Structural analysis of Necil Kazım Akses violin concerto and analysis in terms of violin playing techniques

Necil Kazım Akses was born on May 6, 1908 and studied composition in Prague and Vienna. In the course of his work as an educator and orchestra conductor, he trained many aspiring musicians and composed nearly 60 works. He died in Ankara in 1999. Akses, commissioned by the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, composed his Violin Concerto and dedicated it to Suna Kan on December 31, 1969. The concerto has been structurally analyzed, while suggestions for its musical analysis and technical approaches for the performance of important passages have also been devised. Approximately 44 minutes in duration, this work by Akses is the longest violin concerto written by any of the members of the Turkish Five. This study consists of two main sections. The first contains general information regarding Akses' musical life, education and work as a composer in addition to a brief discussion of his major works and the Violin Concerto. Due to the fairly intense nature in every movement of the violin concerto's orchestration and thematic, contrapuntal, polyrhythmic and timbral organization (in addition to the large number of tangled musical elements and the work's imposing formal structure), the general contours of the composition are analyzed without going into too much detail; while the main focus of the second section has been placed on developing effective practice suggestions designed to eliminate technical difficulties in the performance of the soloist's part. The purpose of this study is both to provide young musicians with a working example of an essential structural examination of a violin concerto from the contemporary Turkish music repertoire as well as to generate ideas for more effective study by developing practice methods which will make difficult passages easier to perform and thereby be of technical use to aspiring violin soloists.