Sephardic music in Renan Koen’s compositions

Abstract

This study has been prepared in order to determine that the representatives of Sephardic music living in Istanbul still exist and to examine the extent to which Sephardic music affects the compositions of Renan Koen. Sephardic music has become a very diverse music in itself, extending from North Africa to the Balkans, from Spain to Israel, by interacting in different ways in the historical process. It has been observed that the Sephardic peoples living in Turkey since 1492 were influenced by the Turkish Makam Music, Folk Music, Greek Music, Rembetiko and the religious music of Jewish traditions and customs. Sephardic people were able to carry their own music to the geographies they were in through immigration. The Ottoman Empire was also one of the settlements where the Sephardic took refuge and had a musical memory that lasted for more than five hundred years. It is seen that the most important factor in the transmission of this memory from generation to generation until the twenty-first century is musicians and composers. Renan Koen, one of the composers of our time; she composed many classical and contemporary compositions and took an innovative role in the performances and arrangements of Sephardic music. At the same time, she worked as a transmitter and brought a new style to Sephardic music with the arrangements she made. In the context of Sephardic music, a verbal interview was made with Renan Koen, and her compositions were examined and a conclusion was reached about the original compositions that the artist applied to Sephardic melodies.