Bowed instruments in the music of the Ottoman court

Osmanlı saray tarihi boyunca çeşitli müzik türleri icra edilmiş ve bu icralarda farklı çalgılar kullanılmıştır. Bunların arasında çalgı sınıflandırmasında yaylı çalgılar olarak adlandırılanlar da mevcuttur. Bu makalede sarayda kullanılmış yaylı çalgılar olan kemânçe (rebâb), kemençe (armudî kemençe), sînekemân, kemân, viyola, viyolonsel ve kontrabas incelenmektedir. İlk olarak bu çalgıların her biri hakkında genel tarihsel ve teknik bilgiler verilmekte ve sarayda çalındıklarına ilişkin kayıtlar birçok farklı orijinal kaynaktan aktarılarak saray müziğindeki varlıkları ve gördükleri rağbet tespit edilmektedir. Daha sonra yine her bir çalgının sarayda kullanıldığı müzik türü, ortam ve çalgı grubu belirtilerek saraydaki konumları ortaya koyulmakta, birbirleri ve saraydaki müzik hayatı ile olan ilişkileri değerlendirilmektedir. Kemânçe (rebâb) 18. yüzyıla kadar saray müziğinin tek yaylı çalgısı olmasıyla dikkat çekmektedir. Bu dönemden itibaren kemânçenin yerini önce sînekemân, sonra da kemân alırken, bu sırada armudî kemençe de sarayda kendine yer bulmuş ve kemânçe gibi bu çalgılar da Türk müziği icralarında kullanılmıştır. Viyola, viyolonsel ve kontrabas ise kemândan daha sonra ve Batı müziğinin icra edilmeye başlamasıyla saraya gelmiş ve bu şekilde varlıklarını sürdürmüşlerdir. Söz konusu yaylı çalgıların tamamı padişah huzurunda ve haremde çeşitli türlerin icrasında çalınmış olup bazıları Muzika-i Hümayun bünyesindeki topluluklarda yer almıştır. Bu makalede çalgıların Osmanlı saray müziğindeki konumlarına bir örnek teşkil etmesi bakımından yaylı çalgılar konu olarak seçilirken, bunların bir çalgı türü olarak saray müziği içerisinde nasıl bir süreç izlediklerinin de ortaya koyulmasına çalışılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Osmanlı sarayı, saray müziği, Osmanlı Türk müziği, yaylı çalgılar, çalgı, müzik aleti.Although many studies are done on the history of the Ottoman court, our knowledge about the musical life of the court is not enough. However musical performance existed from the very beginning of the court history up to the end of it and always had an important place within the daily life of the court. Evidences about the musical performances at the Ottoman court can be traced in the sources from the 14th century on and most of these performances include the usage of musical instruments. Although these performances, which occurred in several times and places, principally took shape dependent on the sultan, they also always existed among the people of the court as single or collective ones. In this article – as it should be when the subject is the Ottoman court – the term “court music” does not refer to a certain kind of music that is related to the court, but it represents all the music performed at the court in general. Throughout the history of the Ottoman court, several genres of music were performed and in these performances different kinds of musical instruments were used. Bowed instruments, which form a seperate group within the instrument classification, were also among these and there always existed one or more of them in the court music. In this article, bowed instruments that are used at the Ottoman court are examined – these are kemânçe or rebâb, kemençe (lira), sînekemân (viola d’amore), kemân (violin), viyola (viola), viyolonsel (violoncello) and kontrabas (contrabass). For each of these instruments, general historical and technical information is given at first, then evidences taken from several different primary sources and showing that the instrument was played at the Ottoman court are mentioned and the existence and popularity of these instruments in the court music are revealed. Moreover musical genre, instrument group and environment in which each of these bowed instruments was played at the court are stated and the situations of the instruments within the court music are shown. Lastly the relation between these instruments and musical life of the court is evaluated as well as the relations among themselves. The only bowed instrument that existed in the court music until the 18th century was the kemânçe (rebâb). The kemânçe is a spike fiddle with a spherical resonator and a long neck that also was the most widespread bowed instrument of the Eastern world for a very long time. Until 18th century, it continously existed in the court music, however after the second half of the century it lost its situation rapidly but did not totally disappear. The kemençe, which is also known as the Greek lira, entered Turkish music in the 18th century as an accompaniment to a sort of dance music. Its existence in the court music goes back to the beginnings of the 19th century. The sînekemân is the European viola d’amore that came to İstanbul in the second half of the 18th century and it was adopted in Turkish music in a short time. It also entered court music in the same period and undertook the position of the kemânçe (rebâb) until the second half of the 19th century.  The kemân or the European violin also started to be used in Turkish music and entered the court in the 18th century and in the following century it became the leading bowed instrument. The viola, the violoncello and the contrabass came into the court music in the 19th century along with the Western orchestra and were mainly confined to the performances of Western music. All of these bowed instruments were used in several different kinds of music, groups and environments. All were played at the presence of the sultan and in the harem and some took part in the bands of Muzika-i Hümayun. The kemânçe (rebâb), the kemençe, the viola d’amore and the violin were played in the performances of Turkish music, while the violin, the viola, the violoncello and the contrabass were used in Western music. When we look at the historical progress of the bowed instruments in the Ottoman court music, we can see that using more then one bowed insturment was not generally prefered in Turkish music performances. The kemânçe (rebâb), which was the only bowed instrument for a very long time, lost its position easily when the viola d’amore became known and the latter gave way to the violin as well. However in the performances of Western music – which is basically different regarding the functions of the instruments – the violin, the viola, the violoncello and the contrabass took part dependent on the requirements of the performed work. So the presence of Western music at the Ottoman court ensured the existence of these instruments. Keywords: Ottoman court, Ottoman palace, court music, Ottoman Turkish music, bowed instruments, musical instruments.&nbsp

Pazopanib for metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma: A multicenter retrospective study

Purpose: Soft tissue sarcomas are associated with a poor prognosis and low chemotherapeutic efficiency. Pazopanib is an orally available multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor that was explored in patients with non-adipocytic advanced soft tissue sarcomas. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the real life data of single-agent pazopanib efficacy and safety for soft tissue sarcomas in the Turkish population. Materials and methods: We evaluated a total of 103 patients (41 males, 62 females) who received pazopanib for advanced non-adipocytic soft tissue sarcomas diagnosis in eight centers of Turkey, retrospectively. The pazopanib dose was 800 mg once daily. Progression-free survival, overall survival, and adverse events were analyzed. Results: The median age was 50 years (range, 38–58). Majority of the patients had leimyosarcoma (41%). Median progression-free survival was 4.3 months, and the median overall survival was 10.1 months. The main common toxicities were fatigue, anorexia, weight loss, nausea, hypertension, and grade ≥3 toxicities were fatigue, anorexia, weight loss, and liver disorder. Conclusion: Pazopanib is an efficient and tolerable agent and is well tolerated in good performance status patients with relapsed, advanced non-adipocytic soft tissue sarcomas. © The Author(s) 2020

Obsessive-compulsive tendencies and action sequence complexity : an information theory analysis

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric condition that is primarily associated with anxiety provoking repetitive thoughts (i.e., obsessions) and actions that are manifested to neutralize the resultant anxiety (i.e., compulsions). Interestingly, OCD patients continue compulsive behaviors (e.g., repeatedly rechecking if the door is locked) although they are typically aware of the irrationality of these behaviors. This suggests that compulsive behaviors have habit-like features. We predicted that the motor actions (e.g., sequence of goalless key presses) would deviate from randomness in individuals with stronger obsessive-compulsive (OC) tendencies and thus expected to observe more rigid sequential action patterns in these individuals (e.g., pressing keys according to a motif). We applied entropy theory approach, defined as the rate of change of information in a given sequence, to test this hypothesis. We collected two different types of sequential behavioral data from healthy individuals and scored their obsessive-compulsive tendencies based on the Padua Inventory. In the first method, we asked participants to press one of the two buttons sequentially. In the second method, participants were asked to mark one of the four different options sequentially (on a multiple-choice optic form). The behavioral characterization was carried out by quantifying the entropy in the sequence of two sets of behavioral data using the Shannon metric entropy and Lempel-Ziv complexity measures. Our results revealed a negative relationship between the degree of washing tendencies and the level of information contained in action sequences. These results held only for the data collected with key presses and not for the choice sequences in the paper-pencil task. Based on these results, we conclude that the behavioral rigidity observed in the form of compulsive actions may generalize to some other behaviors of the individual

Sleep disturbances in patients with lung cancer in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION: Sleep quality is known to be associated with the distressing symptoms of cancer. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of cancer symptoms on insomnia and the prevalence of sleep-related problems reported by the patients with lung cancer in Turkey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Assesment of Palliative Care in Lung Cancer in Turkey (ASPECT) study, a prospective multicenter study conducted in Turkey with the participation of 26 centers and included all patients with lung cancer, was re-evaluated in terms of sleep problems, insomnia and possible association with the cancer symptoms. Demographic characteristics of patients and information about disease were recorded for each patient by physicians via face-to-face interviews, and using hospital records. Patients who have difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep (DIMS) is associated with daytime sleepiness/fatigue were diagnosed as having insomnia. Daytime sleepiness, fatigue and lung cancer symptoms were recorded and graded using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale. RESULT: Among 1245 cases, 48.4% reported DIMS, 60.8% reported daytime sleepiness and 82.1% reported fatigue. The prevalence of insomnia was 44.7%. Female gender, patients with stage 3-4 disease, patients with metastases, with comorbidities, and with weight loss > 5 kg had higher rates of insomnia. Also, patients with insomnia had significantly higher rates of pain, nausea, dyspnea, and anxiety. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that patients with moderate to severe pain and dyspnea and severe anxiety had 2-3 times higher rates of insomnia. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, our results showed a clear association between sleep disturbances and cancer symptoms. Because of that, adequate symptom control is essential to maintain sleep quality in patients with lung cancer