Jonathan - 7-29-2005 at 06:06 AM
OK, this is a long shot, but does anybody know anything about the above player? He died, I believe, in 1907, but otherwise I know nothing. I have
seen his name mentioned a couple of times in passing in material written on the oud. Did he record? Are there any photos of the guy? I have also
seen his name as "Serkis". I think, but I am not positive, I once saw him referred to as Buyuk Serkis Efendi, but that wouldn't make too much sense,
because Buyuk andKüçük are sort of opposites, I think (great/big vs small/petty). But, I am not sure.
Thanks
oudmaker - 7-30-2005 at 05:29 AM
Jonathan
How do you know that he died 1907 ? Was he an Oud player? Did he play violin also ?
dincer
Jonathan - 7-30-2005 at 07:23 AM
Dincer, I am not certain. I thought that I read that somewhere. I know nothing else about him.
Is there a source for information like this? Sometimes when I ask about an old Turkish player, or oudmaker, people will say "I will look it up."
Where? Is there some sort of Turkish encyclopedia that specializes in music? I am not so interested in the current players, but the older ones.
Right now, my main source of info seems to be liner notes, which is pretty sad. If you know of anything, I would be grateful.
oudmaker - 7-30-2005 at 01:28 PM
Jonathan;
There are 3 Sarkis Efendi in Turkish music enscyclopedia by Yilmaz Oztuna a Turkish historian and musicolog.
!- Kemani Sarkis Efendi: (1885-1944) He was born in Istanbul His father was Uskudarli Kemenceci Onnik Ef. He studied with a very famous Violinist
Kemani Aga Aleksan. With his family he went to Paris and died there. Very good composer and violinist. (28 compositions of all types of Turkish music)
I know two beautiful songs of him.
2- Sungurlulu Sarkis Nurlian: Poet and musician Died in 1925. His 3 compositions are known.
3- Udi Sarkis Efendi; Musician with one known composed sarki. Died 1925
Dincer
Jonathan - 7-30-2005 at 04:41 PM
Dincer, you are great. It must be the last one, because I know he was an oud player.
Now I am looking for the book. Can you tell me the title of the encyclopedia? I am looking on tulumba.com, and there are a lot of books by Yilmaz
Oztuna. I can't thank you enough.
oudmaker - 7-30-2005 at 07:20 PM
Jonathan:
The title is "Turk Musikisi Ansiklopedisi" by Yilmaz Oztuna
Jonathan - 8-1-2005 at 05:52 AM
Thanks a lot. I am going to try to track it down.
oudmaker - 8-1-2005 at 08:57 AM
Jonathan
I will be doung back to Istanbul at the end of August for another two or three months. I am sure the book you are trying to trac it down is out of
print. If you wish I will lokk out for you in Istanbul and if and when I find a copy I will let you know.
Jonathan - 8-2-2005 at 06:06 AM
Dincer, thank you very very much, but right now I asked a couple of Turkish stores to look for it. I appreciate the offer, but I just wouldn't want
to put you through that.
mansur - 8-15-2005 at 01:12 AM
hello..my english is not good..sorry..
this is Kemani Sarkis Efendi's melody...
good bye..
http://www.musiki.org/sesler/nihavent_kimseye.mid
http://www.neyzen.com/images/notalar/nihavend/kimseye_etmem_sikayet...
oudmaker - 8-15-2005 at 01:36 PM
Aferin Mansur
Your English is more than enough since you understood what people need and you help them. Keep up the good work.
However folks music (unfortunately) was played by an organ and meyan part is wrong. Please follow the notation given by http://www.neyzen.com It correctly shows that in meyan part of the song all E's are E-flat.
Dincer
Jonathan - 8-15-2005 at 07:10 PM
Teşekkür ederim!
hartun - 11-18-2018 at 04:25 PM
Jonathan, I recently met a gentleman who told me a story about Udi Kuchuk Sarkis.
Sarkis fled to Greece after 1915 and one day in the 1920s, Udi Marko Melkon and Udi Yetvart Bashian from New York were visiting Greece and decided to
find Kuchuk Sarkis. They went to a village in the mountains where he supposedly lived. They came to a coffeehouse and there was an old man with a big
handlebar mustache sitting outside, slumped over in a chair. They realized this must be Sarkis. The coffeehouse owner came out and woke him up.
"Sarkis these men have come to see you." Sarkis was in a daze, he said, bring a glass of raki. He downed the raki. He said, "what do you boys want?"
They said, would you play for us a little. Sarkis called the owner, bring another glass of raki. He drank that too. Then the owner brought an oud and
Sarkis played. When Melkon heard him play, he turned to Yetvart and said "And we are supposed to be oud players??"
After looking in several online sources, I think Kuchuk Sarkis was Kemani Serkis. I think the oud player was Udi Buyuk Sarkis. Kemani Serkis was known
for writing the songs "Kimseye Etmem Sikayet" and the very popular dance number (karsilama) "Iskender Bogazi" also known as "Ben Yarimi Gordum Kordon
Boyunda" which if I'm not mistaken is a reference to the Kordon Boyu gazino in Izmir. Iskender Bogazi is also the name of a strait in Izmir's harbor.
I think perhaps the man's story was mistaken, and it was a violin instead of an oud. Perhaps the person who told him, said "instrument" and my friend
assumed it was an oud, because he knew Buyuk Serkis was an oud player, it stands to reason that Kucuk Serkis was also an oud player.
Perhaps the reality was, that in the circles of Turkish musicians, having a non-Turkish name, would usually be recognizable by one name. For example,
if you said simply Tatyos, instead of Kemani Tatyos, they would know who you meant, because there was only one Tatyos. Sarkis being a common name, it
turned out there were two of them and instead of remembering them as Udi Serkis and Kemani Serkis, they were known as Buyuk Serkis and Kucuk Serkis,
simply because Kucuk Serkis was younger.
maraoud108 - 6-25-2022 at 07:43 AM
Responding to this thread with a recording of Yetvart Bashian.
A taksim from 1925.