Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T13:28:17.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Staged Fright: Musical Hybridity and Religious Intolerance in Turkey, 1923–38

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2011

JOHN MORGAN O'CONNELL
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is concerned with the relationship between musical style and religious prejudice in Turkey during the early Republican period (1923–38). It focuses on a musical contest in 1932 between a Jewish cantor (hazan) and an Islamic vocalist (hafız) in the presence of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the president of the Turkish Republic who instigated revolutionary reforms that affected many aspects of Turkish culture, including music. Historical accounts of this musical contest not only suggest how religious discrimination manifested itself in a competitive setting but also serve to question the parameters of religious tolerance in Turkey, a country often admired for its favourable attitude towards Jews during the twentieth century. The discussion draws on Homi Bhabha's concept of a ‘third space’ to uncover the complex relations that existed in Turkey between Jews and Muslims on the one hand and among Jews on the other. It also invokes Bhabha to show how music can be viewed as a ‘supplementary discourse’ that serves both to unify cultural interests and to perpetuate cultural differences. By challenging the accepted narrative of religious tolerance in historical sources, the article explores through music the characteristics and consequences of racism in the country during a period of growing anti-Semitism both at home and abroad.

Type
Articles
Information
Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 3 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Discography

Aksoy, Bülent, ed. İzak Algazi: Osmanlı-Türk ve Osmanlı-Yahudi Musıkisinin Büyük Sesi. Istanbul: Kalan Müzik CD 333, 2004.Google Scholar
Esim, Janet, and Esim, Jak. Antik bir Hüzün …: Judeo-Espanyol Şarkıları 1492–1992. Istanbul: Polin Bant Cassette 011, 1992.Google Scholar
Pal-Yarden, Hadass. Yahudice: Ladino Şehir Müziği. Istanbul: Kalan Müzik CD 272, 2003.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin. An Early Twentieth-Century Sephardi Troubadour: the Historical Recordings of Haim Efendi from Turkey. Jerusalem: Anthology of Musical Traditions in Israel 21. 4 CDs, AMTI 0801, 2008.Google Scholar
Spottswood, Dick, and Signell, Karl, eds. Masters of Turkish Music, vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: Rounder CD 1051, 1990.Google Scholar
Spottswood, Dick, and Signell, Karl. Masters of Turkish Music, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Rounder, CD 1111, 1996.Google Scholar
Ünlü, Cemal. Gazeller: 78 Devirli Taş Plak Kayıtları. Istanbul: Kalan Müzik CD 067, CD 072, 1997.Google Scholar
Ünlü, Cemal. Gazeller 3. Istanbul: Kalan Müzik CD 360, 2006.Google Scholar
Yasak, Aaron K., and Dilmen, Lari, eds. Maftirim: Judeo-Sufi Connection. Istanbul: Kalan Müzik CD 234, 2001.Google Scholar

Bibliography

Aksoy, Bülent. ‘Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyete Musiki ve Batılılaşma’, in Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi. Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1985. 1212–1248.Google Scholar
Aksoy, Bülent. ‘Is the Question of the “Origin of Turkish Music” not Redundant?’. Turkish Musical Quarterly 2/4 (1989), 1–7.Google Scholar
Aksoy, Bülent. ‘A Great Voice of Ottoman Turkish and Jewish Music’. 2010. <http://www.turkishmusicportal.org> (accessed 4 November 2010).+(accessed+4+November+2010).>Google Scholar
Algazi, Isaac. Extrait du fassil husseini des chants juifs orientaux. Istanbul: Benjamin B. Joseph, 1924–5.Google Scholar
Aracı, Emre. ‘Zor Yıllar (1935–46)’, in Adnan Saygun: Doğu Batı Arası Müzik Köprüsü. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2001. 81–107.Google Scholar
Ataman, Sadi Y.Atatürk ve Türk Musikisi. Atatürk Dizisi 31. Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı, 1991.Google Scholar
Bali, Rıfat N.Les relations entre turcs et juifs dans la Turquie moderne. Analecta Isisiana 53. Istanbul: Éditions Isis, 2001.Google Scholar
Bali, Rıfat N.. ‘The Thrace Events: Continuity and Change within Turkish State Policies Regarding Non-Muslim Minorities: an Interview with Rıfat Bali’. European Journal of Turkish Studies 7 (2008), 1–21.Google Scholar
Bali, Rıfat N.. ‘Confronting Turkish Anti-Semitism.’ 2009. FrontPage Magazine, 17 August 2009. <http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=35946> (accessed 21 August 2009).Google Scholar
Başgöz, İlhan. ‘The Waqwaq Tree in the Turkish Shadow-Play Theatre Karagöz and the Story of Esther’, in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Levy. 549–558.Google Scholar
Behar, Cem. Klasik Türk Mûsıkisi Üzerine Denemeler. Istanbul: Bağlam Yayınları, 1987.Google Scholar
Behar, Cem. Zaman, Mekân, Müzik: Klâsik Türk Musıkisinde Eğitim (Meşk), İcra ve Aktarım. Istanbul: AFA Yayınları, 1993.Google Scholar
Behar, Cem. Kantes relijyozos de Selihot, Roş-Aşana i Kipur en cudeo-espanyol. Istanbul: Güler Basımevi, 1947.Google Scholar
Ben-Naeh, Yaron. Jews in the Realm of the Sultans: Ottoman Jewish Society in the Seventeenth Century. Texts and Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Judaism 22. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K.The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.Google Scholar
Bohlman, Philip. Jewish Music and Modernity. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çakıroğlu, Ekrem, ed. İstanbul Radyosu: Anılar, Yaşantılar. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık, 2000.Google Scholar
Campos, Michelle U.‘Between “Beloved Ottomania” and “The Land of Israel”: the Struggle over Ottomanism and Zionism among Palestine's Sephardi Jews, 1908–13’. International Journal of Middle East Studies 37/4 (2005), 461–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cengiz, Halil E., ed. Yaşanmış Olaylarla Atatürk ve Müzik: Riyâset-i Cumhûr İnce Saz Hey'eti Şefi Binbaşı Hâfız Yaşar Okur'un Anıları (1924–1938). Ankara: Müzik Ansiklopedisi Yayınları, 1993.Google Scholar
Danielson, Virginia. The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Ruth, ed. Musical Exodus: Al-Andalus and its Jewish Diasporas. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Dorn[-Sezgin], Pamela J. ‘Change and Ideology: the Ethnomusicology of Turkish Jewry’. PhD diss., Indiana University, 1991.Google Scholar
Dorn[-Sezgin], Pamela J.. ‘Hakhamim, Dervishes, and Court Singers’, in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Levy. 585–632.Google Scholar
Erbay, Fethiye, and Erbay, Mutlu. Cumhuriyet Dönemi (1923–1938): Atatürk'ün Sanat Politikası. Istanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Bölümü, 2005.Google Scholar
Ergun, Sadeddin N.Türk Musikisi Antolojisi. 2 vols. Istanbul: Rıza Koşkun Matbaası, 1942–3.Google Scholar
Faroqhi, Suraiya, and Inalcık, Halil, eds. The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage: Politics, Society and Economy. Leiden: Brill, 2003.Google Scholar
Feldman, Walter. ‘Cultural Authority and Authenticity in the Turkish Repertoire’. Asian Music 22/3 (1991), 73–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Walter. Music of the Ottoman Court: Makam, Composition and the Early Ottoman Instrumental Repertoire. Intercultural Music Studies 10. Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1996.Google Scholar
Franco, Moïse. ‘L’alliance Israélite universelle et les Israélites de Turquie', in Essai sur l'histoire des Israélites de l'empire ottoman depuis les origins jusqu'à nos jours. Paris: El Mundo Djudeo-Espanyol, 2007 [1897]. 249–265.Google Scholar
Galanté, Avram. Türk ve Yahudiler. Istanbul: Tan Matbaası, 1928; expanded edn, 1947.Google Scholar
Galanté, Avram. Documents officiels Turcs concernant les Juifs de Turquie. Istanbul: Haim Rozio, 1931.Google Scholar
Galanté, Avram. Turcs et Juifs: étude historique, politique. Istanbul: Haim, Rozio & Co, 1932.Google Scholar
Galanté, Avram. Histoire des Juifs d'Anatolie. 2 vols. Istanbul: M. Babok, 1937, 1939.Google Scholar
Galanté, Avram. Türk Harsı ve Türk Yahudisi. Istanbul: Fakülteler Matbaası, 1953.Google Scholar
Gökalp, Ziya. Türkçülüğün Esasları. Ankara: Matbuat ve Irtibarat Matbaası, 1923.Google Scholar
Greve, Martin. Die Europäisierung orientalischer Kunstmusik in der Türkei. Berlin: Peter Lang / Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1995.Google Scholar
Haker, Erol. Edirne, its Jewish Community, and Alliance Schools 1867–1937. Istanbul: Isis Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Hood, Mantle. ‘The Challenge of “Bi-Musicality”’. Ethnomusicology 4/2 (1960), 55–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idelsohn, Abraham. Gesänge der orientalischen Sefardim. Jerusalem, Berlin, Vienna: Benjamin Hartz, 1923.Google Scholar
İnal, İbnülemin M.Hoş Sadâ: Son Asır Türk Musikişinasları. Istanbul: Maarif Basımevi, 1958.Google Scholar
Juhasz, Esther, ed. Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire: Aspects of Material Culture. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1990.Google Scholar
Kalderon, Albert E.Abraham Galante: a Biography. New York: Sepher-Hermon Press / Sephardic House at Congregation Shearith Israel, 1983.Google Scholar
Kandiyoti, Deniz, and Saktanber, Ayşe, eds. Fragments of Culture: the Everyday of Modern Turkey. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Ruth. ‘Singing of Baqqashōt by Aleppo Jews’. Acta Musicologica 40 (1968), 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinross, Lord Patrick. Atatürk: a Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey. New York: William Morrow, 1965.Google Scholar
Kocatürk, Utkan. Atatürk ve Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Tarihi Kronolojisi, 1918–1938. Ankara: Türk Tarihi Kurumu Basımevi, 1988.Google Scholar
Landau, Jacob M. ‘Relations between Jews and Non-Jews in the Late Ottoman Empire: Some Characteristics’, in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Levy. 539–546.Google Scholar
Levy, Avigdor. The Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Levy, Avigdor, ed. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968.Google Scholar
Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Mango, Andrew. Atatürk. London: John Murray, 1999.Google Scholar
Neumark, Fritz. Zuflucht am Bosphorus: deutsche Gelehrte, Politiker und Künstler in der Emigration 1933–1953. Frankfurt: Knecht, 1995.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M. ‘An Alevi Musician in Berlin: an Artist's Individual View and the Assumptions of a General Musical Tradition’. MA thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Alaturka Revisited: Style as History in Turkish Vocal Performance’. PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1996.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘The Arab in Arabesk: Style and Stereotype in Turkish Vocal Performance’, in The Limerick Anthology of Arab Affairs, ed. Adawy, Nabil and Wharton, Barrie. Limerick: Limerick University Press, 1998. 87–103.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Fine Art, Fine Music: Controlling Turkish Taste at the Fine Arts Academy’. Yearbook for Traditional Music 33 (2000), 117–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘From Empire to Republic: Vocal Style in Twentieth-Century Turkey’, in Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 6, ed. Danielson, Virginia, Marcus, Scott, and Reynolds, Dwight. New York: Garland, 2002. 781–787.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Major Minorities: towards an Ethnomusicology of Irish Minority Musics’, in Music and Minorities, ed. Hemetek, Ursula and Pettan, Svanibor. Ljubljana: University of Slovenia Press, 2002. 165–182Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Song Cycle: the Life and Death of the Turkish Gazel: Review Essay’. Ethnomusicology 47/3 (2003), 399–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘A Resounding Issue: Greek Recordings of Turkish Music, 1923–1938’. Middle East Studies Bulletin 37/2 (2004), 3–24.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Sustaining Difference: Theorizing Minority Musics in Badakhshan’, in Music and Minorities, ed. Hemetek, Ursula and Naroditskaya, Inna. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2004. 1–16.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘In the Time of Alaturka: Identifying Difference in Musical Discourse’. Ethnomusicology 49/2 (2005), 177–205.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Sound Sense: Mediterranean Music from a Turkish Perspective’, in The Mediterranean in Music, ed. Cooper, David and Dawe, Kevin. Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2005. 3–25.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘The Mermaid of the Meyhane: the Legend of a Greek Singer in a Turkish Tavern’, in Music and the Sirens, ed. Austern, Linda and Naroditskaya, Inna. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. 273–293.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘War of the Waves: Cypriot Broadcasting in Great Britain’, in Echoes of Diversity: Music from Turkey in the Diaspora, ed. Hemetek, Ursula and Sağlam, Hande. Vienna: UNESCO, 2008. 119–130.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Alabanda: Brass Bands and Musical Methods in Turkey’, in Giuseppe Donizetti Pascià: traiettorie musicali e storiche tra Italia e Turchia, ed. Spinetti, Federico. Bergamo: Fondazione Donizetti, 2010. 19–37.Google Scholar
O'Connell, John M.. ‘Modal Trails, Model Trials: Musical Migrants and Mystical Critics in Turkey (1923–1938)’, in Musical Exodus: Al-Andalus and its Diasporas, ed. Davis, .Google Scholar
Oransay, Gültekin. Atatürk ile Kuğ. Izmir: Küğ Yayınları, 1985.Google Scholar
Ortyalı, İlber. ‘Ottomanism and Zionism during the Second Constitutional Period, 1908–1915’, in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Levy, . 526–537.Google Scholar
Özalp, Nazimi. Türk Mûsikîsi Tarihi. 2 vols. Ankara: Müzik Dairesi Başkanlığı, 1986.Google Scholar
Özbek, Meral. Popüler Kültür ve Orhan Gencebay Arabeski. Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1991.Google Scholar
Öztuna, Yılmaz. Büyük Türk Mûsikîsi Ansiklopedesi, 2 vols. Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı, 1990.Google Scholar
Paçacı, Gönul, ed. Cumhuriyet'in Sesleri. Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası, 1999.Google Scholar
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Redhouse, Sir James. Redhouse Türkçe/Osmanlıca–İngilizce Sözlük (Redhouse Turkish/Ottoman–English Dictionary). Istanbul: Redhouse Yayınevi, 1999.Google Scholar
Reisman, Arnold. Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Atatürk's Vision. Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing, 2006.Google Scholar
Rodrigue, Aron. ‘The Beginnings of Westernization and Community Reform among Istanbul's Jewry, 1854–65’, in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Levy, . 439–456.Google Scholar
Rozen, Minna. ‘Elite Culture and Popular Culture’, in A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul: the Formative Years, 1453–1566. Leiden: Brill, 2002. 244–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rozen, Minna. ‘Between the Two World Wars’, in The Last Ottoman Century and Beyond: the Jews in Turkey and the Balkans 1808–1945. Tel Aviv: School of Jewish Studies, 2005. 223–255.Google Scholar
Sağman, Ali R.Meşur Hafız Sami Merhum. Istanbul: Ahmet Sait Matbaası, 1947.Google Scholar
Saygun, Adnan. Atatürk ve Musiki. Ankara: Ajans-Türk Matbaacılık Sanayii, 1965.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin.Mizimrat Qedem: the Life and Music of R. Isaac Algazi from Turkey. Jerusalem: Institute of Jewish Music, 1989.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin.. ‘The Turkish Makam in the Musical Culture of the Ottoman Jews: Sources and Examples’. Israel Studies in Musicology 5 (1990), 43–68.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin.. ‘The Peşrev as a Vocal Genre in Ottoman Hebrew Sources’. Turkish Music Quarterly 4/3 (1991), 1–9.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin.. ‘La música sefardí en al Imperio Otomano: nuevas fuentes literias’, in Actes del Simposi Internacional sobre Cultura Sefardita, ed. Ribera, Josep. Barcelona: Facultat de Filologia, 1993. 279–294.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin.. ‘From Court and Tarikat to Synagogue: Ottoman Art Music and Hebrew Sacred Songs’, in Sufism, Music, and Society in the Middle East, ed. Hammarlund, Anders, Olsson, Tord, and Özdalga, Elizabeth. Transactions 10. Istanbul: Curzon Press, 2001. 81–96.Google Scholar
Seroussi, Edwin.. ‘Maftirim Giriş / Introduction to Maftirim’, in Maftirim: Türk-Sefarad Sinagog Ilahileri / Turkish Sephardic Synagogue Hymns. Istanbul: Gözlem Gazetecilik, 2008.Google Scholar
Shapira, Dan. Avraham Firkowicz in Istanbul (1830–1832): Paving the Way for a Turkic Nationalism. Ankara: Karam Yayıncılık, 2003.Google Scholar
Shaw, Stanford. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Stanford. The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. London: Macmillan, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Stanford. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933–1945. London: Macmillan, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri C. ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, ed. Ashcroft, Bill, Griffiths, Gareth, and Tiffin, Helen. London: Routledge, 1995. 24–28.Google Scholar
Stokes, Martin. The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tütüncü, Mehmet, ed. Turkish–Jewish Encounters: Studies on Turkish–Jewish Relations through the Ages. Haarlem: SOTA, 2001.Google Scholar
Üngör, Etem R.Türk Musikisi Güfteler Antolojisi. 2 vols. Istanbul: Eren Yayınları, 1980.Google Scholar
Ünlü, Cemal. Git Zaman Gel Zaman: Fonograf – Gramofon – Taş Plak. Istanbul: Pan Yayıncılık, 2004.Google Scholar
Volkan, Vamik, and Itzkowitz, Norman. The Immortal Atatürk: a Psychobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Zimmerman-Kalyoncu, Cornelia. Deutsche Musiker in der Türkei im 20. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1985.Google Scholar
Zürcher, Erik van. Turkey: a Modern History. New York: I. B. Tauris, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar