Inegol Mehter Takimi (Historic Ottoman Army Band) visited Houston within the 2nd Turkic Cultures and Children's Festival. Mehter is thought to be the oldest variety of military marching band in the world.

The notion of a military marching band, such as those in use even today, began to be borrowed from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The sound associated with the mehterân also exercised an influence on European classical music, with composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven all writing compositions inspired by or designed to imitate the music of the mehters.

The standard instruments employed by a mehterân are the kös (a large bass drum resembling the timpani), the nakare (a small kettledrum), the davul (a frame drum), the zil (cymbals), the kaba zurna (a bass variety of the zurna), the boru (a kind of trumpet), and the cevgen (a kind of stick bearing small concealed bells). The different varieties of bands are classed according to the number of instruments and musicians employed: either six-layered (altı katlı), seven-layered (yedi katlı), or nine-layered (dokuz katlı).

The costumes worn by the mehterân, despite wide variance in color and style, are always very colorful, often including high ribbed hats which are flared at the top and long robes wrapped in colorful silks.

Today, the music of the mehters is largely ceremonial. Mr Mehmet Semiz, President of Mehter mentioned that "Mehter was playing the heroic music to encourage soldiers in the past but now they play for peace and represent Turkish culture in a best way all around the world."

Today, Mehter is a band of the Turkish Armed Forces and it performs at the Military Museum (Askeri Müze) in Istanbul for the visitors. (November 1, 2008, Houston, TX)  

MEHTER AT THE CHANNEL FOX26

MEHTER AT RICE UNIVERSITY

MEHTER AT RAINDROP TURKISH HOUSE