Tanburi Cemil Bey

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Tanburi Cemil Bey was an Ottoman virtuoso on the tanbur and a composer. He was born in Istanbul in 1873, although some sources give 1871, and he died there on 28 July 1916. He received his first lessons from Kanuni Ahmet Bey and the violinist Kemani Aleksan. His first instruments were the violin and the kanun. He broke off his schooling to devote himself to music. By the age of twenty every tanbur player in Istanbul knew his name.

Music and breakthrough

Cemil Bey renewed the playing technique of the tanbur with an energetic, agile touch, which made the instrument sound lighter. He also played kemençe, lavta and cello, and he invented the yaylı tanbur, a tanbur played with a bow. He excelled in the taksim, an improvised piece on a makam, the melodic mode of Ottoman classical music. He recorded his taksims and compositions on 78 rpm records. As a result his playing was preserved and could influence many generations of musicians.

Influence

His son Mesut Cemil Bey, like him, became a well-known tanbur player. For anyone studying the history of recorded music, Cemil Bey matters because his improvisations can still be heard almost a century later. The sound of a player from Istanbul around 1900 has not been lost in his case.

Listening

• 
  Gülizar Taksim (tanbur) · Tanburi Cemil Bey

Discography

Studio albums

• 1991Peshrev and Semai of Tanburi Djemil Bey
• 1994Tanburi Cemil Bey
• 1995Tanburi Cemil Bey
• 2003Tanburi Cemil Bey