Istanbul’s cultural richness is extraordinarily strong. Even on the streets, you can feel the city’s sophisticated spirit, yet it seems to me that it is not understood or appreciated as much as it deserves worldwide. It is as if the entire city, every street corner, is silently pleading for this recognition. The old streets and especially the light are incredibly beautiful. The city has a very powerful soul, and it is extremely difficult to put it into words.’
Loreena McKennitt
Let’s lend an ear to Loreena McKennitt’s song: The Gates of Istanbul in which she blends western and eastern musical traditions. You will immediately recognise that the “gates” are symbolic, marking a threshold: between East and West, past and present, inner and outer experience.
The phrase “the gates of Istanbul” evokes the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453, when Fatih Sultan Mehmet breached the city’s walls and transformed Constantinople into Istanbul. The song alludes to the moment when a civilization changes hands and becomes a threshold between worlds: Christian and Islamic, East and West, medieval and early modern.
The song invites listening as passage, an entry into a city that resists fixation, and instead asks to be inhabited, attentively.
The artist performing in Istanbul in 2024
See there, past that far-off hill
A tower held in the sky
Hear there, in that dark blue night
The music calling us home
See there, in that far-off field
Flowers turned to the sky
Feel there, in that dark blue night
The music calling us home
Stars may always guide our way
From desert sands where winds blow harsh and long
But here’s where, where our hearts will pray
And all our loves will slumber with a song
So now, if our hearts be true
And like a pool of truth reflect the sun
We will find right honour there
And keep us safe and lead us from all harm
So come love, let us dance all night
Until the birds they waken at the dawn
Then come love, let us sing all night
And all our loves will slumber with a song
note on the quote: taken from the 9th of July 2018 interview with Cenk Erdem published in cazkolik.com.
