The early-Republican era (1923-1938) was a major period of musical and cultural change in Turkey. Alaturka: Style in Turkish Music is a study of the significance of style in Turkish music and, in particular, the polemical debate about an eastern style of Turkish music (called, alaturka) that developed during this rich and complicated era of Turkish history. Representing more than twenty years of research, the book explores the stylistic categories that show the intersection between music and culture; the different chapters treat musical materials, musical practices and musical contexts in turn. Informed by critical approaches to musical aesthetics in ethnomusicology as well as musicology and anthropology, the book focuses upon a native discourse about musical style, highlighting a contemporary apprehension about the appropriate constitution of a national identity. The argument over style discloses competing conceptions of Turkish space and time where definitions of the east and the west, and interpretations of the past and the present respectively were hotly contested. John Morgan O'Connell makes a significant contribution to the study of Turkish music in particular and Turkish history in general. Conceived as a historical ethnography, the book brings together archival sources and ethnographic materials to provide a critical revision of Turkish historiography, music providing a locus for interrogating singular representations of a national past.

About the Author
John Morgan O'Connell is director of the programme in Ethnomusicology at Cardiff University. His publications principally concern the musical traditions of the Islamic world, being especially interested in issues related to music and conflict, and music in application. He has also acted as a music consultant for a number of international organizations.

Reviews
'Alaturka represents a monumental study that meticulously traces and analyzes the stylistic shaping of a single artist's career to illuminate larger issues of national culture in a post-Ottoman state. As an ethnomusicological engagement with history, the book persuades us of the embeddedness of music and the literary arts in social history, and, it is hoped, will inspire further cross-disciplinary scholarship related to music in cultural studies of the Middle East and beyond.' Ethnomusicology



Book Information
ISBN 9781138245860
Author John Morgan O'Connell
Format Paperback
Page Count 306
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g