Date of Award
2009
Degree Name
Music
College
College of Fine Arts
Type of Degree
M.A.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Mark Zanter
Second Advisor
Edwin Bingham
Third Advisor
Ann Bingham
Abstract
“Boz” means grey in Turkish and is a word that also connotes unclear or mixed substances or situations.
The source of all the pitch material in the piece is a tetrachord, that is, the first tetrachord of a Turkish makam “Sedaraban” (0145). The lines and the vertical sound in the brass and woodwind, the chords in the piano, the bass line are all produced form the transpositions of this same material. The name “Boz,” which means “grey” or “unclear” in Turkish, is supporting this idea. From the chords that the brass and woodwinds play, it is impossible to define which player is playing what transposition. Untill a root is established the created color suggests something yet not a specific key. The 9/8 rhythm that dominates the piece is a dance rhythm mostly played -and danced to- by Gypsies in Turkey. While imagining the overall sound, I imagined the slow or medium tempo Gypsy music that I heard in which there is both sadness and celebration. I find the proud dances of Gypsy men to that slow tempo 9/8 rhythm heroic or even epic. So, I decided the tempo being medium and the dissonance in the sound to create the dark atmosphere of half gloominess, half dignity. The lyrics speaks about a love pain that is unrevealed and have “regret” and ambiguity in it. Although this is a quality that appears in the traditional songs, I wanted to make use of that “ambigious” side of it by exaggerating it, connecting it to my title -again-: “Boz” meaning “unclear”. This piece is composer's attempt to create an “organic” fusion of musical styles of different origins. The setting of the material is European with its employment of chords. The materials that are made use of are traditional Turkish. The jazz setting and the instrumentation, the employment of improvisation by jazz players is American. The rhythm is planned to groove. When it grooves, beyond from its additive structure, it is supposed to create a jazz-fusion atmosphere that is taken again from jazz.
Subject(s)
Jazz - 2001-2010.
Jazz vocals.
Big band music.
Recommended Citation
Gunduz, Esin, "BOZ for jazz orchestra and vocal" (2009). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 614.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/614
