Original compositions / Terms of use in the footer
Album scores
Mulciber / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2025 / 17 pp / ISBN 9789082638462
1. Propontis (Phrygian metal) / 2. Ripplets (Hüseynî saz eseri) / 3. Æsyle (Kürdîli Hicâzkâr saz semâî) / 4. Nazar (Hüseynî mandıra) / 5. Kürdî Seyir (Şefik Gürmeriç) / 6. Kürdili Hicâzkâr Seyir (ibid.) / 7. Fumarola (Krivo) / 8. Nepheli (Beyâti medhâl) / 9. Kairos (Stankina) / 10. Kalajdžijsko (Tinkers’ dance) / 11. Ægis Dœtr (Hüseynî medhal) / 12. Aliveri (Nevâ saz semâî) / 13. Nevâ Seyir (Rauf Yektâ) / 14. Mulciber (Hisâr-Bûselik peşrev) / 15. Hisâr-Bûselik Seyir (Şefik Gürmeriç) / 16. Beyâti Seyir (Erol Bingöl) / 17. Satyr (Chasapiko burlesque)
Ariadne / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2024 / 11 pp / ISBN 9789083504704
1. Hebros (Hüseynî Karşılama) / 2. Barbanera (Nihâvend Evfer) / 3. Propontis (Phrygian Metal) / 4. Kilim (Janino) / 5. The Rose and the Nightingale (Phrygian Phantasy) / 6. Nazar (Hüseynî mandıra) / 7. Manastırka (Poustséno/Pušteno)
Erato / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2022 / 17 pp / ISBN 9789082638448
1. Crimson (Nihâvend Saz Semâî) / 2. Meltem (Hüseynî Karşılama) / 3. Aj, Sarajevo (Nihâvend Yürük Semâî) / 4. Sapor (Muhayyer Peşrev) / 5. Kilim (Janino) / 6. Uşşak Seyir (Sefik Gürmeriç) / 7. The Rose and the Nightingale (Phrygian Phantasy) / 8. Blackcap (Albanian folk melody) / 9. Phoenix (Kürdî Devr-i Hindî) / 10. Manastırka (Poustséno/Pušteno) / 11. Romanza (Acem Aşîrân Saz Semâî) / 12. Acem Asîrân Seyir (Erol Bingöl) / 13. Erato (Acem-Bûselik Medhal) / 14. Erebos (Şive-nüma Peşrev)
Európe / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2019 / 14 pp / ISBN 9789082638417
1. Hebros (Hüseynî Karşılama) / 2. Diaspora (Isfahân-Kürdî Peşrev) / 3. Dali Znaeš Pomniš Li (Κürdîli Hicâzkar Rumeli Şarkı) / 4. Barbanera (Nihâvend Evfer) / 5. Endülüs (Hüseynî-Asîran Yürük Semâî) / 6. Kairos (Stankina) / 7. Manastırka (Poustséno/Pušteno) / 8. Yol (Isfahân-Kürdî Saz Semâî) / 9. Trandafirul Rău Tînjeşte (Doină)
Makam Isfahân-Kürdî / Description, seyir, pesrev and saz semâî / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2019 / 4 pp / ISBN 9789082638479
Makam Isfahân-Kürdi (Description) / 1. Isfahân-Kürdi Seyir / 2. Diaspora (Isfahân-Kürdî Peşrev) / 3. Yol (Isfahân-Kürdî Saz Semâî)
Pîrî Reis / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2016 / 12 pp / ISBN 9789082638400
1. Şehnaz Yürük Semâî / 2. Kürdî Saz Semâî «Zaman Yolcusu» / 3. Anamnisi / 4. Dügah Saz Semâî / 5. Nev-Eser Peşrev «Muhabbet» / 6. Nihâvend Saz Semâî «To Laiko»
Individual scores
Pan / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2025 / 2 pp / ISBN 9789083504711
1. Pan (Saz Semâî)
Atalanta / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2024 / 2 pp / ISBN 9789082638493
1. Atalanta (Güldeste Saz Semâî)
Ripplets / Contemporary modal music / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2023 / 1 p / ISBN 9789082638455
1. Ripplets (Hüseynî Saz Eseri)
Other material / Terms of use in the footer
Liedboek: Nederlandse volksmuziek op Balkan-wijze toongezet door Wouter Swets / Michiel van der Meulen / TouMilou, 2023 / 33 pp / ISBN 9789082638486
Thirty two arrangements of Dutch folk songs using Balkan rhythms.
Traditionele Turkse Kunstmuziek (Traditional Turkish Art Music) / Digital supplement to the 2nd edition / Wouter Swets / TouMilou, 2019 / 38 pp / ISBN 9789082638424
Nineteen classical Ottoman works by Şevki Bey (1860–1891), Hacı Arif Bey (1831–1885), Selim III (1761–1808), İsak Varon (1884–1962), Dellalzâde İsmâil Efendi (1797–1869), Fehmi Tokay (1889–1959), Refik Fersan (1893–1965), Tanburi Cemil Bey (1871–1916), Zekâi Dede (1825–1879), Wouter Swets (1930–2016), Enfî Hasan Ağa (1670?–1729), Zaharya Efendi (?–1740), Kassamzâde Mehmet Efendi (1705?–1770?), İzzeddin Hümâyî Bey (1876–1950) and Rifat Bey (1820–1888), and thirteen seyirs by Erol Bingöl (1948) and Şefik Gürmeriç (1904–1967).
TouMilou manages balkanika.nl, an online, members-only library of Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Greek, North Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian and Turkish folk music. Membership is awarded by invitation, to those who can make a significant contribution to the collection.
Makam – characteristics and notation
Modal system – Most of Michiel van der Meulen’s compositions are makam-based. A makam is a mode in Turkish/Ottoman art music, but the term may also refer to the modal system as a whole. Each makam has a unique combination of its intervalic structure (cinsler) and melodic progression (seyir), unlike western scales, which are defined by their intervalic structure alone. The most concise description of a makam is obtained by envisaging it somewhere inbetween mere tonal material and a fully-fledged melody.
The number of individual makams is estimated at about 600. Some 120 are formally defined, i.e., categorized and associated with repertoire. Only about 20 of these are widely used today.
Notation system – Makam intonation cannot be captured in standard western notation, which is based on twelve-tone equal-tempered tuning. Michiel van der Meulen mostly uses the Turkish Arel-Ezgi system, which divides a whole tone in 9 commas (komanın). Accidentals are placed at the one (fazla), four (bakkıyye), five (küçük mücennep), eight (büyük mücennep) and nine (tanini) comma intervals (see below figure). Even though this system is more sophisticated than western notation, it can still only approximate makam intonation, which is flexible, depending on melodic progression and tonal centre of gravity.
Pitch – Makams are noted at a set key, performers are expected to be able to transpose on the fly. The standard Turkish transposition Bolahenk is one fourth down or one fith up relative to Western concert key (G = D). Other often used transpositions include Kız (G = A), Mansur (G = G) and Süpürde (G = C).
Monophony – There is no harmony in traditional makam music. Western-style second voices and chords are incompatible with the subtlety of a makam’s cinsler, and chord progression rules and aesthetics clash with its seyir. Hence, accompaniment will generally not go beyond a drone or the occasional bass note produced by the lower melody instruments. Musicians play the same melody, contributing with the specific sound and register of their instrument and the ornamentation possibilities it offers. Richness is achieved by heterophony.
Interpretation – Scores of makam music are deliberately not very detailed: performers are expected to be familiar with the characteristic instrument-specific phrasing and embellishments (çeşni).
Further reading – The Turkish Music Makam Guide¹ by Murat Aydemir is a recommended source for further information, which is provided in a very practical way, with scores and audio examples. Dutch readers are referred to Traditionele Turkse kunstmuziek² by Wouter Swets. Large makam sheet music collections can be found on Neyzen.com and Nota Arşivleri.
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² Swets, W., 2023. Traditionele Turkse kunstmuziek – Tweede, bewerkte editie (M.J. van der Meulen, ed.). TouMilou Music, Brave New Books: xiii + 217 pp. ISBN 9789464182996.
Playing the scores
What role does a score play in modal music, which is traditionally transmitted orally and permits a degree of performative freedom that would be untenable in most forms of Western classical music?
In Ottoman art music, which has one of the largest corpora of written modal music, scores are typically later transcriptions rather than an ‘official’ edition derived from the composer’s manuscript. The repertoire exists within a community and is primarily transmitted from person to person through performance or instruction, much like folk music. Scores function as mnemonic aids, capturing the essence of a melody but not the details of how it should be performed. In fact, providing such details would probably be perceived by performers as confusing, or even a bit intrusive.
An interesting side effect of these notational conventions is the compactness of modal scores, which allows them to convey a remarkably clear image of the piece at a glance. To me, this closely resembles the way music is remembered: all at once, rather than unfolding in real time or in strict sequence.
I have often been asked, “Did you write all of that?”, by listeners who cannot imagine that what they hear arises from a single score of only one or two pages, shared by all the musicians regardless of their instrument.
The richness of modal music lies in phrasing and embellishment, whose details are shaped by the interplay of mode, musical form, and instrument, as well as by the skill, taste, and combination of the musicians, and even the mood and occasion.
This performative freedom extends so far that, if one listens to the individual parts in the Kairos Collective’s recordings, it becomes clear that no one is simply “playing the score.” Each musician moves between foreground and background, alternately creating and yielding space, in an organic, spontaneous way that Vangelis Apostolou, our sound engineer, describes as a flock of fish moving through the ocean. This approach is as natural to modal music as it is unsuited to achieving the intricacy and precision required by, for example, a Bach sonata, in which multiple voices are layered and must remain precisely aligned.
The scores on this page are ready to use for those familiar with the idiom, phrasing, and notational conventions. For those who are not, it is best to listen first and then consult the score.