Ottoman music () or Turkish classical music (, or more recently ) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally features a solo singer with a small to medium-sized instrumental ensemble.
A tradition of music that reached its golden age around the early 18th century, Ottoman music traces its roots back to the music of the Hellenic and Persianate world, a distinctive feature of which is the usage of a modal melodic system. This system, alternatively called makam, dastgah or echos, is a large and varied system of melodic material, defining both scales and melodic contour. In Ottoman music alone, more than 600 makams have been used so far, and out of these, at least 120 makams are in common use and formally defined. Rhythmically, Ottoman music uses the zaman and usûl systems, which determine time signatures and accents respectively. A wide variety of instruments has been used in Ottoman music, which include the (lute), (end-blown reed flute), (lyra), (violin), (zither), and others.
Until the 19th century, in which Westernization caused Western classical music to replace the native Ottoman tradition, Ottoman music remained the dominant form of music in the empire, and therefore evolved into a diverse form of art music, with forms such as the peşrev, kâr and saz semaî evolving drastically over the course of the empire's history, as the Ottomans' classical tradition also found its place outside of the court. By the end of the 18th century, Ottoman music had incorporated a diverse repertoire of secular and religious music of a wide variety of musicians, including post-Byzantine music, Sephardic music and others.
19th century Ottoman elites saw Ottoman music as primitive and underdeveloped in relation to Western music, and stopped its courtly patronage. This resulted in many classical musicians being forced to work in entertainment-related contexts, and gave rise to a much simpler style, named gazino. After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the new republican elite tried to suppress Ottoman music further, in an attempt to hasten the process of Westernization. The decline which followed resulted in drastic changes in Ottoman music, and as the new republican elite failed to create an alternative to Ottoman music, the remnants of Ottoman tradition were appropriated and nationalized by the 1980 military regime.
Naming conventions
The naming conventions of the Ottoman's Empire's classical tradition are the cause of significant controversy, as naming schemes proposed by governments often place significant importance on the "nationalization" of music, resulting in contradiction.
It is known that the Ottomans did not often distinguish between different musical traditions, calling them all by the name musikî, ultimately from Ancient Greek mousiké. This naming convention broke down during the Westernization of the Ottoman Empire, as Western cultural norms and practices were slowly integrated into the empire. The resulting dichotomy between Western and Ottoman classical music was referred to as alafranga and alaturka (European and Turkish) by the Ottoman elites. However, as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, new terms were employed for the Ottoman tradition, forming the current naming convention of Ottoman music.
The controversies fueled by these changes are often further aggravated by an uncertainty of periodization; according to researcher on Middle Eastern music Owen Wright, starting from late 17th century, Ottoman music differed from its predecessors to such an extent that "if the two were juxtaposed, we would need to speak of musical diglossia." Walter Zev Feldman, another researcher on Middle Eastern music, has therefore claimed that a uniquely Ottoman style emerged no earlier than the 1600s.
History
Early Ottoman music
thumb|300x300px|[[Ottoman miniature|Miniature 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
thumb|367x367px|Description and illustration of a tanbûr from Kitâb-ı ‘İlmü’l Mûsîkî ala Vechi’l-Hurûfat, written by [[Dimitrie Cantemir.]]
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:
left|thumb|548x548px|A [[peşrev (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: If said melodic material is used in its "purest" form, the resulting composition is called a taksim, or a locally-rhythmic improvisational piece. Composed pieces, however, also utilize usûl, a complex system of meters and accents, which structure the piece.
Makam
thumb|Rast, a basit makam.
Makam (or maqam) is broadly defined as the "melodic material of the Near East, Middle East and Anatolian traditional musics." While it is one of the fundamental parts of Near and Middle Eastern music theory, its definition and classifications have been long debated by music theorists, who belonged to numerous schools of music within Near and Middle Eastern tradition. Makams are often further classified into basit (lit. basic), şed (transposed) and mürekkep (compound). Basit and şed makams can mostly be defined as a scale in the Western sense, while mürekkep ones can not. Makams also constitute a hierarchy of pitches, where the "nucleus" of the makam creates its essentials, while other pitches are "secondary" and therefore "mutable". While there is a popular classification of seyirs, made by the Arel-Ezgi-Üzdilek system, which claims that makams can develop and resolve in ascending and descending fashions, this designation has faced criticism from Yöre among others, who has proposed a definition related to melodic contour. These inter-related definitions have provided ample space for the development of complex modal structures called mürekkep makams, in which simpler makams combine to create more complicated ones that evolve and change through time. This system of internal division allows for the creation of complex usûls that can only be learned by rote, as Cantemir had pointed out: “because these [usûls] are so intricate, those who do not know the meter cannot play the songs at all, even though they were to hear that song a thousand times.” In fact, the Ottomans preferred a system of institutional oral transmission, called meşk.
thumb|[[Hampartsoum Limondjian, Armenian-Ottoman composer. His notation system was widely used in the 19th century to transcribe Ottoman classical pieces.]]
This meant that while the central melody and usûl would be laid down by the composer, the performer would add their personal style and accompaniment to the composition. A fasıl is led by a serhânende, who is responsible for indicating usûls, and the remaining musicians are called sazende (instrumentalist) or hânende (vocalist). Performed by a single performer or a small part of the ensemble, taksims can be played in the beginning of a fasıl, or act as an interlude between two movements of a fasıl with different usuls or makams. Originally simply called taksim, the word gazel seems to have replaced the former word when referring to vocal improvisation, sometime around the 18th century.