Abstract of My Dissertation Project

For the record, here's what I'm up to over here:

Taksim: Improvisational Practices in Republican-Era Classical Turkish Music (and their Implications for Current Definitions of Makam)

"By comparing current solo improvisations (taksim-s), recordings of such performances from throughout the twentieth century, and the definitions of their makam-s (melodic modes) as found in currently used Turkish music theory textbooks, this study aims to determine the major changes to both improvisational practices per se, and to the definitions of makam-s over the course of the Republican period so far (i.e., since 1923). This study takes improvisational practices employed in the taksim genre (called gazel when sung, rather than played on an instrument) as the central practice of classical Turkish music, and as the touchstone for definitions of makam-s. This point of view differs from the standard 20th century way of reckoning makam definitions in partially Westernized theoretical terms, which instead uses unchanging, canonical repertoire-oriented examples rather than improvisational practices as models."

(In other words, I'm studying what musicians are actually doing - and how they think about what they're doing - as contrasted with what the textbooks say they're doing.)

It's shaping up to be a very fun project, and I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from musicians here who think this sort of study is long overdue, and are very willing to improvise on video for me and to analyze their own playing with me afterward. I'm looking forward to beginning that phase after the upcoming Kurban Bayram holiday. Meanwhile I'm collecting old recordings and music theory textbooks (old and new) for comparison.