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Hattusha Orchestral Ensemble, Exhibitions and Workshops
INTRODUCTION
The culture and the art of the Hittites, the first empire of Anatolia, is a valuable
resource for the world cultures. Hittites respected the values of different cultures,
such as language and religion, and during their existence they accepted nearly thousand
gods and various languages. While love and the perception of tolerance in their
world reached our present day as Anatolian tradition, they also interacted with
the world cultures. Social, political, judiciary, cultural and artistic values introduced
to humanity by the Hittites were presented within this Hattusha Activity by composing
a musical piece by applying historical and traditional music to a contemporary symphonic
concept and by arranging workshops and exhibitions during the activities. The Hattusha
activities, based on scientific researches and documentation, enlightened the cultural
bridges lived and continuing to live on within a historical period.
CONCERTS
The music work produced for this activity was performed in three different locations,
Ankara and Çorum in Turkey and Evora in Portugal in 2009 during the months of September
and October. The Orchestra consists of 35 musicians and 2 artists making the presentation
of the event. The musicians replicating Hittites, with their Hittite costumes designed,
inspired by the historical samples performed traditional and local tunes by using
Hittite musical instruments. Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish musicians
participating in this activity animated the common culture of Europe in a musical
form by performing their own cultural and folkloric music. The orchestra, with polyphonic
musical instruments performed the musical work specially composed for this project
by Ertuğrul Bayraktar and the lyrics written by Oğuz Elbaş. The orchestra was conducted
by Cihat Aşkın. The stage shows and presentations inspired by the Hittite cult life
were directed by the Art Director of Hattusha, Tamer Levent and Visual Director
of Hattusha, Meltem Keskin Bayur.
WORKSHOPS
Various workshops run by a group of experts and academicians were held in Ankara,
Çorum and Evora-PORTUGAL in September and October in 2009 and in Vicenza-ITALY,
Budapest-HUNGARY, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş in April and May 2010. In these workshops
the impact of the Hittite culture on Turkey and Europe were discussed with practical
examples.
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
Parallel to the concerts and workshops, photo exhibition showing the interactions
between the musical cultures of Hittites and Europe were presented.
RECONSTRUCTION of MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
The instruments used within the Hittite music, discovered by archaeological studies,
e.g. stringed instruments such as Lyre, Harp and "Baglama"; wind instruments such
as Pipe, Double-Pipe and Brass wind; skinned and self percussion instruments such
as Drum, Goblet and Kettle drums and castanets were hand-made for the first time
by using present day technologies. The production of these instruments was realized
by taking into consideration the research made by Oğuz Elbaş.
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