The Music of Istanbul

The music of Istanbul is played by the 13 or so million people there. Boat horns blow and echo throughout town, announcing the coming and going of the ferries. Cars yell and quip at each other with their piercing horns, and rumble past with their exhaust pipes.

They are discussing, yelling, hammering, laughing, all in chorus with the city. It’s the musical pleading of the store or stall worker, each one answering the next in a chaotic marketplace call and answer; or the animated discussion of friends at the café in the alley over a glass of tea. The loving teasing and chiding of a parent to a child. Or the alluring, exotic sounds of music played by the lone musician, telling a story sad and old.

And then a seagull cries as it flies into town from over the waters of the Bosphorus, reminding all that they are there because of the water.