I am very interested in those traces and links existing all through that big territory, which is cut by borders and idelogogy. I hear politicians talk about Austria as a "nation of culture", but they try to get rid of many parts of our cultural roots.

There is another interesting example for let's say "cultural interchange", they did not tell us about in school; even though one of the heroes in that little story is extremly famous and popular in Austria. I am talking about the "Walzerkoenig", the "King Of Waltz".

It is Johann Strauss II [link], who has been honored and celebrated for his concerts in Istanbul. This was only one aspect of that story, becoming history. On the other hand there were ottoman composers like Dede Efendi [link], fascinated and inspired by that "western music". (This is also to talk about Mozart or Beethoven.)

Pieces "alla turca" got "en vogue". I think, the most popular of all is the "turkish march" (alla turca), part of the "Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331" [link] by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Of course this was not turkish music, but "turkish style" [link] in the sence of the early 19th century. We did not learn at school, which traces were left behind these days in Turkey. Ther are some very famous pieces of Dede Efendi, inspired by Strauss. In the year 2007, when we did "next code: love" as first part of this "Gleisdorf-Trilogy" [link], I was talking about that with our guests from Belgrade and Istanbul. What A surprise! Curator Övül Durmusoglu, a dedicated singer,

"Walzerkoenig" Johann Strauss

told us, that she knows about those songs and she could give us an example. So we were sitting in a small Gleisdorf "Pub", listening to a part of a song by Dede Efendi "... sorry, I remember only the last words, cause it's in Ottoman. I mean, if somebody reminds me, I can ... [mp3-file] (723 kb)

On the left side Övül Durmusoglu,
on the rigth side Mark Blaschitz from "SPLITTERWERK"

[next code: crossing]

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