Usul : Rhythm in Turkish, Balkanic and Neighbouring Traditions - Epic Talking 

Person says words about rythm in a series of consecutive images.mp4 Today we’re looking at rythm and how they’re conceptualised, felt and put into practice from a theoretical basis in the traditions of Anatolia, the Balkans, and the neighbouring eastern regions. 00:00 Intro 02:35 Complex usuls 04:32 Aksak 15:26 Usul as a foundational base 18:40 Classic regional patterns 26:14 Lack of rythm

I love Farya's genuine naïveté in declaring with conviction that cats do not understand music.

It's crazy to learn that Farya's chest is actually made out of drums. Really took me by surprise.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the composer who introduced the name “Turk” to music during the classical period from which Turquerie emerged. He was impressed when he listened to Turkish Mehter troops arriving in Vienna with Ottoman envoys. So, he wrote many piano sonatas, concertos and operas in “Alla Turca” styles. Mozart, whose art encompassed magical tales of the East, added more percussion instruments to his works under the Mehter's influence and created a "Turkish music" according to his own understanding. In this way, he took listeners out of the air of classical Western music and dragged them into an exotic atmosphere. “Rondo-Alla Turca,” the last part of the Piano Sonata No. 11 (K. 331), which he wrote in Paris in 1778, and “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (“The Abduction from the Seraglio”), which he wrote in 1782, are among his most famous works in this style. In addition, Turkish musical motifs are seen in his many other operas. Johann Wolfgang Franck (1644-1710), Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (1653-1723), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787), Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806), Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Niccolo Piccini (1728-1800), Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (1786-1826), Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) and Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) are among the most famous composers who produced works in the Alla Turca style. In these compositions one can remark on the static harmonies, commutes between major and minor, rattling timbrel and thundering bass chords trying to reflect the Mehter's percussive elements.

Now I finally understand the meaning behind Hadise's Eurovision song, "Dum tek tek."

Holy shît you explained so much of the "scholar" Iranian music and a whole other dimension of musicality, I didn't understand and seemed alien to me. Now that I seem to understand the basic usul it feels majestic and liberating. Once again thank you Farya for your ingenuity. You never cease to amaze 🙏 Ps1: I absolutely love the 7 beat Bulgarian usul. Feels regal Ps2: you absolutely had me on Iranian 3/6 rofl

Your amazing music knowledge, just made me proud of my ancestors and history . Thanks ! I am an Alevi bektashi from Turkey who came to Anatolia from Khorasan Iran about 5-6 hundreds years ago .

Thank you Farya for breaking down the complexity of rythm in music from Anatolia and the Balkans. From now on I´ll just show this video as soon someone asks about music from these regions. I am a Bosnian who plays the turkish ney and most of the compositions I play are either Ottoman compositions or Mevlevi ones during semazen. I´ve also met Alevis and heard their kind of music in their cemevis. They tend to focus alot on the saz. One of their most popular ones are "Bugun bize pir geldi". I would recommend that you also look into Anatolian Zeybegi music.

Re 04:13 There's a a tune composed by Sultan Abdulaziz in maqam Hijjâz called sirto, that spread to the whole Eastern Mediterranean basin, with each larger or smaller Greek island having its own variation. The piece is called in the Greek speaking world either Σουλτανής-Soultanis (after Sultan), or Αζιζιές-Azizies/Ατζιδιές-Adzidies (after Abdulaziz): The original piece: /watch?v=_pk8ezQA7tE The Cypriot variant: /watch?v=lrsLUjpcPoQ Τhe variant from the island of Lesbos: /watch?v=DabO1-saDoY The most famous being the variant from the island of Naxos: /watch?v=_pKtIyNMvps (the famous blind virtuoso Stathis Koukoularis plays the violin). Once more amazing content mr. Faraji 👍

Какой шикарный кот!

You have just explained to me why I like music from India, Balkans and Reggaeton. Thank you.

Fascinating. Finally something in English 😂 ...Though i love all the music on this channel. Your cat understands more than i do I'm sure 😍😁 On a serious note, because of your channel i started to read a lot of history surrounding your videos. Thank you for your time and energy you put in this channel.

Arythmic improvised vocalisations on top of Usul has such a soulful quality to it. Perfectly put "the notes discover eachother". Another banger, Farya 🫡

25:32 Haha, you just made my day mentioning me and my mom! Love

yo my mom also said to me well boy looks like you returned to your 'black sean' roots when she overheard your belisarius but i dont know much about music and i think she said that because she thought it was tulum that was playing which makes me to cast that masterpiece to the whole neighborhood. good luck with your job mate, a fan of your works.

Mehmet Jon snow be like: winter is coming, kardeş.

Funny, I just ordered a Tar, highly inspired by your channel. I must thank you, because I know a lot of Sephardic songs from my grandma, but I lost so much confidence with voice teachers who really wanted me to stay on a single pitch... hearing you say the exact words "We sing in cursive in the Orient" restored so much confidence, I'm forever grateful!

I cant thank you enough. Your RU-vid videos have been my best musical education ever. 👏👏

First: I absolutely must see a lecture by a great specialist in Ottoman classical music, Jon Snow :) Second: I am in love with all of your music history videos. Thank you very much for your wonderful videos and brilliant music! ^_^

"Please help" 🐈

Bavarian and Austrian folk music sometimes has 5 metres for a dance called Zwiefacher. In the song "Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter" you have it too. Just an interesting exception for asymmetrical rhythm in Middle European music

Actually a very good idea to use your own music. This is a great talk.

I believe this to be not only one, but two of the Epic Talkings of all history; three, even.

I didn't think I'd recognize much of this by ear, but as soon as I heard nine metre, I was like "I heard this in the opening of a Turkish historical drama I remember." A few minutes later, "Oh, there's the Xena theme."

Another wonderful video on music from the Balkans: Nature's multiple personality disorder. Interesting note: Greek and Greek Cypriot music has a 12-beat which is quite common (which I heard endless times growing up, and dancing to at Greek school). In terms of an example, Antonis Remos "Monos Mou" has this but you find it in a lot of popular music.

What a beautifoul man 🔥

There is even a documentary about that song ("Whose is this song?") where they travel across the Balkans to look for its origins. It's a study into national identity. Thanks for the video!

I humbly thank you for these videos about music theory, music is one of the key features of mankind and the fact it has so many varieties interests me a lot

최고의 유튜브 채널입니다~ 사랑합니다~❤

What I find interesting is the whole Aksak concept of odd meters. I had a friend who is really into Balkan music (we actually have "Balkan Camp" here on the West Coast of the USA, and she attended it) and mentioned they just kind of approached it in "long/short" beats depending on the rhythm (Kopanitsa, Horo, etc.). That's how I wrap my own head around odd meters to this day. Your Rachentiisa example would be "Short Short long x4" (caps being emphasis beats, and lower case being passive,) with the pulse as 7 beats. As you demonstrate however, the actual musical phrase is based on that Usul, which kind of is both obvious, and confusing unless you understand that long/short "beat" difference. Kinda mind-blowing actually, and it almost seems like the concept in Hindustani music of the "Alap" where you have a specific cycle of beats of various measure lengths, but with an overall rhythmic feel/pulse, though I'm alas not super familliar with at concept. I wonder what your take on that is? Outstanding and enlightening as always!

Merhaba Farya, long time no see! Aksak is near and dear to my heart so very happy it gets covered. As a composer I love using odd metres and different rhythmic patterns, not just time signatures. The third usul that you used for Από ξένο τόπο (also you said later it's extensively used in rebetika and anatolia) screamed 'Uyghur' to me as I played quite a lot of Uyghur pieces, and I'd sing it in 'Chinese' as 'dong da - da dong - da - ', with dong = low and da = high. I'm sure it has names all over the modal province but it's fascinating how strong my association between it and Uyghur music is. You should dig into Central Asian music if you have a chance!

So much great info on your channel, nice one

My fav video so far. I've always been fascinated by balkanic music, but have very little musical knowledge. Thanksfully, you always manage to break it down to simple theory and understandable exemples :)

This is gold! More power to you my friend.

Was looking for smth like thks for a loooong time. Thanks a million!

Yo it's crazy how much turbofolk and chalga uses these rhythm systems

7 has to be my favorite beat count, followed by 11. What they have in common is that they are one beat short of a conventional multiple of 4, adding a sense of hastiness and aggression.

I just found this channel today. The information is all facinating, but the cat and joke won me over completely. 🤣

Most surprising ending ever😂😂. BTW, I always could learn new things from your videos, you are great❤❤

Amazing teacher, thank youuuuu very much for sharing your valuable information. درود بر شما استاد بزرگوار و گرامی.

The 'get ready for the tribalists' comment made me LOL because as a Canadian of Armenian descent I was instantly thinking about all those comments that instantly appear on any music or dance videos from the Caucasus 🤣 One of my other faves was in the comments of a video about Uighur dance, someone bitching about how the Uighurs were traitors to their fellow Turks because they had sided with the Han Chinese like 1000 years ago. RU-vid commentors have no chill.

so are usuls kind of like the concept of "aires" in hispanic music? for example when you went over the different rhythms behind the greek vocals, applying those different rhythmic patterns reminds me of like the vallenato conjunction of styles. Where there's different rhythmic versions of the style like, paseo, son, merengue (not to be confused with the dominican one), puya, tambora, and then even others like romanza and etc. Or like in salsa which in itself is a frankenstein genre, so it often interchangeably will apply a whole buttload of different cuban rhythmic genres as it pleases within one song. Another example would be like in flamenco of course where theres also different genres "aires" within flamenco that one can pick and choose from. Also about the dum dek thing, it reminds of in brasil where when you want to learn how one of their many rhythms play out. That they say this where instead of learning it via time signature like the europeans or us citizens do, they do the exact same dum dek sort of approach to teach the rhythms with their own wording and whatnot. I remember learning a number of usuls without even knowing what they were, like malfuf, saidi, beledi, etc, and I kept wondering if these were like bases for genres on their own right. I would end up looking up on youtube but only finding tutorials on how to do the rhythms only instead of any particular song that was using said rhythm as a base lmao. I guess this is sort of where the difference lies, the aires and different rhythms in hispanic music though may belong in a bigger bubble are often reffered to as genres of their own accord. While in eastern music usuls are not considered genres but only really rhythmic styles? edit: just got to the reggaeton part lmao. The funny part about reggaeton is that its tresillo pattern has no hispanic roots whatsover, at least not in any traditional capacity. The first reggaetons in panama were actually hella lot closer to the jamaica reggae which is where it all originated from. Jamaican music was just really popular in the 90s for no particular reason lmao. It's also why caribbean styles nearby that aren't reggaeton like Soca, Chutney, and Zouk all have a tinge of the infamous tresillo pattern. It also shows up in the neo-modernist take on the san juanito genre in ecuador for no particular reason, I think that one is funny because traditional san juanito has a pretty unique rhythmic pattern relatively speaking. So to think they're putting tresillo over instead lmaaoo. edit 2: oh my goodness the 6/8 rhythm. I always wondered why it sounded so familiar. In ecuador and in peru there's this rhythm used for "cumbias" (in ecuador they just call it albazo as in its actual proper name), and its literally the 6/8 pattern that the irani use lmao. In peru we only know it as cumbia because in the north of peru they'd take the genres from ecuador, and bring it to the whole country labeled as just cumbia lmao.

I can recognize these rhythms from Greek traditional music. I love eastern music

Best music channel ever 👍

21:45 we have the same thing here in Azerbaijan, I was a little shocked by how familiar it all sounds to me, well nothing surprising as we are neighbours

You have a beautiful cat❤ what a lucky cat is able to listen to you playing musical instruments and singing your great songs all the time🙂😊

As always, thank you.

Please, please, make a video where you elaborate more on the concepts of time in music versus rhythm/ beats. My (Greek folk) dance teacher makes everything sound too complicated, and said I'd better ask a musicologist ;-)

seing the word "Usul" all I can think of is the book Dune.

One of the first concepts of Arabic music that really puzzled me was the concept of modulating from one iqa’ (usul) into another. In the group I play with, we have two primary percussionists and I always love seeing them passionately discussing which rhythm to use. My favorite instance was the older percussionists continually mixing up a piece that went from wahda to maqsum, when it really went maqsum to wahda. So the younger percussionist had to remind him every time we played for a while which iqa’ to use and when to modulate.

Hey Farya, would you consider doing a video like this about Persian dastgah theory? I read some of Hormoz Farhat's "Dastgah concept in Persian music" and watched Sahba's videos on RU-vid, but am still a bit confused about Radif, thanks. RU-vid algorithm really figured out what to suggest me with your channel lol

Great video, as always. Your videos take me onto a journey and make me want to understand more about music and its different forms. Also I thought you might explore Yemen a bit more when it comes to rhythm. From my understanding especially in Yemeni Jewish music rhythm is THE thing.

Thank you so much!

Amazing

Tell me of your homeworld, Usul.

Many traditional Greek dance rhythms make a lot more sense to me after watching this video. Notably, the karsilama (a Greek/Turkish dance from Asia Minor). I should also commend you on your style of presentation -you have a special talent in transforming boring theory into a fascinating story that even a layperson such as myself can follow. [On a different note, it didn't go unnoticed that you sang the politically incorrect lyrics to the "Apo kseno topo" song :)]

omg! i love this video😍

Please consider making a song or symphony on the battle of Adrianople. I need something to go with Total War: Attila.

this was a cool overview of this topic. I play, to varying degrees, music from different parts of the Balkans/Anatolia but my special fascination is with Albanian music. They have some crazy rhythmic structures there, one of my favorites being a 12-beat pattern that's subdivided into something like a 5 + 7, but even that's fairly simple compared to others. Like one song where the instrumental interlude between verses is 12 + 10, then the verses go ~12 + 15, though these have subdivisions in them as well. Then there's a northern genre played on a 2-sting çifteli called melodi, b/c it's instrumental, that is generally through-composed and has crazy non-repeating structures that change "usul" (totally not the word for them, but idk what is and I'm sticking with your formulation since I'm talking to you :P ) at the drop of a hat, every few "bars". IDK how they come up with these but it's like nothing I've heard from anywhere else!

Great video as always. You considered doing a music theory video about certein movies ? Like in "Gawain and the green knight" or "Dune" ?

Best ending ever! - and not without rhythm!

Im not sure what happened to my original comment, it's no longer in the comments section but as I had mentioned previously, I really look forward to you doing a version of the Ottoman Mehter song Hücum Marşı with your style one day.

This thumbnail looks so awesome 😄😅

Muchas gracias! Desde Tenerife

thank you!

Super

16:52 the sung melody sounds like it eventually ended up as the melody of Fel Shara, one of the first songs of the Sephardic diaspora I heard as a kid/teenager - the evolution of music is wild

Thank you.

The guy in Doxaria kai Skarophtera clip is Antonis Martsakis if anyone's interested :) (my dad was) PS 25:00 I'm not but I've learnt lezginka and it do be like that. Can't get that horrible accordion sound out of my head and legs just wanna move kek

It's hard for me to express all my appreciation for these lections, I've looks for something like this for twenty years. Music is like any other language - to translate something from one to another we have to translate not the meaning of the separate words, but one concept to another.

I find the Jazz comparison very interesting because it is one often made with "Lăutărească" music in Romania

NEW VIDEO FUCK YEAHHHH 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I cannot understand as to why this man is only talking instead of singing, WHERE IS THE LYRE?

Do you offer any classes on Classical Music, I love Turkish classical music.

Que buen final de video

Brilliant video! Really helping me wrap my head around Balkan rhythms especially. Do you have a link to the audio you used at 25:20 ?

süper

You have a cat!!!!! Is wonderfoul!

I always thought the irish song "as she moves through the fair" sounds very old middle eastern, i figure it has a scale similar to middle easter music, i would love to know if it is at all technically similar or if its just me... i would greatly appreciate your feedback Farya Faraji! Great videas as always

I am from creta ad i love your videos. I want to learn more about the balkanic and the ottoman music. I would loke to ask where can i find more material in tegards to rythm ans melodies of greece and asia.

Epic Talking

An expert who doesn't understand anything that he is an expert of?? Literally me Edit: talking about the cat

"Usul," also Paul Muad'Dib to his friends and worshippers.

9:45 when I’m counting aloud in English I usually say “se” or something of the like. I know lots of jazz musicians counted one two three four fie sih seb etc for the same reason. Two syllable numbers totally screw with the rhythm

Do syllables of usul arranged specific way over a main pulse easily translate to quater notes eight notes and so on (similarly like takadimi does)?

5:55 Yesss Machaut!

So in Dune we learn that usul is "the base of the pillar". Is this what the word means in reality? It does provide the base for the music to lay upon, in a way. Also, wouldn't you know, in Greece we call this kind of music "dabar-doobar" too. Like, anything with a toumberleki in it. But, above all and most importantly: ERMAHGERD CAT

Question less for Farya (though he's welcome to answer of course) and more for the audience: If you were raised with asymmetric rythm being the norm in your musical culture, what does western symmetrical rythm sound like to you? From that western perspective, asymmetric rythm can sound, as Farya said, off-balance and confusing if you're not used to it. What's the reverse like?

Quick question: I always wondered what purpose the bandage around your right forearm serves, does it cover up a wound? Or maybe it helps you musically? Please tell, I'm bursting with Curiosity!

❤

👌👌

Can you give a link to the georgian music at 24:13 ? It sound so epic.

Fantastic video. Do you have a link for the audio that you used in 7:08 ?

Can you make an amazigh song please

Just to add to your PSA at around the 6 minute mark: Most examples of asymmetrical meter in Western music actually originate from Balkan aksak traditions anyway!! You certainly don't see it much (at least prior to the 20th century) outside of composers who either grew up hearing Balkan music (including some Carpathian music) or intentionally sought it out for inspiration via field research- or both, like Bartók.

Who know what the music at 5:56 called? It’s just so good

I love that you are basically Greek at heart, and you just sneak Greek songs and traditions everywhere XD

Pater Noster in Gregorian Chant was not composed in the East (except its original in Aramaic) but it is lack of rhymn.

Sorry to double-comment, but is it fair to compare the Usul/Melody relationship elaborated upon in the Aksak section to polyrythm in the western tradition? That's how my western ears originally interpreted Alp Arslan - as a polyrythm with some kind of "accidental beat" (as in a note that leaves its key, not an error) at the end of the measure. Not to say that they're identical, I understand that eastern music doesn't work with time signatures as such, but they sound very similar to my ears. Is there any grounding to that or is that a "mirage" or coincidence?

Thumbnail: Me and the boys chilling we our Time Travelling Mazderani guy