Uğur Mumcu Cantata

On Friday, January 27 at 8:00 pm, a “Uğur Mumcu Commemoration Concert” was held at the Atatürk Culture, Arts and Congress Center in Eskişehir. In the first half, pianist Emre Yavuz performed Sergey Rachmninov's Piano Concerto No. 3. The second half of the program featured Turgay Erdener's Uğur Mumcu Cantata.

Uğur Mumcu Cantata

Composer: Turgay Erdener
Libretto: Şirin Aktemur

Eskişehir Büyükşehir Belediyesi Senfoni Orkestrası
Conductor: Rengim Gökmen

Saygun Filarmoni Korosu (choirmaster:Çiğdem Aytepe)
Eskişehir Polifonik Korosu (choirmaster: Özlem Dinç)

Soloists:
Selva Erdener  (soprano)
Görkem Ezgi Yıldırım (soprano)
Tuğba Mankal (soprano)
Emre Akkuş (tenor)

Narrators:
Bilge Büyükerşen
Zafer Ergül

Director:
Murat Atak 

The world premiere of the work was performed in Ankara on May 3, 2019 by the CSO and Saygun Philharmonic Choir, conducted by conductor Rengim Gökmen.

The texts of the cantata were created by the writer Şirin Aktemur using Mumcu's writings. Composed in cantata style for 4 singing soloists and choir, the work consists of 5 movements.

1. The Prelude 

We were shot, O my people, don't forget us!... 

We finished our books by the light of a candle, while the cars drove through the streets with their flashing lights.  We participated in that great fight by living in our hearts the hearts of thousands of poor people like ourselves.

Conscience was silent. Law was silenced. Humanity was silenced. 

We were killed in plain sight, my people, don't forget us!... 

Poor peasants in Giresun. We died for you. Tobacco workers in the Aegean, we died for you. Landless peasants in the East, we died for you. Workers in Istanbul and Ankara, we died for you. Workers in Adana, picking white cotton with shattered hands, we died for you. 

We were shot, hanged, killed, O my people, don't forget us! 

We hadn't even lived our childhood yet. We hadn't touched a woman's hand. We hadn't even received a letter from a lover. One night at dawn, we were brought to the execution tables with our shackled hands and feet. 

We have been shot, O people, don't forget us!... 

-- Cumhuriyet, August 25, 1975 

2. Crime of the Age 

Susan cowardly people do not speak for freedom. They are accomplices to crime. We lived with them in the age of criminals. Those who did not submit to power reached out like a clenched fist to the darkness and came to today. Freedom doves flew out of those steel fists. With them we will live in the age of freedom.

-- Yeni Ortam, January 20, 1975

3. The Case of the Dead

Adam. Not the first human being, but a human being Adam.  The one who came to life in Anatolia. Drafted as a young man. Found objectionable. 

Adam was martyred in the line of duty with seven bullets in his stomach. 

And what about you? Those who called Adam “objectionable”, denounced him and fired him; Are you the ones who are not objectionable?

-- Yeniortam - September 7, 1974

4. Avni's Horses

Politicians who carry ballot boxes in their heads will be forgotten; those who inflict the cruelest punishments on intellectuals and artists will be forgotten; bandits who cut roads in the name of the state will be forgotten; those who wrap barbed wire around brains will be forgotten; heads of state will be forgotten; prime ministers who climbed into cars with red license plates will be forgotten; ministers will be forgotten... 

Dinos and Arbaşs with their paintings; Yaşar Kemals, Aziz Nesins, Rıfat Ilgaz, Sabahattin Alis with their novels, stories and writings; Nazım Hikmet, Ceyhun Atuf, Hasan Hüseyin, Ahmet Arif with their poems will always live!... 

-- Cumhuriyet, May 3, 1987 

5.That Old Folk Song

The war of independence, won with the blood of the Turkish people, the strength and sweat of the Turkish people...
The name of this resistance against imperialism. Revolutionary, nationalist, war of independence.

Independence is the mortar of this country. After all these years.
Today, one by one, one by one, the children of the people are being shot in the back.

Wake up Gazi Kemal, wake up! Wake up with the swashbucklers, workers, peasants, children of the people, intellectuals, workers, peasants.
One by one, one by one, the children of the people are being shot in the back.
Wake up Gazi Kemal, wake up! Wake up with the swashbucklers, workers, peasants, children of the people, intellectuals, workers, peasants.

-- Cumhuriyet, October 29, 1979 

Eskişehir Poliphonic Choir
Choirmaster Özlem Dinç, Soprano Nazlı Sinanoğlu İnanç, Gizem Çelik, Doğa Kayışçı, Kübra Sibel Arslanoğlu, Merve Aydın, Elif Toker, Serap İşcan, Özlem Ayan, Elif Özkapı Alto Ahsen Avcı Lakeç, İkbal İlayda Kalgay, Betül Yıldırır, Seçil Uyar, Buse Avcı, Başak İlaslan, İrem Erdönmez, Işıl Öner Bass Burak Güyer, Cemre Ilgın, İbrahim Şamil Sungur, Uğur Kürkçüoğlu