Cover Women Composers’ Creative Conditions Before and During the Turkish Republic

Nejla Melike Atalay: Women Composers’ Creative Conditions Before and During the Turkish Republic. A Case Study on Three Women Composers: Leyla Hanımefendi, Nazife Aral-Güran, and Yüksel Koptagel, Wien: Hollitzer Verlag, 2021, 516 S., 17 x 24 cm, English, Hardcover

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Nejla Melike Atalay

Women Composers’ Creative Conditions Before and During the Turkish Republic

A Case Study on Three Women Composers: Leyla Hanımefendi, Nazife Aral-Güran, and Yüksel Koptagel

This research is focused on three Istanbulite composers, Leyla Hanımefendi, Nazife Aral-Güran, and Yüksel Koptagel, who lived and produced in consecutive and overlapping periods, from the Tanzimat Era of the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic of the 1980s. It explores the composers’ productive and creative conditions through the socio-political environments of their times, their familial and educational backgrounds, and the social spaces in which they lived and worked. The institutionalisation of Western music and the education thereof occupy a significant place in understanding the composers’ relationships with Western music, the bonds they established with polyphonic music, and the development of their musical personalities as a consequence of their education, resultant from the opportunities provided by such developments. This study conjointly examines herstory and music historiography by employing alternative materials and creating its own narrative.

INHALT

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preliminary Remarks on Various Uses
of the Ottoman/Turkish Language

List of Abbreviations

List of Examples

List of Tables

List of Figures

List of Visuals

Introduction – Initial Steps: On my Background and Motivation for the
Research – Scope of the Research – The Composers: Why These Three?
– On Methodology and Foundational Factors – Overview of Chapters

 

CHAPTER I

Terminological Definitions in Ottoman/Turkish Music

1.1. Defining and Categorising Turkish Music, and the Problem of Genre
1.2. Genre – Polyphonic Music of Turkey (Türkiye’nin Çoksesli Müziği) –
       Polyphony and Çokseslilik – Definition of Polyphony and Çokseslilik
       in Turkish Music Encyclopaediae and Other Reference Books
1.3. Categorising – Non-Turkish Approach to Polyphonic Music of Turkey and its Place in Categorising
1.4. The Polyphonic Music of Turkey in Turkish Music Historiography and Music Literature – Alaturka and Alafranga
1.5. Conclusion

 

CHAPTER II

Institutionalisation of Western Music in the Ottoman Empire
and in the Turkish Republic in Music Historiography

2.1. The Introduction of Western Music to the Ottoman Empire as an Institution: Its Function and Status
2.2. Muzika-i Hümayûn – On Style and Repertoire – Some Hybrid Trials in Education Model and Practice
2.3. A Fanfare Orchestra Consisting of Women in the Palace
2.4. Music Schools in the Ottoman Empire
2.5. The Impact of Non-Muslim Ottomans and Non-Ottoman Citizens on the Adoption of Western Music
       in the Ottoman Empire
2.6. Alafranga Life and Music
2.7. Instrumentalisation of Western Music in Turkish Republic – Expectations and Steps Taken
2.8. The Contribution of European Experts in the Newly Established or Restructured Music Institutions of the Republic –
       On the Multiplicity of Écoles, Methods and Styles that Appeared in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic
2.9. Conclusion

 

CHAPTER III

Women Musicians of Late Ottoman Istanbul

3.1. Inside the Palace – Writing about the Imperial Harem (Harem-i Hümâyun) – Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi’s memories:
      The Imperial Harem of the Sultans – Spaces allocated for Music in the Ottoman Palace and the Imperial Harem –
      Women Musicians in the Ottoman Palaces – On the Musical Training of Dynasty Members – A Glimpse Inside
      the Palace: The Women’s Orchestra in the Palace – Pianist and Composer Sultans – Dédié a Sa Majeste Imperiale
      Le Sultan
[Compositions Dedicated to the Sultans] – On Visiting Musicians and the Favours Bestowed upon Them
3.2. Outside the Palace – Madam Hacı Foti: Attempting to establish a music school specially for women in Istanbul
      Advertisements for Women Teaching Piano – Some Music Professors Residing in Istanbul found in the Annuaire Oriental
3.3. Music Scores by Women Published in Istanbul in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries – Madame
      Herzmaińska (aka Irma Herzmaińska) and her Album – On Some Compositions by Women in the Late Nineteenth and
      Early Twentieth Centuries – Fatma Zinnur Hanım – Victoire de Tchataldja (Çatalca Muzafferiyeti) – İhsan Raif Hanım:
      La Voix de la Liberte – İhsan Sabri Hanım: Pour ma Patrie [For my Country] – Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi: La Gloir [sic] –
      Emine Şayan Hanım: Rhum des [sic] Deutschen Arme [sic] [The Victorious March for the German Army] – On the
      Ottoman Women who Received Music Education in Germany in the Twentieth Century – A General Framework for the
      Women who Travelled to Europe for Music Education on a Scholarship
3.4. Conclusion

 

CHAPTER IV

Conditions of Production

4.1. Circumstances determining the conditions: Socio-political environment – Tanzimat [Reorganisation] – Modernisation
      Approaches under Ottoman/Turkish Regimes and Their Discussion in Present Day Historiography – Tanzimat in Ottoman
      Historiography – Other façades of Tanzimat – Toward a National Awareness – On Women’s Movement in the Late
      Ottoman Period and Women’s Magazines
4.2. Early Republican Era (1923–1950) – Republic and Caliphate – Conditions of Making of a Kemalist Woman –
      Nazife Aral-Güran: Being of a Woman Musician of the Republic
4.3. Transition to Multi-Party regime (1945–1980) – [Never-ending] Censorship and its Effects – Expanding the Borders
4.4. Conclusion

 

CHAPTER V

Conditions of Production II (on the Personal Level)

5.1. Family Background as a Factor Determining Conditions – Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi (1850?–1936) – Children of
      Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi and Sırrı Paşa – Nazife Aral-Güran (1921–1993) – On Family and Last Names –
      Family and Social Status – Nazife Aral-Güran’s marriage to İsmail Yılmaz Güran (1952) – Yüksel Koptagel (b. 1931)
      – Yüksel Koptagel’s marriage to Danyal Kerven (1964)
5.2. Educational Background as a Factor Determining Conditions – Circumstances Determining the Conditions:
      (Educational Background) – Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi – Leyla Hanımefendi’s Meşks – On Piano Meşk
      Nazife Aral-Güran – Certificate for Teaching Music –        Interactivity on Multiple Levels – Yüksel Koptagel –
      Towards Being a Pianist – Being a Performer who Composes – Music Writer
5.3. Conclusion

 

CHAPTER VI

Music Historiography in Turkey Focusing on ‘Women Composers’

6.1. Gender Perspectives on the ‘Issue of Women’ in Music Studies in Turkey – An Overview of Studies on Women
      Composers in the Ottoman Empire/Turkish Republic
6.2. The Biases against Women Composers in Turkey – Hikmet Şimşek: “Woman and Music. The Woman in Turkish Music” –
       Faruk Yener: “On Women and the Art of Composing” – Fazıl Say: “Improvisation 2” – Yılmaz Öztuna: “Leyla Saz”
6.3. Approaches to Concepts of Dehâ [Ingenuity] and Dâhi [Genius]
6.4. Conclusion

 

CHAPTER VII

Places of Production and Creation

7.1. Thinking of Space and Place
7.2. Mansions (Konak) and Pavilions (Köşk’) – Defining Konak and Köşk – Mansion and Pavilion as a Space – Remembrance
      of Leyla Hanımefendi’s Burnt Pavilion (Yanan Köşkümün Yâdı)
7.3. Salons, Assemblies and Gatherings in Istanbul as Social-Spaces – The Tuesday Salons (Le mardi Nişantaşı, 62) –
      On Gatherings at Kızıltoprak and Meşk – Nazife Güran and Women Musicians Club Meetings – ‘Environment’ as a Factor
      Determining Social Circumstances and the Koptagel Case
7.4. Conclusion

 

Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendices