MEVLEVI MUSIC
This is described under five headings.
Origins of the music.
The value of Mevlevi music.
How the music is played.
Deviations from the true music.
European influences.

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ORIGINS OF THE MUSIC

The music can be traced back from the present to the times of the ancient Egyptians.

This music is the highest expression of the system known as Ottoman Art Music (makam system). The system was enhanced and developed with considerable input from the dervishes of Anatolia. The dervish leaders needed a high art expression through music to feed the heart of their communities of devotees. They saw the divine inspiration in the makam system and naturally used it.

The origin of the system is ancient and connected to times before the dervishes, the Turks, and the Ottomans. There are ancient documents written by the great Arabic musicologist Safi al Din, which show the source, as far as he knew, or was prepared to tell. This shows that the system which uses units of 4 and 5 notes, known as tetrachords and pentachords, was extensively used by Pythagoras in his experiments into the true nature of the human psyche, 2500 years ago.

Pythagoras himself used this system of music after he emerged from 13 or so years in the Egyptian Temples. It was after that time he formed a small closed group who used the mystical wisdom of number and music at the centre of their journey to the Divine.

Although we now dig up Egyptian remains and consider them as archaeological artifacts, the Temples were still living traditions when Pythagoras walked this planet. The methods and teaching which survived then was the link with a great age which had past into this present age more than two thousand years before Pythagoras.

THE VALUE OF MEVLEVI MUSIC
The ancient Egyptians were a human super-race which had a direct connection with an age of human existence which was free from the cloud of human separation and selfishness which we are now in. This present psychologically dark age was new around 5000 years ago. When it arrived the Egyptians were subject to the upheavals associated with human greed and selfishness. These were new then and the societies which existed were not fully prepared for the change.

Within the Egyptian temples were people who were spiritually developed and watchful over human affairs and were prepared. They constructed areas of art and religion which would be tools for dealing with the conditions of this dark age. The same was true in the Indian subcontinent. At that time the Lord Shri Krishna was setting down a formula which would provide the tools for human escape from the bondage of ignorance. All of us now benefit from this ancient wise investment, since all religions are based on the principles founded so long ago.

The Mevlevi music, as with the Bhagavad Gita, provide links with an ancient system for realisation of the true Self. These good attitudes were prevalent in the age previous (Tritayuga). These conditions need to be established in each individual who seeks to progress toward Truth. In this way the divine nature of the music system conception equates the compositions with Holy Scripture. Just as scripture leaves a feeling of inner connection, this music is a universal language of the human soul which does not need words.

This present age known in Sanskrit as the kaliyuga or dark age, it is like a cosmic cloud or mental storm which will not pass for many thousands of years to come. It has been allegorically depicted in many scriptures as a flood or similar event in which the previous achievements of human progress were swept away, or covered over.

The legacy which has come to us from the Vedas and the Sufis is of value in our search for Truth.

HOW SUFI MUSIC IS PLAYED
In Mevlevi music we have a system which generates the condition necessary for progress in Self development. It is not music for pleasure or any other kind of sentimental feeling, it is music for focus, concentration, self-discipline, cleaning the mirror of the heart. For this purpose it has two systems of musical intervals. One which is outer for the physical senses and one which is inner, for the inner sense. By divine and artful weaving of these two, the mind of the dervish is drawn away from the outer experience to a real appreciation of the inner experience.

Bhagavad Gita (ch.7 v.2)
I shall teach you in full this knowledge combined with realisation, which being known, nothing more here remains to be known.

(Commentary) Whatever is comprehended with the aid of the senses, mind and intellect is jnana or knowledge. And vijnana is the direct grasp of the reality, come about through self-discipline. The former is mediate and the latter immediate. The one is derived through sight (outer sense) and the other through insight (inner sense). Tuition is needed for the one and intuition for the other. Endowed with both of these, the aspirant gets to know Truth in Its entirety.

Mevlevi music embodies this idea in the use of four vibrating membranes. The cymbals are mineral, the ney (flute) is vegetable, the drums are animal and the voice is human. In this way it implies that the divine consciousness lives in these four conditions, each being a stage in the development of the human soul. The music needs to be living and present during the Sema. The Sema is made alive with the use of living music. The divine inspiration within the music system and in the individual compositions serves to awaken the sense of inner self or truth for those who take part in the sema.

DEVIATIONS FROM THE TRUE MUSIC
The three instruments, with their deep symbolism, are the only ones traditionally used or permitted by the Sheiks of the Mevlevi order. Modern attempts to produce the music have introduced a number of elements which destroy the simple potency of the music. Most of these elements come from the influence of European or Western ideas of music.

1.The first of these being the use of a European style orchestra to play the music. This mistake arises because those from outside of the Mevlevi Order do not understand that the music contains sufficient beauty and variety of form within the inspiration of its composition and therefore does not need complexity of form to be added from the make up of the ensemble who play it. The Western idea that bigger is better does not apply to Mevlevi music. The accord of thought and co-ordination of correct playing becomes impossible with too many players and too many types of instrument.

2. The next is the playing from western style notation sheets. This mistake comes from the European attitude that the music is known from outside information. Whereas the makams and the traditional Mevlevi Ayins (composed by Mevlevis) are divine in their inspiration. They exist in a world which never changes. The outer information leads to that inner place where they are.

Therefore it is necessary to make attempts to learn the music by heart. This way the correct inspiration is placed into the music as if That which made them, uses the dervishes as Its instruments to play them. The music becomes a permanent part of the dervishes life. It is not the same each time it is played from memory, this aspect is contrary to the gramophone record or tape recording.

3. Another mistake is to play the music as if it were for a cultural concert. Bringing it down to the level of something for pleasure. There is every kind of music to suit the human need for pleasure. To use a precious jewel of divine melody in this way is a violation. It is to be lived and loved for what it really is and to be played for the purpose of the Mevlevi Sema.

4. In the west music has to give immediate appeal to the pleasure of the external senses. Mevlevi music does not appeal to those people who expect this instant short lived effect. Instead the appeal penetrates into deeper aspects of the human being and grows with time as familiarity with it is experienced in the proper surroundings.

EUROPEAN INFLUENCES
The reason for wrong practices in Mevlevi music comes from the fact of the Tekkes being closed and dervishes practices being made illegal as happened in 1923 when Turkey went through a cultural genocide. Because of this, the true handed down tradition of the music has only been held by a very thin thread into the present time. It is those who have tried to learn without the value of the tradition who are making mistakes without knowing it.

One mistake, which is not least, is the incorrect use of the notes of the makams. The cause of this is twofold. Firstly, simple ignorance of what the makams are and how they should be played. Secondly, incorrect teaching about the makams which have been influenced by the tempered music of Western Europe. This incorrect method is taught in the Istanbul music conservatoire.

The ignorance may be easy to overcome by simply receiving the correct traditional teaching. The other mistake is more difficult to overcome. The promulgation of European music world-wide has already destroyed the traditional music of many older cultures. Mevlevi music is only one of a list of casualties.

The use of tempered unnatural musical scales is for convenience and suits music which plays many notes simultaneously. This directs music to the outer worldly pleasure, a function which it carries out very well.

The system which plays only one note at a time accords with the nature of the inner communication channel and requires a science of intervals which uses simple natural ratios.

NOTE. none of the intervals less than an octave played in the European tempered scale are exactly the same as those used in the Ottoman Art music and Mevlevi music, although the tempered 4th and the tempered 5th are very close. Of course the octave is generally universal in all music systems.

The western ear is educated, or accustomed to perceive half of a tempered whole tone as the smallest interval used in music. In the art music, note differences of 1/9th of a whole tone (1 comma) need to be clearly distinguished. Because of this, the size of the alteration of a note which would be called out of tune is correspondingly smaller.

A European musician might consider a note 1/4 of a semi-tone (1/8th whole tone) as too flat, whereas when playing Mevlevi music there are situations where 1/3rd of a comma is definitely too flat.( i.e. 1/27th of a whole tone.) It is for this reason the statement "none of the intervals are the same" has been made. Although by the western ear these differences might be considered insignificant.

It is this fine tuning of the sense of hearing and the corresponding requirement for a finer sense of attention to sound, which marks Mevlevi music out as a developer of the whole person. This is because of the self control which is required and is not easy to develop.

These facts are little understood generally by western musicians and because of this can lead easily to corruption or misinterpretation of Oriental musics in general.

The Saraswati Society is working to preserve this sacred art which is in danger of being completely lost to the world. The Mevlevi Ayins are being studied and played in the traditional way with the correct use of instruments and the Makams.

EXAMPLES OF MEVLEVI MUSIC
All samples are played by members of the Saraswati Society who have been given traditional training in the Mevlevi music. The samples are all short excerpts.

Suzidilara Mevlevi Ayin by Sultan Selim 3	Saba Mevlevi Ayin by Dede Efendi
SUZIDILARA TAKSIM	SABA TAKSIM
SUZIDILARA PESHREV	SABA PESHREV
SUZIDILARA AYIN	SABA AYIN
ZAVIL SON PESHREV	FERAHNAK SON PESHREV
ZAVIL SON TAKSIM	FERAHNAK SON TAKSIM

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