| Tanburi Cemil Bey | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Tanburi Cemil Bey طنبورى جميل بك |
| Born | 1873 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | July 28, 1916 (aged 43) Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
| Genres | Ottoman classical music |
| Instruments | tanbur, kemençe, cello, lavta, yaylı tanbur |
| Labels | (reissues) Kalan |
Tanburi Cemil Bey (Tambouri Djemil Bey), (1873, Istanbul – July 28, 1916, Istanbul) was a Turkish tanbur, yaylı tanbur, kemençe, and lavta virtuoso and composer, who has greatly contributed to the taksim (improvisation on a makam/maqam) genre in Ottoman classical music. His son, Mesut Cemil Bey, is an equally renowned tanbur virtuoso.
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Tanburi Cemil Bey was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, in 1873, though his birth date is uncertain. He took his first lessons in music from Kanuni Ahmet Bey and the violin player Kemani Aleksan, his first instruments thus being the violin and the kanun. After completing middle school, he continued in a school for civil servants (Mülkiye), but then devoted himself to music and abandoned his education. He began to play the tanbur quite early in his youth and by the age of 20, his renown had already spread among the tanburis of Istanbul. Reforming the traditional playing technique of the tanbur, he developed an energetic technique based on a rich and agile picking style, lightening to a great extent the sonority of this instrument. Later on, he set about playing the Turkish classical kemençe and attained an astonishingly high level of technique, so much so that the virtuosity level of the Ottoman kemençevi of Greek-Gyspy origin Vassilis (1845–1907), considered as then as "the reference", came to be thought of by certain amateurs to be outmatched... He was also the inventor of the yaylı (bowed) tanbur.
This musician was able to play any instrument he picked up: he played lavta, cello, yaylı tanbur, zurna and several other instruments with equal virtuosity. His taksims and instrumental works he recorded on 78rpms with tanbur, kemençe, lavta, cello and yaylı tanbur had considerable impact on generations of musicians following him. The peşrevs and sazsemais he composed are pieces of great taste, requiring a developed performance technique.
If we are to lay confidence in his close friend Mahmut Demirhan's words:
| “ | He bowed his way [on the kemençe] with unheard-of confidence, ease and serenity; from the very dense and close-together notes of high gerdaniye, high muhayyer, and even high çargah, playing melodies clearly and crisply, without falling the least out of tune nor making a faux-pas in fingering; and all of this without the slightest sign of discomfort on his face.[1] | ” |
He was a very sensitive and nervous person, who eventually suffered from alcoholism. Most of his compositions have been preserved in his recordings, but some of his work were incomplete when he died.