Ulvi Cemal Erkin was one of the ‘Turkish Five’, contemporaries who established the foundations of twentieth-century Turkish music by combining Western forms with their own...

Ulvi Cemal Erkin was one of the ‘Turkish Five’, contemporaries who established the foundations of twentieth-century Turkish music by combining Western forms with their own folk traditions. His most performed work is Kocekce, a dance suite inspired by the traditional kocek dancers of his native country. The Violin Concerto employs a classical Western structure but also includes a taksim section in its final movement, typical of improvisatory Turkish violin music. The evocative Symphony No. 2 is the apex of Erkin’s symphonic works, its last movement consisting entirely of folk tunes he himself discovered.