In a modern world filled with global uncertainty, inter-religious misunderstanding and subsequent animosity, music is a rare universal truth.
Realizing the mystic words of medieval Muslim poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, Group Anatolia is bringing this universal spirituality to Kerckhoff Grand Salon with Sufi Music Night, an effort to reveal the cultural and musical diversity of the Anatolia region.
Anatolia, the area bordered by the Black Sea and Caucasus, historically housed different empires and is now home to different nations, including Turkey. A site leading back to the Neolithic Revolution, where the first agrarian cultures stemmed from, and arguably to the very first civilization, Anatolia is vividly rich in culture and history.
Sumeyye Kocaman, an Islamic studies graduate student, organized the event, which is hosted by the Voice of Anatolia club.
“Anatolia is between continents, between worlds. It has elements of both,” Kocaman said. “Anatolia always hosted other cultures, and neighborhood is the keyword in describing it. We wanted to contribute from Anatolian perspective to diversity through Sufi Music Night.”
A sacred Muslim ritual by nature, Sufi music is universal in the sense of its inner musical spirituality that everyone shares. Rumi was an Anatolian Muslim poet who was had good relations with Christians and other religious groups in the area. The event is a living realization of Rumi’s famous words “Come, come whoever you are,” inviting an audience of all religious and cultural backgrounds to embark on an inner journey.
Sufism is the traditional teaching of the heart and soul to get close to God through music. Performed by a group of instrumentalists and singers varying in number, every aspect of the music is symbolic of the individual path to heaven.
The Sufi ceremony, parts of which will be performed, starts with an instrumental improvisation, symbolizing God’s creation of souls in the beginning of time drawn from the Quran 7:172. The improvisation at the beginning of each piece also allows the singer and audience to adjust to the new key before the hymn begins.
“In the first creation of the souls God Almighty addressed them, saying “˜Am I not your Lord?’
“They replied “˜Yes,'” said Tezcan Inaclar, the singer for Group Anatolia. “Then they heard divine music. Since then, the Sufi people express their love for God through music.”
The hymn, typically following this symbolic yet functional improvisation, is drawn from Rumi’s famous poetic works. Calling individuals to their paths toward God, and citing the oneness of mankind separate from religion or cultural differences, Rumi emphasized global love.
“Rumi’s message to everyone who heard him play was “˜remember the common grounds that connect us and learn from each other,” Kocaman said. “As a group we believe that we are like a forest, every kind of tree and flower is necessary and like a melody each tone is a must in order to create a composition.”
The music spreading this message is performed with at least two instruments, a drum and the ney, the only wind instrument and core of Sufi music. The ney is symbolic of the perfect human in Sufism because of its creation process. Taking more than a year after cutting the reed away from its waters, drying, burning and bending it, the reed symbolizes the long path of a human being reaching proximity with God. The ney’s wailing notes symbolize the cry of the reed being cut from its source, just like the soul’s cry of being cut away from God until it completes the spiritual path to perfection. The ney player shares this separation with the audience whose hearts are also torn from this longing for reunion with God.
“The ney represents perfect human being in Sufism ““ someone who goes through the spiritual path to become closer to God,” said Osman Abbasoglu, Group Anatolia’s ney player.
The music typically begins with a slow drumbeat as the players concentrate all of their energy into the music. The hymn melody itself is not complex, concentrating on the message rather than a complicated structure.
“There’s a kind of softness in these simple talks to the heart and soul,” Inaclar said. “It is very soft music you can relax with.”
Group Anatolia has performed at other universities including Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge and Stanford, discovering a more receptive atmosphere on collegiate campuses.
“College campuses are open to new cultures, new information,” Abbasoglu said. “I would like for people to learn more about my culture and the Sufi tradition, and universities are good places for this to take place.”
The ancient Sufi tradition is also getting revived in this event with the fairly recent addition of women into some of the historically all-male ensembles. Group Anatolia typically has a female instrumentalist performing with them.
Sufi Music Night will showcase the sacred ancient traditions of Anatolia through typical cuisine, including kisir, a bulgur wheat dish, borek, a phyllo pastry with meat or vegetable filling, and dessert baklava.
The musical and cultural aspects of Sufi Music Night are a way for the Voice of Anatolia club to share its cultural perspective with an audience of all ethnicities and faiths.
“Everyone, religious or not has Sufi inclination,” Kocaman said. “Some claim to be Christian and some claim to be Muslim, but everyone can identify with Sufism’s mystical dimension. Everyone can understand this music.”