This is one of my favorite compositions from the collection (Edvar-I-Musiki) of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723). It is in the somewhat rare Makam (mode) known as Büzürk (Farsi: Bozorg = large, grand) and is in the 30 beat cycle Darbeyn-I-Cedid. In this recording, together with myself, Efrèn Lopez participated playing Küdüm (small kettle drums) and Christos Barbas played the Ney (reed flute).
Dimitris Cantemir was a statesman, soldier, man of letters as well as one of the foremost composers and chroniclers of Ottoman urban music of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born into a noble family or Crimean Tatar extraction in Moldavia. He was also renowned as one of the foremost linguists of his time (he allegedly spoke and wrote in 11 languages). He spent many years in Istanbul as a Moldavian envoy on behalf of his brother Antioh who was the ruler (voidode) of the province. Subsequently he himself was appointed as ruler and he placed Moldavia under Russian protection in the belief that the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was imminent. He then joined Peter the Great in his campaign against the Ottoman Turks, a campaign which failed resulting in the exile of the Cantemirs to Russia. In Russia, where he died in 1723, he was granted the title of Prince by Peter and also by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. The collected notations of Dimitrie Cantemir were transcribed and published in 1992 by Professor Owen Wright, and it is largely due to this publication that we now have access to the entirety of the collection. To this day, many of Cantemir’s compositions are still regularly performed in Turkey as an important part of the Classical Turkish repertoire.

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