THE ROLE OF TURKISH PERCUSSION IN THE HISTORY AND ...

Before the influence of Turkish instruments, the kettledrum was the only member of
the percussion family with Eastern roots to have gained acceptance in the orchestra.
However, European interest in so-called Turkish Music (mehter 3 ), significantly characterized
by its heavy emphasis on percussion, soon progressed beyond mere admiration, resulting in a
flood of new European compositions alla turka. 4
The Janissary Corps was created in 1326 as the official royal guard of the Ottoman
Turk rulers. Spanning a five hundred year existence, the Janissaries were greatly feared and
respected. Throughout the centuries, growing musical interest within the Corps manifested
itself in a group of instrumental performers specifically trained to assist this select group of
fighters. Only the absolute cessation of the Corps could indicate that the colors were either
lost or furled in retreat, signifying the battle was over. 5 Thus, the Janissary Band was born
with the objective of developing martial music to its most effective state. This music attracted
the attention of Europe’s armies, and by the second decade of the eighteenth century, August
II of Poland had acquired a complete Turkish military band – a gift from the Sultan of
Turkey. 6
Not to be outdone by her southern neighbor, the Empress Anne of Prussia sent for a
comparable band from Constantinople in 1725. This band played treble and tenor shawms
3 The bands of the janissaries were called mehter, a term used also for some Ottoman state officials and thus
taken to mean not just the bands but the individual musicians as well. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 3nd ed., s.v. “Janissary music,” by Michael Pirker.
4 Alla Turka is an Italian term, referring to the style of music played by eighteenth-century Turkish military
bands. Harper’s Dictionary of Music (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1972), 386.
5
Henry George Farmer, Handel’s Kettledrums And Other Papers On Military Music. (London: Robert
Stockwell LTD., 1965), 41.
6
James L. Moore, “How Turkish Janizary Band Music Started Our Modern Percussion Section,” Percussive
Notes (1965): 7.
5