A Turkish Rehearsal - 1/5/10

My mom's friend that we are staying with is part of a traditional Turkish singing group. Today we went to her weekly rehearsal. There were lots of different instruments. A violin, a clarinet, two bağlamas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bağlama), two kanuns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanun_(instrument)), a large tambourine, and some clacky thing. Looking at all the instrumentalists, I imagined each person as they were as children/younger. For instance, there was the violin player, who had longish black hair streaked with gray, which he must have worn slicked back at one point, but now he simply wore it whisked around. I imagined him to be a lady charmer back in the day judging from the still friendly gleam in his eyes when he smiled. He had been the first from the band to look up and smile at us as we entered the room. Then there was the clacky instrument player. He had a small build and a round head with short hair, balding in the front, and small square glasses. He wore a shy smirk while he played. I say smirk, because it was a mostly serious look, but there was just enough of a grin to give away the intense spirit that he expresses through music. My mom's friend would periodically put her sheet music in front of us, and point to where they were in the music, encouraging us to sing along. Something I really wanted to do. Not knowing a lick of Turkish was a bit limiting... Not to mention, the melodies themselves were quite complicated, to my western ears, anyway. It was a nice afternoon. Everyone was curious about the two Americans. During the tea break, people came up to us to tell us about a friend they knew in the States, or where they had been themselves.