In 2022 Ali Doğan was signed by the son of the old master Saîdê Goyî, a dengbej (singing storyteller) of traditional Botan music, to arrange the pieces and be the producer of the EP Stranên Dilê Min (songs of my heart, in Kurdish) (available to listen here). In March of 2023 they entered in the studio again, to produce a new EP with 5 new pieces: Jinê. Listen here.
Saîdê Goyî is a dengbêj from the Uludere district of Şırnak Province (called Roboskî in the local language). For years he has been singing to his small circle with many stran (songs) and narratives from his memory.
But, what is a dengbêj? According to Clémence Scalbert-Yüce [i] it is a Kurdish term composed of the words deng [voice] and bêj (present tense of gotin, to tell).
Roger Lescot defined the term dengbêj in 1977[ii] like this:
“These professional poets, who over the course of years furnished their memories as apprentices of certain old masters, assumed the task of conserving the traditions of the past and, if some new event were to occur, the celebration of the heroic deeds of the present. […] Thanks to their unlimited repertoire and matchless gift of improvisation, these men transmitted, from the remotest centuries until today, poems with thousands of verses.”
In 2022, with the encouragement of his son, Saidê Goyî shared his first album, “Stranên Dilê Min” (Song of my Heart) with the listeners. This album, which attracted great attention specially in Turkey, created a great motivation for the second album, that has been released in June of 2023.
The second album is called “Jinê”, which means both woman and life in Kurdish. It is a deep expression of Saidê Goyî’s respect and love for the women in his life.
In both of these albums, which include both prosodic vocal performances in the dengbêj style and melodic performances, simplicity and local language are at the forefront. All this reflects the characteristic Botan music in his voice.
Both albums have been recorded under the direction and arrangement of Ali Doğan Gönültaş.
| Saîdê Goyî Stranên Dilê Min. 2022. Self-produced. Digital edition. Musical direction and arrangements by Ali. Listen here. Buy it digital, here. |
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| Saîdê Goyî Jinê. 2022. Self-produced. Digital edition. Musical direction and arrangements by Ali. Listen here. Buy it digital, here. |
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[i] Clémence Scalbert-Yücel, « The Invention of a Tradition: Diyarbakır’s Dengbêj Project », European Journal of Turkish Studies [En ligne], 10 | 2009, mis en ligne le 04 janvier 2010, consulté le 16 février 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ejts/4055 ; DOI : 10.4000/ejts.4055
[ii] Lescot, Roger (1977) ‘Littérature kurde,’ in Queneau, Raymond (ed.) Histoire des littératures. Littératures anciennes, orientales et orales, Paris, Gallimard, La Pléiade, vol. 1, pp. 795-805.