Editing Ahmet Adnan Saygun (section)

{{Short description|Turkish composer}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2009}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Ahmet Adnan Saygun
| image              = Adnan Saygun.jpg
| image_size         = 185px
| alt                = Ahmed Adnan Saygun
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1907|09|07}}
| birth_place        = [[İzmir]], [[Ottoman Empire]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1991|01|06|1907|09|07}}
| death_place        = [[Istanbul]], Turkey
| nationality        = Turkish
| other_names        = 
| occupation         = Composer, musicologist, writer
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = 
| notable_works      = 
}}

'''Ahmet Adnan Saygun''' ({{IPA|tr|ahˈmet adˈnan sajˈɡun}}; 7 September 1907 – 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, [[musicologist]] and writer on music.

One of a group of composers known as the [[The Turkish Five|Turkish Five]] who pioneered [[Music of Turkey#Western influence on Turkish classical music|western classical music in Turkey]], his works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional [[Turkish music#Folk music|Turkish folk songs]] and culture. When alluding to folk elements he tends to spotlight one note of the scale and weave a melody around it, based on a [[Turkish makam|Turkish mode]]. His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works.

''[[The Times]]'' called him "the grand old man of Turkish music, who was to his country what [[Jean Sibelius]] is to Finland, what [[Manuel de Falla]] is to Spain, and what [[Béla Bartók]] is to Hungary".<ref>"Ahmet Adnan Saygun", ''The Times'', 15 January 1991. p. 12</ref> Saygun was growing up in Turkey when he witnessed radical changes in his country's politics and culture as the [[Atatürk's Reforms|reforms]] of [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] had replaced the [[Ottoman Empire]]—which had ruled for nearly 600 years—with a new secular republic based on Western models and traditions. As Atatürk had created a new cultural identity for his people and newly founded nation, Saygun found his role in developing what Atatürk had begun.