Turkish Guest Speaker - Nikola Kalapasev

 One of our more memorable classes was when we had a guest speaker from Turkey. I don't remember his name, but he was a friendly fella with some very interesting music to share. He first showed us one of his mainstream songs that was published online. This song was more pop-like in the sense that it had a typically cliche topic coupled with a catchy hook and melody, and had a nice little music video. I initially felt like this was just a generic pop song about love and became uninterested. Of course the song was in Turkish and I have no knowledge of the Turkish language, so I couldn't focus on the lyrics whatsoever. This left me to pay attention to patterns in the lyrics, the melody, and the music video. As I paid more attention to the music video and the instrumental of the song, I became more interested. Our guest then explained the meaning of the song and the symbolism used in the music video and I could recall the song and I felt the power and meaning that our guest had put into it. The symbolism of the video really tied it all together with the emotion that he displayed throughout the song. Moving on, our guest then brought out an instrument called the Saz, which is a stringed plucking instrument found in music in and near Turkey. When he started playing it, I almost felt at home. My dad is from Serbia (former yugoslavia), and I have a deep cultural connection with that side of the family. Serbia was ruled by the ottoman empire back in the day, and so there are still some ottoman influences in the balkans. I felt at home because that sort of "folk" music that derives from the balkans really just gets my grooving and this sounded really similar to that. The Saz is a very important cultural tool in Turkey, and I can see why. The beauty of passing down music through generations on a generationally held instrument is beautiful and awesome.