Music by Farya Faraji, featuring qanun by Gökhan Saraç and lyra by Illias de Sutter Ntavlidis. Please note that is isn’t reconstructed period music, only modern music in the style of the modern cultures. This is a symphony I composed about the Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt in 1071, a battle which would see the victory of the Seljuk Turks over the Eastern Romans (Byzantines), and forever changing the fate of Anatolia, allowing for its gradual Turkification over the centuries.

• Overture In The Year 6579:
6579 was the year Manzikert took place in the Eastern Roman calendar. The leitmotifs used are the “Rome” and “Seljuks” leitmotif.

• The Story of Seljuk:
The instruments used are the Central Asian dombra, Iranian santour, and daf percussions. The lyrics are from Omar Khayyam, an Iranian poet contemporary to the Seljuks.

Lyrics:
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the walls of Tus
Before him lay the skull of Kay Kavus

• Romanos
I wanted to write a mostly authentic piece that would be close to what was being created by the court musicians of the medieval Eastern Roman, mostly in its later stages (1400’s). The mode is microtonal, equating parts of Bayat in Ottoman Classical music, as well as emulating the high degree of chromaticism in Byzantine music, and uses the qanun, oud, and lyra, all main instruments of Medieval Greek music.

• The Doukas Family
This is a taksim (freeform improvisation) using the tzouras, a modern Greek instrument.


• Alp Arslan
This is a piece I wrote in a classic Anatolian style, especially inspired by Alevi Sufi music practice. The rythm is aksak, which refers to the asymettrical rythms of Turkish music, this one being in 9/8 specifically. I used the bağlama and kopuz to evoke a Sufi Anatolian sound, Sufism being central to the Seljuks’ form of mystical Islam. The piece owes much to Zikr, a form of musical performance meant to induce the participants in a transe to bring them closer to god in Sufism. The lyrics are in the Old Anatolian Turkish language, contemporary to Alp Arslan, and are from the legend of Keşik Baş, a Medieval Turkish poem recounting the deeds of Imam Ali, and how the latter fought a demon with his sword Zülfikar.

Lyrics:
Hu! Hu! Hu! Ya Allah!
Hak! Hak! Hak! Ya Allah!

Sen mi geldün yâ Alî düşmânımuz,
Senin elünden yıkılur cânımız,
Sen mi kesdün cümle divler başını
Sen dökdün bunların gözyaşını

He! He! He! O God!
Truth! Truth! Truth! O God!

You have come, Ali, our ennemy,
Our souls will fall from your hands,
You who cut off the demons’ heads,
You who has made them shed tears.

• The Night Before Battle
An orchestral section.

• The Battle Begins
A typical Anatolian and Greek sound with qanun and kopuz, the latter being exclusively Anatolian.

• The Hikanatoi Charge
Reprise of my Hikanatoi theme written 2 years ago. This version is less orchestral and uses only Greek instruments: tambouras, tzouras, sazi, and a violin played in a traditional Greek style. It is unkown if the Hikanatoi, the elite force of the Eastern Roman army comprised of aristoctats, were still in existencd by Manzikert, and if they took part in the battle, but it is probable as they are documented to have existed up until the 11th century.

Lyrics in Greek:
Τῷ πατάξαντι βασιλεῖς μεγάλους άλληλούϊα

Translation:
To Him who defeated great kings, Alleluia!

• The Lion Roars
Reprise of my Seljuks theme. The Seljuks theme is built primarily around the structureod Sufi Zikrs, generally in duple metres, with strong breaths emited rythmically by the participants, and exclamations of holy words and phrases. The lyrics are a mixture of the Omar Khayyam quatrain and the Keşik Baş epic.

Lyrics:
مرغی دیدم نشسته بر باره طوس
در پیش نهاده کله کیکاووس
I saw a bird perched on the walls of Tus
Before him lay the skull of Kay Kavus

Başlayalum söze bismillâh ile,
Duruşalum dün ü gün Allâh ile

Bir dilüme hikâyet geldi arı,
İdegör Hak kılur ise yâri

İsmi A’zâm duâsın bilür idim,
Resul’ya çok namâzlar kılur idim

Zülfikârr salladi divin basina,
Kesdi atdi sarâyinin tasina,

Çünki Alt öldürdü ol divi,
Bes redd oldi yikildi iblis evi,

Translation:
Let us start with the name of God,
And end with his name of yesterday,

I know the Holy Name well,
Much have I prayed to the Prophet,

Zülfikar cut off the demon’s head
And Ali threw down their stone houses

And Ali did cut off the demon’s head,
And he did destroy their domains.

00:00 Overture In the year 6579
01:20 The Story of Seljuk
04:22 Romanos
07:42 The Doukas Family
09:38 Alp Arslan
12:26 The Night Before Battle
14:42 The Battle Begins
16:50 Charge of the Hikanatoi
21:30 The Lion Roars
26:30 Last Stand
29:10 An Emperor Imprisoned
30:52 Romanos Freed Romanos’ Fate
33:08 A New Anatolia