
Photo: Akşam Gazetesi · Public domain · credits
Cemal Reşit Rey
Person · male · Turkey · Jerusalem · born 1904 · died 1985 · recording since 1982
Turkish composer and pianist (1904–1985)
Also known as ジェマル・レシット・レイ
Timeline
1900s
1980s
· Debut release
Debut release: Turkish Folk Songs Accompanied by Orchestra
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
2000s
Biography
Biography
Cemal Reşit Rey (Turkish pronunciation: [dʒeˈmaɫ ɾeˈʃit ɾej]; 25 October 1904 – 7 October 1985) was a Turkish composer, pianist, script writer and conductor. He was well known for a string of successful and popular Turkish-language operettas for which his brother Ekrem Reşit Rey (1900–1959) wrote the librettos.
He was born on 25 October 1904 in Jerusalem and died on 7 October 1985 in Istanbul. He was one of the five pioneers of Western classical music in Turkey known as 'The Turkish Five' in the first half of the 20th century. Notable students include Yüksel Koptagel, a Turkish composer and pianist.
Legacy
Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul is named after him.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 17 | 76.4th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 2 | 75.7th |
| Studio albums | 2 | 78.8th |
| Awards recorded | 1 | 89th |
| Timeline events | 6 | 80.8th |
| Recording span (years) | 3 | 15.8th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (2 release groups · 2 studio albums)
Albums · 2
Turkish Folk Songs Accompanied by Orchestra
1982 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 19 tracks · 49:30
1Three Folk Songs: I. İlimonektim Taşa0:592Three Folk Songs: II. Sarı Zeybek1:283Three Folk Songs: III. Horozumu Kaçırdılar1:334Seven Turkish Folk Songs: I. Ah Hanifem1:515Seven Turkish Folk Songs: II. Çamdan Sakız Akıyor1:526Seven Turkish Folk Songs: III. Ayın Ondördü1:377Seven Turkish Folk Songs: IV. Maya2:518Seven Turkish Folk Songs: V. Türkmeni2:139Seven Turkish Folk Songs: VI. Divan2:2610Seven Turkish Folk Songs: VII. Bülbül2:5811Three Turkish Folk Songs: I. Ayın Ondördü2:3012Three Turkish Folk Songs: II. Çeşme1:5013Three Turkish Folk Songs: III. Ak Koyun Mêler Gelir2:3914Six Turkish Folk Songs: I. Menevşem2:4215Six Turkish Folk Songs: II. Üç Güzel4:1516Six Turkish Folk Songs: III. Uzun Kavak2:5017Six Turkish Folk Songs: IV. Yüksek, Yüksek Tepelere4:3518Six Turkish Folk Songs: VI. Bebek5:1819Six Turkish Folk Songs: VII. Bir Dalda İki Elma3:03Lyric Concerto: Music for Strings from Turkey
2000 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 7 tracks · 57:36
1Sinfonietta for Strings: Allegro7:532Sinfonietta for Strings: Adagio6:293Sinfonietta for Strings: Allegro4:174Andante and Allegro for Violin and Strings: Andante7:495Andante and Allegro for Violin and Strings: Allegro. Vivo5:466Adagio for Strings6:437Lyric Concerto for Flute, Oboe and Strings18:39
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Cemal Reşit Rey head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 17 | 76.4th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 2 | 75.7th |
| Studio albums | 2 | 78.8th |
| Awards recorded | 1 | 89th |
| Timeline events | 6 | 80.8th |
| Recording span (years) | 3 | 15.8th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Awards & honours
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | State Artist | won |
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1950_05_03_Aksam_Cemal_Resit_Rey.jpgaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7fb4bb4e-dc6b-4353-8949-05f11cfb6daediscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/7fb4bb4e-dc6b-4353-8949-05f11cfb6daecore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1053284genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1053284seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemal_Re%C5%9Fit_Reybiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemal_Re%C5%9Fit_Rey
Why this artist is in the database
- List of composers by name
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: Akşam Gazetesi · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q1053284 · MusicBrainz: 7fb4bb4e-dc6b-4353-8949-05f11cfb6dae
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