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Ahmet
SAY
Son of mathematician Fazil Say, Ahmet
Say was born in Istanbul, in 1935. It was
from private tutors that he took his first
piano lessons at early ages. He then
continued his musical education at the
Conservatory of İstanbul Municipality,
studying piano, music theory and harmony
between the years 1945 and 1950. Graduating
from high school, he went to Germany, where
he stayed from 1954 to 1960 to receive
higher education degree in media and
publishing. Meanwhile, he developed interest
in musicology with musicologist Kurt Köhler
as his mentor. Upon his return to Turkey, he
was officially sent to Bingöl, where he
worked as an instructor, folklorist and
public trainer. This opportunity gave him
the chance to explore the resources of the
folk tradition and to this end, he collected
and recorded folk songs, dirges, tales and
legends. He also set up choirs of folk songs
and groups of folk dancing (1960-64). His
impressions and experiences in Bingöl
produced broad gains in the field of
literature.
He was awarded for his novel and
short stories and one of his story books was
published in Berlin in 1985.
Ahmet Say, as an intellectual of
principles, underwent hardships like all other
Turkish men of intellect, due to his
struggles for true democracy in Turkey
particularly during the years succeeding the
1971 military coup and later on owing to the
policies of 1980 military intervention which
entailed human rights violations and bans on
freedom of speech and ideas. His novel,
Kocakurt, is about the adventures of an
interesting young man he met under such
cirtumstances.
Say, who started to publish “Türkiye
Yazıları”, a monthly periodical of
literature, with leading literary figures of
the country in 1977, went on with its
publication in the two years following the
1980 coup. Yet, in its sixth year, he wrote
that the anti-democratic conditions of the
time made it difficult for such a periodical
of literature continue freely, saying that
“the worst censorship is autocensor”, and
ceased its publication at its 72nd edition
in 1982.
The manager of the Music Encyclopedia
Publications, which he founded in 1985, Say
has so far written numerous books for the
conservatories and music departments of
universities in Turkey. Also renowned as a
music critic, Ahmet Say has attracted
publicity with his writings on music
criticism.
WORKS
MUSIC
• The Music
Makers in Turkey (English 1995, Turkish
1998)
• Music
Encyclopedia, 3 volumes (2005)
• History of
Music, 6th edition (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001,
2004, 2006)
• Music
Education, 4th edition (1994, 1997, 2000,
2004)
• Music Theory,
3rd edition (2001, 2003, 2005)
• Dictionary of
Music, 2nd edition (2003, 2005)
• Mozart (Ed.
2006)
• Music
Writings (2007)
LITERATURE
• Kocakurt (novel),
3rd edition (2007)
• Bingöl
Stories, 10 stories, 4th edition (2007)
• Cat Riding
Upside Down on a Silken Carpet, 2nd edition
(Turkish: 1982, 2007, German: 1985)
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