Turkish-American composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol directs Schola Cantorum, Ensemble Trinitas, The New England Mehterhane and five different DÜNYA ensembles in a sumptuous history of Istanbul/Constantinople via music from the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
Much respect to Mississippi Records out of Chicago, Illinois for releasing this magnificent artifact!
The back story is explained in great detail on the label’s Bandcamp site:
Marika “Politissa” Frantzeskopoulou was a Greek singer from Constantinople, reknowned for her precise, fluid and graceful performances and depth of feeling. Backed by some of the best musicians of the era on lyra, violin, oud, kanonaki and guitar, Marika’s repertoire and techniques drew from Byzantine and Ottoman musical traditions. She possessed an ability to devastate her audience through her expressions of grief, exile, and tragic love, running the gamut of cafe aman, torch songs, lilting and fragile odes to heartache, heavy Piraeus style rebetika, and ecstatic Near-Eastern climaxes, all with a visceral sense of atmosphere, emotion, and fatalism. Marika’s voice is complimented beautifully by her backing musicians, creating a pulsing acoustic foundation over which her voice soars with clarity and purpose.
The heritage of Constantinople’s vibrant music scene is lovingly captured on this download (sadly, the vinyl edition has long been sold out).
Ian Nagoski’s stunningly and consistently impressive Canary Records releases a giant collection of songs from immigrants of the, by then, collapsing Ottoman Empire. These songs span the time period between the First World War and the Great Depression, and are lovingly transferred and curated by Nagoski, whom you can hear in tracks 54, 55 and 56.
Be they Christian, Muslim or Jew, the sons and daughters of the Empire brought so much incredibly good music to America’s shores. It’s a blessing to have these works preserved.