Tourna Tourna

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The network in which the Greek-speaking urban folk-popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships developed with the Canzone Napoletana, the French chansons, the music of the Jewish ecumene, the Spanish world, the territories of the Russian Empire and countless other sub-networks. These cultural grids interacted with Greek music from the period of the Ottoman Empire forming a borderless and syncretic cultural context. These networks, through various paths, met the network of Greek-speaking musicians. Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the "conversations" of Greek-speaking Muslims with their fellow Turkish-speaking ones were more than intense. The relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical "melting-pot", and where everyone may draw from it, as well as to redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the "melting-pot", so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreating and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. A case that comes from such repertoires is the Turkish song "Tourna Tourna".

On the label of the record, the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople (Istanbul) since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (
see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).

In addition, on the label of the record, the name of the makam on which the composition is based is written (Neva Uşşak, that is, Uşşak from note Neva).

In the Turkish repertoire, the song was also recorded under the title "Güzel Turna Havası" by Hafız Âşir Efendi (Orfeon 13364) probably in the early 1920s, in Constantinople.

Another Turkish recording was found in America under the title "Turnam Nerdan Galior", by Amillia Hanum, that is, Amalia Vaka. The recording was made for M.G. Parsekian, in New Jersey, in the early 1920s (
122 A – NO 517).

Moreover, the song can be found in the Armenian repertoire recorded in USAMore specifically Kanuni Garbis Effendi [Կարպիս Սարկաւագ Բակիրճեան, Garbis Sargavak Bakirgian ή Bakirjian] recorded in New York, around 1927, "Güzel Tourna - Ouchak kanto" (Stamboul 102-B - 400).

This specific tune has penetrated the Greek-speaking repertoire under the title "
Tourna", which is found several times in historical discography.

Panagiotis Kounadis states the following about the song (
2010, 2: 75): "This well-known melody of the Aegean islands and the Asia Minor coast was recorded for the first time with Greek lyrics in America by Marika Papagkika. But it first appeared in Asia Minor’s discography with the famous Turkish singer of the early 20th century Yaschar Bey under the title 'Tourna'.

'Turna' in Turkish is the bird common crane (and metaphorically, as in Greek, the cargo lifting machine, that is, the crane in construction sites and ports)".

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and 
Nikos Ordoulidis

Author (Composer):
Lyrics by:
Unknown
Singer(s):
Yaschar Bey [Hafız Yaşar Okur Bey]
Recording date:
1923-1926
Recording location:
Constantinople (Istanbul)
Language(s):
Turkish
Publisher:
Odeon
Catalogue number:
X 46388
Matrix number:
xC-2955
Duration:
3:48
Item location:
Kounadis Archive Record Library
Physical description:
10 in. (25 cm)
Source:
Kounadis Archive
ID:
Odeon_46388_NevaOusakCanto_Tourna
Licensing:
cc
Reference link:
Kounadis Archive, "Tourna Tourna", 2019, https://vmrebetiko.gr/en/item-en?id=4441

The network in which the Greek-speaking urban folk-popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships developed with the Canzone Napoletana, the French chansons, the music of the Jewish ecumene, the Spanish world, the territories of the Russian Empire and countless other sub-networks. These cultural grids interacted with Greek music from the period of the Ottoman Empire forming a borderless and syncretic cultural context. These networks, through various paths, met the network of Greek-speaking musicians. Naturally, in the large urban centers of the Ottoman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea, the "conversations" of Greek-speaking Muslims with their fellow Turkish-speaking ones were more than intense. The relevant evidence demonstrates the musical exchanges between them and elucidate an ecumene where everyone contributed to the great musical "melting-pot", and where everyone may draw from it, as well as to redeposit it, in a new form, with a reformulated text and its meaning, with sometimes clear and sometimes blurred references to its pre-text, until someone else pulls it out again, through the "melting-pot", so that it becomes clear that there is no end in this recreating and dynamic process where fluidity prevails. A case that comes from such repertoires is the Turkish song "Tourna Tourna".

On the label of the record, the song is characterized as "kanto". In other words, it is considered part of the repertoire of the kantolar, a term that seems to have been first used by Turkish-speaking Muslims mainly in large urban centers and especially in Constantinople (Istanbul) since the time when Italian troupes performed there. Although initially the kantolar were associated only with theatrical music, they soon became autonomous, when the term "kanto" (singular form of kantolar) came to describe any popular and light secular singing forms (
see Pennanen, 2004: 9, O'Connel, 2006: 276, Beşiroğlu & Girgin, 2018: 49).

In addition, on the label of the record, the name of the makam on which the composition is based is written (Neva Uşşak, that is, Uşşak from note Neva).

In the Turkish repertoire, the song was also recorded under the title "Güzel Turna Havası" by Hafız Âşir Efendi (Orfeon 13364) probably in the early 1920s, in Constantinople.

Another Turkish recording was found in America under the title "Turnam Nerdan Galior", by Amillia Hanum, that is, Amalia Vaka. The recording was made for M.G. Parsekian, in New Jersey, in the early 1920s (
122 A – NO 517).

Moreover, the song can be found in the Armenian repertoire recorded in USAMore specifically Kanuni Garbis Effendi [Կարպիս Սարկաւագ Բակիրճեան, Garbis Sargavak Bakirgian ή Bakirjian] recorded in New York, around 1927, "Güzel Tourna - Ouchak kanto" (Stamboul 102-B - 400).

This specific tune has penetrated the Greek-speaking repertoire under the title "
Tourna", which is found several times in historical discography.

Panagiotis Kounadis states the following about the song (
2010, 2: 75): "This well-known melody of the Aegean islands and the Asia Minor coast was recorded for the first time with Greek lyrics in America by Marika Papagkika. But it first appeared in Asia Minor’s discography with the famous Turkish singer of the early 20th century Yaschar Bey under the title 'Tourna'.

'Turna' in Turkish is the bird common crane (and metaphorically, as in Greek, the cargo lifting machine, that is, the crane in construction sites and ports)".

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and 
Nikos Ordoulidis

Author (Composer):
Lyrics by:
Unknown
Singer(s):
Yaschar Bey [Hafız Yaşar Okur Bey]
Recording date:
1923-1926
Recording location:
Constantinople (Istanbul)
Language(s):
Turkish
Publisher:
Odeon
Catalogue number:
X 46388
Matrix number:
xC-2955
Duration:
3:48
Item location:
Kounadis Archive Record Library
Physical description:
10 in. (25 cm)
Source:
Kounadis Archive
ID:
Odeon_46388_NevaOusakCanto_Tourna
Licensing:
cc
Reference link:
Kounadis Archive, "Tourna Tourna", 2019, https://vmrebetiko.gr/en/item-en?id=4441

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