Sadettin Heper

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Sadettin Heper (1899-1980) was a composer of Turkish music. He was born in the Eyüp neighborhood of Istanbul as the son of Halit Efendi and Zehra Hanim. Until the religious venues where the Mevlevis practiced were closed in 1924 due to the prevailing secular ideology, he played the kudüm, a percussion instrument, in religious ceremonies. Later, he worked for the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory. He was a regular in the ceremonies commemorating Mevlana in Konya. He died in Eyüp.

He started his musical studies under Ahmed Irsoy, from whom he learned over a thousand religious and nonreligious songs. He learned the Ney from Hakkı Dede. He was educated in the traditional school of Turkish music which was learned from teacher to student. He was against the theoretical approach formed by scholars Arel, Ezgi and Uzdilek (the so-called Arel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system). He composed over 15 songs and taught many important musicians that came after him. These included Kani Karaca, Aziz Bahriyeli, Hüseyin Top, and Ahmet Özhan.