Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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4. Music To My Ears. Further Later Years; Turkey (now Turkiye). Because of the economy and available academic jobs available, I looked abroad and, since I had met Bryant and Betsy Harrell On Nantucket Island, while I was trapping voles, researching for my Ph.D., And he had taken on a new deanship job at Robert College in Istanbul, Turkiye, (Later to become Bogazici Universitesi), He offered me a position in the biology department. I accepted and moved to Turkiye and a new life. As I and Maggi, my first late wife (killed in an auto accident later in Africa), Drove through Germany, then Greece, and entered Turkiye, I tuned the radio to a local station--it was like going to Mars. I knew several languages, but I recognized not a word being broadcast. As I said later, it was as though my tongue were removed from my mouth! We settled into an apartment in Cucuk Bebek, an Istanbul suburb on the Bosphorus. (See my 'Poems and Thoughts' on swimming the Bosphorus.) After getting acquainted with my Constantinople Greek department head, An elderly woman who soon died of cancer-- And I, having an appendicitis and a hospital stay, I commenced through all that to learn much of my beginning Turkish. (I actually learned from my Turkish ambulance driver how to count, 1 to 10.) I discovered some fellow musicians and we befriended each other. I soon had a leave for visa work and was in Saltzburg, Austria. We went to an instrument maker and purchased an old 18th century 'cello. Of course I had to learn the new instrument and its fingering. Returning 'home' and with much practising, I approached Tom, a violinist, His wife, Laura, violist, David, a pianist, and a flouist. We started practising at an apartment in the shadows of the Rumeli Hisar, A fortress constructed by Ahmet the Conqueror, Who eventually conquered Constantinople and then all of Turkiye. We practised every Friday evening from 5 to 11 with a 'gifted' dinner, lasting an hour. We got quite good together and experienced marvelous evenings. I later came down with TB and was confined for many weeks in basic apartment isolation. During that time I learned Esperanto, wrote, read, and learned the 12 tone system of music Created by Shoenberg, who migrated from Russia to Los Angeles, USA! (When moving to California, I visited his 'reconstructed' studio at UCLA..) I composed, in my isolation, two pieces for flute and 'cello, the scores of which I later discussed with Karel Husa at Cornell on one of my home leaves. These two works I performed in the Harrell's Huge living room overlooking the Bosphorus,with many local colleagues in the audience. It was a step forward in yet another musical dimension. The Harrell's were gracious hosts and all went perfectly. I finally returned to California for yet another life, My music basically hibernating from thereon, With so many new agricultural changes pending, Also, creating the Environmental Education Farm Foundation, a non profit, As well as the Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservancy land trust, Music was still all around me, but now played by others. Each piece they play still yields some memory from my past life. Frank Maurer 5 December 2023 1600 Hours.