Turkish singer Müslüm Gürses, a national legend for his mournful, melancholy lyrics and contributions to arabesque music, will be remembered this week at an Istanbul cemetery, on the seventh anniversary of his passing on Tuesday.
Gürses' musical talent was unimpeachable, according to Songül Karahasanoğlu, a professor of musicology at Istanbul's prestigious ITU-Turkish Music State Conservatory. "The way he sings and reflects his feelings in music was very successful. He was a good musician with a fine ear," Karahasanoğlu told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Caner Işık, a sociologist at Aydın Adnan Menderes University, echoed these sentiments, saying Gürses had the gift of perfect pitch, meaning the rare talent to properly identify the musical note of any sound without a reference tone. He was best known for his mournful tunes blending Turkish folk instruments with Arabic or arabesque melodies, and his albums sold millions. He died of heart failure in 2013 when he was just 59 years old.
The Turkish public had a love-hate relationship with the popular singer. While the 1980s saw his songs banned in Turkey, some of his passionate fans are known for having cut themselves with razor blades at his concerts. Yılmaz Bulut, 35, a hardcore Gürses fan, said harming yourself out of love for the singer was not appropriate, as Gürses himself "stood against such actions and always rejected them."
Pain in his voice
The socioeconomic situation in Turkey, and especially the wave of migration during the 1950s from villages to cities, and the struggle of these newcomers to adjust to urban life, also played a large role in Gürses' music. "There's a pain in his voice," said Karahasanoğlu, adding that even if you listen to his songs while at the peak of happiness, after some time you will find yourself falling into that pain.
"Maybe that is his tragic life being reflected in his voice," she added.
Gürses was born in 1953 in a village in Şanlıurfa province, a southeastern province long known as underdeveloped. When he was 3, his family had to move to the southern province of Adana due to economic difficulties. But perhaps the most tragic incident in his life came when he was still a young man, in 1969, when his father stabbed his mother to death.
Caner Işık, the co-author with Nural Erol Işık of "Arabesque and Müslüm Gürses: Understanding Our Cultural World," went and lived in the Adana province to better understand Gürses' music.
According to Işık, the main difference between today and Gürses' popular heyday, during the 1980s and ‘90s, is that back then people had a greater belief in social mobility, and climbing up the ladder, whereas now money is more dominant in daily life.
Karahasanoğlu said: "Gürses made his own music as a person coming from the Turkish heartland, but there was a change between where he started and his fan base in recent years." "This may also be connected to Turkey's changing socioeconomic conditions," she added.
Gürses' 2006 collaboration with Turkish novelist and songwriter Murathan Mungan is one of the reasons his fan base changed. The album they made together, "Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever" (Love Loves Coincidences), features Western musical instruments and reinterpretations of songs by such luminaries as Leonard Cohen, Bjork, David Bowie and Bob Dylan.
Pop and arabesque music
Today most people listen to music using smartphone apps and quickly consume music, songs and singers. "Nobody buys albums anymore, but instead music is served up to them," Karahasanoğlu said.
"If Müslüm Gürses was still alive and making music, he would not have been able to achieve the popularity he enjoyed in the ‘70s and ‘80s," she added. "Müslüm is a very important figure, in a way a reflection of honesty and naivety. Even his marriage is a typical indicator of this," she said referring to his union with well-known actress Muhterem Nur, which lasted over a quarter-century.
Bulut, now one of the administrators of the late singer's official Facebook page, describes Gürses as the "forefather of the oppressed and those who suffer," especially referring to the legendary singer's tragic life. Bulut said he will be one of some 200 people who will gather on Tuesday at Istanbul's Zincirlikuyu Cemetery as they have for the last seven years, to commemorate their own "father," an enduring Turkish voice that spanned the decades.