tek hücreliler (2011), for violin, viola and double bass by Onur Yıldırım

<b>Onur Yıldırım:</b> tek hücreliler ('Protozoa') for violin, viola and double bass, 2011

Recorded during SICPP 2011

<b>Elizabeth Barksdale</b> violin
<b>Kayleigh Miller</b> viola

<b>Kathryn Schulmeister</b> double bass

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yte7xjuoQjM
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<i>Tek hücreliler</i> (‘protozoa' or 'unicellular organisms’ in Turkish) is the result of my fascination with the Semitic family of languages. Much like certain families of single-celled organisms that have resisted large-scale biological evolution and almost acted as snapshots from the early days of life, most Semitic languages have amazingly preserved their basic phonemic and morphological features ever since they branched off from their hypothetical common ancestor, the Proto-Semitic language, thousands of years ago.

In <i>tek hücreliler</i>, a musical “DNA” extracted from an analysis of a hymn in Syriac (Neo-Aramaic), a Semitic language spoken in Southeastern Turkey, forms the basis of the harmonic material. The DNA never really evolves in the sense of a harmonic development or expansion, but, like a haplogroup, injects itself into various contexts, coexisting with newer, more complex musical structures. In this regard, the musical DNA is the representation of a hypothetical primordial sound.

The form of the piece is also a reference to the Semitic theme. The frequent silences of various durations are modeled after the strictly measured pauses employed by Qur’an reciters when they are reciting in Classical Arabic. The seemingly non-repetitive melodic units and ever changing textures with hidden structural and thematic connections—the musical DNA in this case—are some other characteristics borrowed from this tradition. As in Qur’anic recitation, contemplative listening and attention to microscopic detail take precedence over the act of crude recalling in <i>tek hücreliler</i>.

(image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Syriac_Sertâ_book_script.jpg)