BODY MUSIC IN TURKEY I.

Introduction The fifth International Body Music Festival was helded in Istanbul between 9-14 October 2012. We were joined the opening ceremony incidentally. Very different groups around the world are enactment: Crosspulse, Barbatuques, KeKea etc. in festival. After that, I began to interested in body music. There is only one group make body music in Turkey: KeKea. I sent interview request to founder Tugay Baar and group member Ezo Sunal. Ezo Sunal accepted and we made a nice interview. But Tugay Baar was very reluctant; he delayed our meeting several times. At last, I e-mailed my questions to him and he accepted answer, but after two weeks he did not return to me. So this paper based on one interview. II. What is Body Music? Body music is musicing via body. Body music also known as body pecussion or body drumming. A body musician uses her body to musicing. She can applause, hit her hand to her body, or sing ie. she plays her body; she plays herself. Ezo Sunal explains body music in that way: hands and foots, even our full body transforms to a percussion instruments during body music. Musicians are often dances while musicing. The music creates the shapes and patterns of the dance; the dance makes the sounds and rhythms of the music resulting in visible music/audible dance (Kekea)'. And Keith Terry explains body music as music you can see, dance you can hear. (Kekea) So body music performances are mixture of dance and music.
Traditionally the four main body percussion sounds (in order from lowest pitch to highest in pitch) are: 1.Stomp: Stamping the feet against the floor or a resonant surface. 2.Patsch: patting either the left, right or both thighs with hands 3.Clapping hands together 4.Click/ snapping: clicking with the thumb and middle fingers However, there are numerous other possibilities including: hitting the chest, whistling, slapping or flicking the cheeks with an open mouth, clicking with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, grunting and hitting the buttocks. (Wikipedia, Body Percussion)

Addition to this, some kinds of throat singing is using in body music. Among contemporary styles are beat-boxing, tap-dancing and combination of all the styles mentioned above. (Bulut, 2012:4) But there is no exact definition of body music. For example, usually in beatboxing or throat singing, performer does

not hit his hand or stomp his foot and does not dance. Some of body musicians make body percussion without sing. So, neither dance nor hitting hands or foots are inseperable parts of body music. Body music can be performed by one or more performers together. They usually wear comfortable dresses to dancing and hard shoes for stomping. Performances are usually based on improvisation or semi-improvisation. Body music can be used in education because every student have body, and students can embody abstract things with body movements.
There are neither twelve pitches of solmization that one should hear and distinguish, nor compulsory instrument playing that takes a lot of time to master ideal sound-making. Teaching notation may be a later step to be applied when needed. As for an instrument teacher, it is only possible to work with a few learners at the same time. On the contrast, body music gives the opportunity to work with crowds. It is visible music that the movement of the hands and feet may be imitated at once. (Bulut, 2012:3)

Music-movement relationship is very old: Some researchers connected the phenomenon of entertaintment of music to bipedalism (Mithen, 2006:153). John Blacking says that feel with the body is probably as close as anyone can ever get to resonating with another person. So, we can recall the state in which it was concieving by getting into the body movement of the music and so feeling it very nearly as the composer felt it. (2000:111). There are two dimensions of musicmovement relationship: First, movement desire caused by music and second, dances affect to understand and learn music. Musics affect on will of movement is confirmed in lots of researches (Cano, 2003; Eitan and Granot 2004; Juntunen, 2004; Urista, 2001). In a research aimed to show bodys role on musical understanding (Philpott, 2001:85), various pieces played to primary school children. Then children divided into two groups and wanted them to explain the music to deaf children. Control group must write and experiment group must use their body to explain music. Consequently, deaf children who learning music to their coevals by body music take the highest grade in exam. Another research doing in 1970 by J. D. Boyle is confirmed that using body in sight-reading increase students success. Students were divided two groups. Control group did not allowed to use body movements like clapping or foot tapping. Experiment group could clap and use their body during the rhythm training. Finally, the experimental group's scores on both criterion measures were

significantly higher than those made by the control group. Boyle says that music sight-reading could improve with this method. C. W. McCoy and M. C. Ellis made another research in this issue in 1992. In this research, there are three experiment and a control group were used. Subjects selected in nonmusician students. Subjects in the first treatment group were given a definition of meter, then listened to recorded musical examples. Subjects in the second group listened to the same examples altered by the addition of a click track that reinforced the beat and meter. Subjects in the third group responded to unaltered examples by marking beat groupings with large muscle movements. The control group took the lowest scores after the tests. The highest scores were belonged to third group. In the light of these researches, we can assert that body movements can facilitate music education. Body music is embodiment of music. Although traditional ballet or traditional dances are also examples of embodiment of music, but body musicians differs from them because they make music at the same time. There are exact harmony between music making brain and dancing body simultaneously. This is a good example of David J. Elliots thinking in action notion. Beyond this, body music creates a consciousness about students body, in this way raises students self-reliance. III. History of Body Music In fact body music can be old as music itself. John Blacking asserts that music begins with stirring of the body (2000:111). Because of using body, the body musician does not need another musical instrument. Thus, every society have its own body music tradition: Balinese ketchak, Irish step dance, American clogging and flatfooting, Afro-American hambone, pattinjuba, African gumboots, Inuit and Tuvan throat singing, Indonesian saman, Ethiopian armpit music, palmas in flamenco etc. As Keith Terry states: As ancient forms of embodied knowledge, the various Body Musics of the world contain kinesthetic libraries of memories and cultural heritage that have yet to be studied.(kekea) Most of society in the world, forget this body music tradition with settled life. They make new instruments and body music never attract their attention more. So, music and dance were separated. Musicians play music without any

movement (for examples in western society, some piano schools forbid players movement, she should play with only his hands) and dancers dance without musicking. In 1980, percussionist Keith Terry established Crosspulse, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to the creation, performance and recording of rhythmbased, intercultural music and dance in San Francisco. He started to body music by displacing his drum patterns onto his body to combine drumming and rhythm dancing. He was affected by some afro-american musics. After Crosspulse, some other body music groups established: Stomp in England (1991), Barbatuques in Brazil (1996) and KeKea in Turkey (2002). Also, some solo singers make body music like Bobby McFerrin and Alaa Wardi. In 2008, the first International Body Music Festival (IBMF) was held in San Francisco leaded by Crosspulse. The second IBMF was in Oakland, third in Sao Paulo, fourth in San Francisco again and fifth in Istanbul in 2012. IV. Body Music in Turkey: KeKea The group KeKea was established by Tugay Baar and Timuin Grer in 2002 in Istanbul. Tugay Baar studied ethnomusicology in Mimar Sinan University. Then he joined some of Orff courses. Timucin Gurer is in fact an mechanical engineer but he joined lots of folk music and body music courses. KeKea abbreveiton of kendi kendini al, means play yourself. Later, in 2008 Gke Gray, Aye Akarsu and Ezo Sunal joined them. KeKea members are doing performances, trainings and workshops, working for international and local projects for culture, arts and education through body percussion and body music. Founder of KeKea Tugay Baar explains body music in this way:
Body Percussion is a field that you use your hands, your feet, and your body as a percussion. It can be placed directly between the Music and Movement. The player and the one who is played are the same person, and this is the unique property of body percussion. The process of playing himself/herself (Kendi Kendini al, in Turkish), within the relation of self with body, turns out to be a journey of discovery and awareness of the self and its beyond via rhythm, music, movement, language. In this process, we learn to leave ourselves to the flow. Body percussion, body music, music-dance are being created when we are aware of the motion that creates sound and when we get the ability to leave ourselves to the gravity. (Kekea)

I have interviewed one of the KeKea members: Ezo Sunal. Ezo Sunal is daughter of very famous Turkish film star Kemal Sunal. She studied film studies in London. In 2005, while she was a student, she met Orrf approach in Salzburg

and experienced pleasure of body music. Then she began to research body music. She said every night before sleeping I had been watching Brazilian group Barbatuques at that times. She was participated to many international seminars and workshops on Orff Approach and body percussion. Since 2006 she has been working with children (18 months- 6 years old) and families in the atelier that she runs. (Kekea) I also asked how is Turkish peoples attitude toward body music. She said, Since primary school we have been sat down in front of a desk. Our bodies are getting dull. As a consequence of this, when a person tries to make body music, she is thinking that way: Am I do correct? Is someone laugh to me? Especially males are shyer than females. So, in general, Turkish people are ashamed of doing body music at first. For this reason, sometimes we feel ourselves as Don Quixote. But when we break this shyness, they start to enjoy. There are four-five new person joins our every event. This is a small increase, but this is normal because body percussion is brand new thing for us. Recently, when I said to someone body percussion, he said me body parkinson? What kind of disease is this? Also there are some other people works on body music in Turkey:
Tugay Baars classes in Bosphorus University Istanbul; KeKeas monthly seminars to the hearing impaired students in Anadolu University School for the Handicapped in Eskiehir and zg Buluts courses at Anadolu University Department of Pre-school Education are some examples. zg Bulut has also directed Body Music workshops in some music education congresses and departments to music teachers, students and scholars. Also his interactive TV program named Body Music Games was broadcasted in the first half of 2011 in TRT Okul, education channel of Turkish Radio Television Company. (Bulut, 2012:5)

V. Body Music in Turkish Traditional Music Probably, the first Turkish body musicians were shamans. Shamanism was an old religion of Turks, and this religion still lives among central asian Turkic societies like Tuvas. Shamans were healed ills with their dances and spritual powers. Below, a Tuva shamans healing ceremony illustrated:
This shaman is garbed in sound. Attached to the back of his red, white and blue his ritual costume (ala khuyak) are rattles, rings, metal strips and bells. With every move and dance-like step he clanks and jangles. He holds a large red drum (dungur) and strikes it evenly with a felt covered stick (orbu). With voice, costume and drum, he summons his helping spirits and self-induces a trance state. He prepares for a journey to the other world. He sounds animal calls and sacred healing songs. Ribbons and stripes of cloth cascading down his back represends snakes, protective spirits. The metal strips and bells hanging from his cloak frighten away evil spirits and prevent their interruptions. He collects evil and disease in his drum, and then beats the drum so that the evil will fly away. (Cook, 2004:48)

Shamans percussive dances maybe an example of early body music. Some traditions from shamanism still lives among Turkish folk tradition. For example, drum is still very important instrument and it used in every ceremonies like weddings, sunnets, bayrams. As in many societies, body music is a part of Turkish folk music and dances. For example, in Sallama Horonu, dancers clapping and snapping. In Harkuta (yarkute or yalkute) folk dance, dancers clapp and sometimes strongly hit opponents hand. This dance is from the south east part of country and dances coreography is similar to fight (And, 2007:169). Another body music example can be traced among yrks. Yrks are nomadic society, particularly in south west part of Turkey. They live in mountainous districts and do cattle dealing. Most people in Turkey believes that Yrks are real Turks. Boaz havas (throat air) is a genre which they used to sing. This type of singing can be observed among Eskimos, Tibetians, Tuva Turks and Bosnians. Boaz havas played by hitting laryngeal region while singing.
Examining Anatolia, we encounter an expression pattern which has not taken part in literature; however it is called throat songs (airs) and also hada, and hollu. It is possible to examine it especially in the region where the yoruk-turkmen dwell intensely and which is called as the Teke region including the provinces of Antalya, Burdur, and Isparta. The term throat song is used not only for the style and technique of singing, but also for a musical structure in this region. (Varl, 2012:1)

It is played by females in general. They play boaz havas when they were outside and dont want to be seen by males. Althought, some males also play boaz havas. But this tradition is disappearing now. Ezo Sunal said that they already use usuls in their performances. She also said that KeKeCa is planning to work with a folk dance group next year. They will try to make a fusion of Turkish traditional dances and body music. Body music also a part of traditional music education. Traditional music students strike their knees to discern strong and weak beats and internalize songs rhythmic structures. Consequently, body music is important both in education and in culture. There are very limited researches in Turkey about body musics role on music tradition. As Kate Terry state, researchers should take attention to this non-verbal culture treasure.

BIBLIOGRAPHY And, Metin. Oyun ve Bg: Trk Kltrnde Oyun Kavram. Second Press. Istanbul: Yap Kredi Press, 2003. Blacking, John. How Musical is Man?. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000. Body Percussion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_percussion Accessed January 2013. Bulut, Muzaffer zg. Introduction to the Interactive Learning Environment of Body Music. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012. Boyle, J. David. The Effect of Prescribed Rhythmical Movements on the Ability to Read Music at Sight. Journal of Research in Music Education, 18,4:307318, 1970. Cano, Ruben Lopez. Setting Body in Music. International Conference of Music and Gesture, 2003. Cook, Pat Moffitt. Music Healers of Indigenous Cultures. Washington: Open Ear Press, 2004. Eitan, Zohar, Roni Y. Granot. How Music Moves: Musical Parameters and Listeners Images of Motion. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal. California: University of California Press, s. 221-247, 2004. Elliot, David J. Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education. New York:Oxford University Press, 1995. Juntunen, Marja-Leena ve Leena Hyvnen, Embodiment in Musical Knowing: How Body Movement Facilitates Learning Within Dalcroze Eurhythmics. British Journal of Music Education. 2, 21: 199-214, 2004. Kekea. http://kekeca.net/bio Accessed January 2013. McCoy, Cliare W. ve Mark C. Ellis. The Effects of Short-Term Instruction on the Ability of College Nonmusicians to Discriminate Meter. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. 114:35-45, 1992. Mithen, Steven. The Singing Neanderthals. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006. Philpott, Chris ve Charles Plummeridge. Issues in Music Teaching. New York: Routledge / Palmer, 2001. Sunal, Ezo. Interview in Kadkoy, Istanbul. 17.11.2012. Urista, Diane. Embodying Music Theory: Image Schemas as Sources for Musical Concepts and Analysis, and as Tools for Expressive Performance. Yaynlanmam Doktora Tezi, Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2001.

Varl, zlem Dou. Why sing Throat Songs- Hada?: Throat Songs -hada- in the context of music and expression First International Music Researches Symposium, 2012. MULTIMEDIA For Burdur Throat Air: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKBM-7q9_R8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OW0nBsf2HQ For Hartuska: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-06fb_cB4-8