Leseprobe_Women Composers

women musicians outside the palace are also examined within the framework of
the newspaper advertisements of the period, registrations at the Annuals of Commerce
of the Orient, and petitions in the Ottoman State Archives. Additionally, a list
of female students who were sent to Europe, and music scores from women who
composed during the late Ottoman Empire are provided to evaluate the general
situation of women composers in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ottoman
Empire in the axis of their interactions with Western music.
Chapter IV expands on the first phase of examining the productive/creative
conditions of the composers in this research, focusing on the socio-political environments
in which the composers lived. The totality of political, economic, and
social changes, which begins with the period called Tanzimat (reorganisations) in
Ottoman Turkish, is examined and analysed through modernisation, Westernisation,
and Europeanisation approaches in Ottoman Empire/Turkish Republic historiography.
In this chapter the new institutions, their interactions, the manifestations
generated by such interactions, and their transmission, from the monarchy
to the Turkish Republic are surveyed, while emphasising the distinctive factors
within this long process that affected the works of the three composers. From
time to time, the narrative in the chapter takes the road less travelled, leaving the
path paved by the official historiography and gives space to composers’ personal
experiences, allowing their voices to be heard.
Chapter V contains perspectives on two other conditions that determine production
and creativity: familial and educational backgrounds. The approaches include
analysing the existing biographical sources and bringing their functions as
materials to the foreground.
The familial environment of all three composers – the fathers and/or grandfathers
of whom were bureaucrats –, the extent of the support and encouragement
they received from their parents, and their educational opportunities as part of
the favourable circumstances provided by family are kept within the framework
of private conditions, and the extent of these parameters’ influence on the musical
personalities of the composers is investigated in this chapter.
Chapter VI delves into the historical and contemporary literature about women
composers and musicians in the Ottoman Empire/Turkish Republic; the scope
of such studies with regard to music and gender, as well as the range of their
content are discussed. The section ‘Implicit Biases Against Women Composers’
constitutes a significant part of this chapter, thematising the manifestations of
fundamental issues and questions in gender and music studies, examples of which
became visible after 1980. In the case of Turkey, there are some possible issues
and questions to be raised specifically in this regard. While reading the essays and
articles included in this section, a method of investigating the possible questions
to be posed to the texts is pursued.
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