Activity Type:
Concerts, Mini-concerts, Large-scale concerts
What We Do:
Central Asian & Turkish Music, Concerts on the Tradition of Turkish Music and Movement Therapy, Classical Turkish Music, Sufi Music
Dates:
It is determined in accordance with the protocol established between the requesting institution and Tümata.
Instructors:
Tümata Musicians, Band Members
Concert Events
Tümata (Turkish Music Research and Promotion Group), led by ethnomusicologist and music therapist Assistant Professor Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç, is committed to presenting and applying these traditions to the world through its educational programs.
Organized from this perspective, the Tümata concerts are events that convey historical and scientific knowledge and showcase the aforementioned material with audience participation. During the concerts, while the topic of music therapy is explored, authentic therapy sessions are conducted, thereby enabling the audience to experience firsthand the positive effects of the Turkish tradition of music and movement therapy.
Main themes of the concerts
- Central Asian Turkish music and dance: In contrast to the few instruments used in Anatolia today, Central Asian Turkish culture features thousands of instruments and countless melodies, songs, and dances that convey the emotions and thoughts of the culture that created them. At Tümata concerts, compilations drawn from this rich heritage are presented, organized according to various themes.
- Baksi dance: In ancient times, healers known as “kam” and “baksi” used music and movement in their healing practices. Today, the Baksı dance—also known as karacorga—is practiced by kam and baksı (Central Asian Turkic-Islamic shamans) and is perhaps the oldest surviving example of music and movement therapy. During concerts, information about the Baksı dance is provided, its execution is demonstrated with examples, and it is performed together with the audience.
- Archetypal movements: Archetypal movements—which can be described as the performance of certain movements drawn from Baksı dance and semahs, accompanied by a specific musical repertoire—aim to both release blockages and facilitate emotional transformation through movements that begin in the hands and spread throughout the entire body. During concerts, the movements are explained and practiced together with the participants.
- Imagery Therapy: For approximately twenty years, this practice has been conducted to the accompaniment of music that is predominantly improvised—a style that has been observed on numerous occasions to facilitate the perception of specific imagery. The goal is to release negative patterns that have become ingrained in the mind. A melody with roots in ancient practices is presented anew, preserved in its original form from the same source. This session, in which participants take part while lying down or sitting comfortably in their chairs, is a form of receptive (passive) therapy.
- Maqam music and receptive therapy: Maqam music flourished in the culture of Khorasan 1,000 years ago. The use of this music in treatment became a very important branch of medicine at that time, and scholars and scientists such as Ibn Sina, al-Farabi, Abu Bakr al-Razi, Safuyiddin Urmevi—artists and scholars of the time—identified and studied the connections and relationships between the maqams and the organs, time, ailments, the four elements, the four humors, and the zodiac signs. About forty of these maqams have been documented in the literature. During concerts, information on the subject is provided, and a receptive music therapy session—conducted in the same manner as in the healing houses—is held in a maqam selected according to the participants’ condition.
- Pentatonic music and receptive therapy: Pentatonic (five-note) music, which has a history spanning thousands of years, is described by Ahmet Adnan Saygun as the hallmark of Turkish music. It is said that this music increases alpha and theta waves in the brain, facilitates a trance-like state, and fosters self-confidence and determination. This session, in which participants take part while lying down or sitting comfortably in their chairs, is a form of receptive (passive) therapy.
- Examples of classical Turkish music: Pieces in various modes that are related to the concert’s theme are performed.
- Examples of Sufi music and sema: Selected pieces—drawn from the general repertoire of Turkish Sufi music, world music, and the group members’ own compositions—are presented accompanied by the Sema, which, as Hazrat Mevlânâ said, “finds a path beyond the six directions.”
- “WATER CONCERT”
- “THE RHYTHM OF NATURE” CONCERT
- “MUSIC AND Movement Therapy in Central Asia & Turkish Culture” Concert
- “THE SILK ROAD” CONCERT
- “TURKISH UNION CONCERT”
- “THE LANGUAGE OF THE TURKISH LANGUAGE, THE LANGUAGE OF THE TURKISH INSTRUMENT CONCERT”
- “THE VOICE OF HEROES” CONCERT
- “A JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC, HISTORY, ART, AND SPIRITUAL VALUES” CONCERT
- “Healing Sounds from the Lovers’ Instruments & Oral Folktales” Concert
- “THE SAINTS OF ANATOLIA AND MERCIFUL MUSIC—SUFI MUSIC” CONCERT
- ANCIENT TURKISH MUSIC CONCERTS
