TAŞBEBEK

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A classical music word search puzzle by ALLAN RAE

 

Taşbebek is a 1934 single act Turkish-language opera by twentieth century composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-1991). It was one of a group of operas commissioned by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (circa 1881-1938), the first president of Turkey - now known as Türkiye - as part of his cultural transformation, and it was Saygun's second opera.

Taşbebek is just one of the many words hidden in my latest word search puzzle, below, provided here for your Sunday entertainment, similar to those which I've published here over the last few months. You may not know the meaning of some of these words, but which words could depend on your musical background. So while you attempt to solve the puzzle, why not try looking up those words that you don't know - for example Adaskin, Bomarzo, Claman, Mavra, Pelekis, Phantasmen or Zingarelli.

Just to remind you, with these puzzles, words can be hidden vertically, horizontally, diagonally and in retrograde.

The solution is complex as many letters are used multiple times, making these puzzles very dense, so only marking a line 'stroke' through the word is necessary. (Many commercial puzzles specify that each word should be circled when found; on these hand drawn puzzles, however, it is necessary just to stroke.)

'Taşbebek' find-a-word puzzle, © Allan Rae

My 'Find a word' puzzle Taşbebek is shown above. How many words can you find? If the puzzle is not visible, or if you can't see the letters in the puzzle clearly, then please click here. All of the words below are hidden in the puzzle above. If you can't see the list of words clearly, please click here. You may find it useful to print out the puzzle and the word list, so that you can mark the squares with a stroke and mark the words that you've already found.

It's also worth noticing that for words containing an accented letter, that letter will be shown in the puzzle without the accent and so could share a square with a non-accented letter from another word. In this puzzle, the words with accented letters are Carreño (the Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer and conductor María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García, 1853-1917), Fauré (the French composer Gabriel Fauré, 1845-1924), Kvěch (the Czech composer and teacher Otomar Kvěch, 1950-2018), Lutosławski (the Polish composer and conductor Witold Lutosławski, 1913-1994) and, obviously, Taşbebek.

The list of hidden words in Allan Rae's word puzzle, 'Taşbebek'

Good luck! Please let me know how you get on, via the Classical Music Daily contact page. You might also wish to suggest words - composers, compositions, musical terms etc - for a future puzzle.

Copyright © 25 February 2024 Allan Rae,
Calgary, Canada

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29 February 2024

Dear Mr Mendel

I thank you again for your interest in these puzzles. As to a little history of me creating them ... Near on twenty-five years ago I realized that music students were reluctant to learn 'terms' etc. I also did not want to let some of the more obscure works, composers and terms 'slip out of my mind', hence puzzles.

The hobby has developed into word patterns within patterns, as you realize. I have about three hundred and continue to build others. Your interest and enthusiasm has renewed my desire to continue. (At near eighty-two I hope to do a few more.)

I will take your observations and perhaps make the additions. (The darn things are somewhat difficult already, as some of my friends advise.) (lol)

All the best and thanks again.

Allan Rae

 

28 February 2024

Dear Mr Rae,

Thank you for your puzzles. Having just completed this one, I wonder about other people's puzzle solving strategy.

Mine is that I stare at the puzzle first and see how many words I can just spot. I turn the paper sideways, upsidedown and along the diagonals - this helps too. Then I start to look for the words on the word sheet - first those containing less frequent letters: J, Q, X, Z etc, and those with double letters together or other easy to recognize patterns of letters.

When only a few words are left to find, I also use the symmetry in the lines I've added to the puzzle, and the places where there are no lines, to show where undiscovered words may hide.

Thank you for your reply to my previous letter, via the editor. I noticed one word in this puzzle, SEVENTH, could actually be a longer word, SEVENTHS.

If you are interested in, as you say, 'entering two words in the puzzle box', then here, you could add (dia)TONIC and TOSCA(nini).

Finally, I found a musical word in the puzzle which is not in your list: NOCES and, if you decide to allow three and four letter words, these: ARTS, BOND, CODA, DALE, PROM, RAP, SONG and TALE.

Yours sincerely,

Torbjorn Mendel

 

There are more games, puzzles and quizzes here, and more articles about Türkiye here.

The background image on this page has been derived from a 2009 photo taken near Trabzon in Türkiye of the Pontic Alps, which divided the ancient kingdom of Pontus.

 

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