Tanburi Cemil Bey

Tanburi Cemil Bey (1871–1916) was a Turkish tanbur, yaylı tanbur, kemençe, and lavta virtuoso and composer, who greatly contributed to the taksim (improvisation on a makam/maqam) genre in Turkish classical music. His son, Mesut Cemil, was an equally renowned tanbur virtuoso. Cemil Bey was born in Istanbul in 1871, though his precise birth date is uncertain. He took his first lessons in music from Kanuni Ahmet Bey and the violin player Kemani Aleksan, his first instruments thus being the violin and the kanun. After completing middle school, he continued in a school for civil servants (Mülkiye), but then devoted himself to music and abandoned his education. He began to play the tanbur quite early in his youth and by the age of twenty, his renown had already spread among the tanburis of Istanbul. Reforming the traditional playing technique of the tanbur, he developed an energetic technique based on a rich and agile picking style, lightening to a great extent the sonority of this instrument. Later he set about playing the Turkish classical kemençe and attained an astonishingly high level of technique. He was also the inventor of the yaylı (bowed) tanbur. This musician was able to play any instrument he picked up: he played lavta, cello, yaylı tanbur, zurna, and several other instruments with equal virtuosity. His taksims and instrumental works he recorded on 78rpms with tanbur, kemençe, lavta, cello, and yaylı tanbur had considerable impact on generations of musicians following him. The peşrevs and sazsemais he composed are pieces of great taste, requiring a developed performance technique. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.