- Sadettin Heper
Sadettin Heper (1899-1980) was a composer of Turkish music. He was bornin the
Eyüp neighborhood ofIstanbul as the son of Halit Efendi and Zehra Hanim. Until the religious venues where theMevlevi s practiced were closed in 1924 dueto the prevailing secular ideology, he played thekudüm , a percussion instrument, in religious ceremonies. Later, he worked for the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory. Hewas a regular in the ceremonies commemoratingMevlana inKonya . He died in Eyüp.He started his musical studies under
Ahmed Irsoy , from whom he learned over a thousandreligious and nonreligious songs. He learned theNey from Hakkı Dede. He was educatedin the traditional school of Turkish music which was learned from teacher to student. Hewas against the theoretical approach formed by scholars Arel, Ezgi and Uzdilek (the so-calledArel-Ezgi-Uzdilek system). He composed over 15 songs and taught many important musicians thatcame after him. These includedKani Karaca ,Aziz Bahriyeli ,Hüseyin Top , andAhmet Özhan .
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