Early Ottoman music of dancers (
köçeks) and musicians performing at a circumcision ceremony. Dated 1530 from the
Süleymanname While it is well established that Ottoman music is closely related to its geographical neighbors, namely
Byzantine,
Persian and
Arabic music, early histories of Ottoman classical music, called "mythologies" by Feldman, emphasize a sense of continuity, as opposed to a synthesis of different musical styles. The Ottomans, as a
Persianate empire, had assumed "an unbroken continuity from medieval Greater Iran (i.e. Herat to Istanbul)," while in
republican Turkey, the history of Ottoman classical music was deeply tied to "musical figures of the medieval Islamic civilization, such as
al-Farabi,
Ibn Sina, and
al-Maraghi with the Ottomans." as until the
Edvar of Hızır bin Abdullah, there had not been any notable music theory treatises written in Turkish; Turkic empires relied on works written in Persian to compose their own music. The Ottomans, until the 15th century, tried to imitate the
Timurid Renaissance; the "musical creativity taking place in the Timurid courts of Eastern Iran and Central Asia" was viewed to be of legendary status. Synagogal chants were also adapted to the makam system during this era, fueling what would later become the "new synthesis" of Ottoman music.
Israel ben Moses Najara, who is sometimes called "the father of Ottoman-Jewish music", and Shlomo Mazal Tov, compiler of the
Sefer shirim u-zemirot ve tishbahot (The book of songs, 17 hymns and songs of praise)
, were very influential in this process, as they, along with many other non-Muslim musicians, started to attend
Mevlevi ceremonies in which religious music was played; this fusion would be the driving force behind 17th century Ottoman music.
17th and 18th centuries . A new style of Ottoman music, called the "new synthesis" by Feldman, emerged in the second half of the 17th century, is often described as a form of "local modernity" and a "musical renaissance", where the complexity of 15th century Near and Middle Eastern court music was regained and expanded upon. This musical revival was largely the work of "aristocratic Muslims and Mevlevi dervish musicians", and resulted in a renewed sense of musical progress, which had broken down during the Ottomans' classical age. The influence of Osman Effendi had effects beyond his immediate students and into well-known Eastern European intellectual
Dimitrie Cantemir's understanding of music history, as he elucidates on multiple occasions the rapid decline and renaissance Ottoman music had experienced of the 16th and 17th century, stating that:
(prelude) transcribed into staff notation by Polish musician Wojciech Bobowski. The use of abjad'' notation was more common in the Ottoman Empire until the 20th century. Cantemir's
Edvâr, possibly the most influential musical treatise written in the Ottoman Empire, is also often hailed as a paradigm shift in the Ottoman understanding of music theory. The lack of a poetic style, as well as an empirical and practical focus, is said to set Cantemir's Edvar apart from earlier works, and would influence the treatises of later theorists. Secular art music and religious music were rarely intertwined in the early Ottoman Empire, however, their traditions were often closely related to each other; this resulted in the gradual introduction of Mevlevi elements to Ottoman classical music. According to O'Connell, this newer music was also significantly influenced by Western motifs, particularly "in the realms of musical techniques, performance styles, and ensemble practice."
Ziya Gökalp, a prominent
nationalist thinker, thought of "Eastern music" as inferior to both
Western classical and
Turkish folk music, advocating the replacement of Ottoman tradition with a synthesis of these two traditions. This meant, with the absence of state support, that neither secular nor religious Ottoman music would survive. Further action was also taken to prevent Ottoman musicians from transmitting their knowledge to newer generations, as a "complete ban" was placed on Ottoman-style music education in 1927. The next year,
Mustafa Kemal made his comments on the matter, stating that: According to Tekelioğlu, Mustafa Kemal managed to blame Ottoman intellectuals for the supposed inferiority of "Eastern" music with this rhetoric, and therefore separated "Turkishness" from the "soporific, Eastern" traditions of the Ottomans. However, while the republican elite, including Mustafa Kemal, were steadfast in their support for Western music, the general public were hesitant, even preferring Arabic stations which played a related tradition of music over that of native ones, which played Western music. What followed was further radicalization of policy in the 1930s, as music magazines that claimed to resist the revolution of Turkish music were coerced to self-censor, flooded with negative coverage, and later forced to close down. This was followed by a ban of Ottoman music on radio, instituted in 1935. This was defended by poet and cultural figure Ercüment Behzat Lav, who argued that: While the ban could last no more than a few years, systematic censorship of the types of Turkish music that could be played continued for at least half a century. Tekelioğlu has argued that a major reason of this censorship is the republican elites' unwavering belief in absolute truths and a unified notion of "civilization", in which the technologically advanced West were superior in all of their traditions, including that of music, which in turn justified the policy "for the people's sake". , who was a mid-20th century singer of Ottoman classical music known for his
gender non-conforming style. Ottoman music traditions would emerge from around a half-century of persecution around the 1970s and 80s, with the condition that this music was to be nationalized and to no longer feature themes of unattainable love and sorrow, making a "more cheerful" art music than before. In the pursuit of this goal, Ottoman music, which was "the common inheritance of all the peoples who made up the Ottoman societies", was Turkified in a cultural "cleanse". Many Ottoman composers' names were Turkified to give the impression that they had converted and assimilated into
Turko-Islamic culture, or otherwise demoted to a position of an outside influence helping the development of a Turkish music. Well-known
neyzen Kudsi Erguner therefore argues that "in this way the origin of the art was reconnected to a given nation: the Turks are its owners and the artists of other origins are its servants." The final result of this effort was a genre of music known in
Turkey as
Türk sanat musikisi, or Turkish art music. While many were supportive of this new style, as it achieved widespread popularity, some musicians, including
Erguner, have criticized it, arguing that the songs' lyrics lacked their traditional meaning and that its melodies were 'insipid'. A popular offshoot, influenced by 19th century Ottoman practice, formed in the 1970s, and was promptly named
arabesk by commentators
. O'Connell argues that the name
arabesk was a reiteration of an older
orientalist dualism "to envisage a
Turkish-
Arab polarity", instead of an east–west one, and to define "aberrant [musical and cultural] practices with taxonomic efficiency". O'Connell further argues that arabesk served as a link to older, Ottoman-era norms, which, according to him, partly explains the preference against
arabesk in elite circles, who had previously categorized these as 'degenerate' and 'promiscuous'. While older Ottoman-style musicians, such as
Zeki Müren and
Bülent Ersoy did deviate from republican gender norms, the ones exclusively associated with the more rural strand of
arabesk, such as
Kurdish vocalist
İbrahim Tatlıses, presented a masculinity that, according to O'Connell, stressed both "swarthy machismo" and "profligate mannerisms", adopting the
melismatic melodic contours of Ottoman singers, judged as effeminate and uncivilized by the earlier republican elite. == Characteristics ==