Classical Turkish music — a memory spilled from the tongue.

Buhûrîzâde Mustafa Itrî

1640 – 1712 Classical period · reign of Mehmed IV Composer · Mevlevi · sacred music

The “father of classical Turkish music.” Trained at the Yenikapı Mevlevi lodge and chief muezzin at the Ottoman court, his Segâh Tekbir and Salât-ı Ümmiyye have for three centuries been the shared chant of the Islamic world — from Mecca to Indonesia they are heard at the festival prayers. Of the more than two hundred works he composed, some forty survive.

Court musician under Ahmed III and Mahmud I, he carried the lightness of the Tulip Era into his compositions. Among the first to free the şarkı form from the gravity of the peşrev and shape it into a lyric vessel, his refrains — such as “Bu gece ben yine bülbülleri hâmûş ettim” — are still sung today.

Hammâmîzâde İsmâil Dede Efendi

1778 – 1846 Mahmud II · Abdülmecid Mevlevi · âyîn · şarkı

The “grand master.” Trained at the Yenikapı Mevlevi lodge under Ali Nutkî Dede, he served as confidant to Selim III and Mahmud II. He composed seven Mevlevi rites — among them the Ferahfezâ and Sabâ âyinleri stand at the summit of the classical repertoire. His şarkılar — “Yine bir gülnihâl aldı bu gönlümü” — passed from mouth to mouth. The chain of pupils he raised reaches forward to Hacı Ârif Bey.

Hacı Ârif Bey

1831 – 1885 Post-Tanzimat · Abdülmecid · Abdülaziz Şarkı composer

A student of Dede Efendi’s circle and instructor at the imperial palace, he stands at the absolute summit of the şarkı form. He is said to have composed close to a thousand pieces; some three hundred in thirty-two makams have come down to us. Works such as “Olmaz ilâç sîne-i sad-pâreme” and “Bir nevcivâna dil müptelâdır” shape the lyrical vein of Turkish music.

A learned and melancholy composer who packed nearly three hundred songs into a life of thirty-one years. Successor to Hacı Ârif Bey, his distinction was to layer the lyric text with grief. Works such as “Hicrânla harâb oldu, sevdâzede gönlüm” and “Senden ayrı geçen ömrüm” shaped, almost single-handed, the lament repertoire of Turkish music.

Tanbûrî Cemil Bey

1873 – 1916 Late Ottoman · Second Constitutional Era Tanbur · kemençe · lavta virtuoso

The last great master of instrumental Turkish music. The path he opened on the tanbur, the classical kemençe and the lavta became the reference for every player who followed. Between 1910 and 1914 he filled more than a hundred 78 rpm discs for Gramophone, Orfeon and Favorite — recordings still accessible in digital archives. His Şedd-i Araban taksim and the “Çeçen Kızı” saz semâʼîsi are his seal.

Lemi Atlı

1869 – 1945 Late Ottoman · early Republic Şarkı composer · neyzen

Also known as Hâfız Mehmed Lemʼî. The bridge that carried Şevkî Bey’s line into the Republican era. Of his more than five hundred şarkılar, a core remains alive in today’s repertoire — “Yalnız yıldızların hâli bilirsin,” “Bekledim de gelmedin sen,” “Nâr-ı firkat dâğ-ı sînemde tutuştu.”

A master who bridged the classical idiom and folk music, composing more than five hundred works. Imam at the Süleymaniye Mosque, he reached a vast audience through the songs he wrote for the Turkish adaptations of Egyptian cinema. He personified Turkish music’s passage from the palace to the radio.

Münir Nurettin Selçuk

1900 – 1981 Republic · Istanbul Radio Composer · vocalist

The founder of modern Turkish vocal performance. Returning from studies in France in 1930, he established the recital format on Turkish stages. Through his settings of Yahya Kemal’s poems — “Aziz İstanbul,” “Endülüs’te Raks” — he turned the intellectual climate of an era into sound.

Zeki Müren

1931 – 1996 Republic · television era Composer · vocalist · lyricist

The “Sun of Art.” He fused conservatory discipline with the new languages of mass communication, carrying Turkish art music to a vast audience. More than three hundred compositions, and a performance aesthetic — from stagecraft to record sleeve — drawn in every detail by his own hand. One of the last great figures to carry the classical repertoire into a modern voice.

The purest representative of the late classical idiom. Trained at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory, he founded the vocal chair at the ITÜ Turkish Music State Conservatory. With his Muhayyer Sünbüle Mevlevi rite he is among the last to have carried the composition of the Mevlevi âyîn forward into the twentieth century.

The final link in the chain of the last living great masters. A composer who pursued medicine in parallel, he left more than seven hundred works. Recipient of the Presidential Grand Prize for Culture and Arts in 2017, he taught students in his classes until the last days of a near-century life — closing one age of the classical line with himself.