Musician tries to preserve
heritage
 By
Ashley Carter
Staff Writer
In the midst of modern society, one man is trying
to preserve his disappearing traditional heritage. Birol Topaloglu will
perform Friday in the first U.S. tour of the world's only traditional
Laz music group.
The Laz people live in the mountainous regions
of Turkey and Georgia along the Black Sea. They trace their ancestry
back to the Colchis, owners of the Golden Fleece and hosts of Jason
and the Argonauts.
Baris Yagci, a graduate student from Turkey studying
the Laz people, said their love of music runs deep, to the extent that
everyday communication can be carried out in song. However their music,
as well as their culture, is being lost.
"Modern society doesn't provide opportunities to
pass on folk culture," said Edie Cassell, a graduate student and a member
of the Turkish Student Association.
Although most of the 250,000 Laz people still speak
their native language, Lazuri, most have forgotten the ancestral melodies
and songs that Topaloglu is trying to preserve.
"He tries to protect and save the public knowledge,"
said Yagci. "It's not written down, but he's trying to document it,
and I think it's an important effort."
Topaloglu was born into a Laz family and as a child,
he sang in Turkish and Lazuri, showing great promise as a musician.
As an adult, with a degree in electronic engineering,
he gave up his career to devote his life to music.
Topaloglu began by collecting lullabies and ballads
sang by his mother. He studied Laz music and visited with local elders,
persuading them to share their music and inspiration.
His first album, "Heyamo," was the first recording
ever sung entirely in Laz and based on traditional music, with the song
titles in Lazuri and Turkish. It became wildly popular in Turkey and
spread across Europe.
"Collecting songs, making a CD, trying to distribute
it and performing it live brings modern society and traditional culture
together," said Cassell.
Part of this traditional heritage includes traditional
Laz instruments.
Some instruments, such as the kavali, a thin metal
cylinder that Laz seamen would extract from the frame of their ship
and play like a flute, are already lost.
Others, such as the kemenche, a string instrument
similar to a violin; a philili, a wind instrument; and tulum, an instrument
similar to a bagpipe, are slowly being forgotten.
Topaloglu is trying to revive these instruments
as well as helping to develop a percussion instrument called a guni,
inspired by the wood used to build beehives.
Touring Europe since 1999, his group has finally
reached the United States and will play at 7 p.m. Friday in the Great
Hall of the Wesley Foundation.
"It's giving the people in Lafayette the opportunity
to be exposed to something that's so different, so hard to find, and
live that makes it special," said Cassell.
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