copying, distributing, modifying) of music is destructive to society as a whole.
Read more	As written, the Free Music philosophy refers only to noncommercial uses of music.
There exists a follow-up "progress and prospects" article which describes the scheme I use to market my music which refers to commercial uses also. Even though the Free Music Philosophy does not concern itself with commercial uses of music, the removal of restrictions on noncommercial use will go a long way towards making music more free than it is already. Given the nature of the expression, and the current laws governing it, I argue this philosophy is adequate for now. [ ... ]
EXPLORE
Mehmet Okonsar on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Okonsar Goldberg Variations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldberg_Variations Astor Piazzolla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazzolla Jewish Music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_music Kaleidoscopes, the complete series on Youtube™ N. 1 for Piano Solo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrC6sCnTzq4 N.3a for Viola and Piano (Part 1 of 2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIVOXM7Ep4s N.3b for Viola and Piano (Part 2 of 2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIOM4DNLm_4
PONDER
Man as Verb The truth about the Tanya By Tzvi Freeman
I'll let you in on a little surprise: Who says that yourself is the real you? Maybe the real you is not a subject, not an object, but a verb? Maybe the real you is to be found not in who you are but in those things you need to do?			Read more

	until next time ...

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