Banu Şenay
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252043024
- eISBN:
- 9780252051883
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043024.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter traces the key shifts in the ney’s modern history, from its de-legitimization in the early Republican period, its survival in the transitional years of its learning through the ...
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This chapter traces the key shifts in the ney’s modern history, from its de-legitimization in the early Republican period, its survival in the transitional years of its learning through the master-disciple pedagogic system (meşk), to its re-invigoration in the 1990s. These episodes underline how the meanings informing the ney are context-bound and socially constructed. The chapter also sketches out the incredibly rich sonic landscape of the city of Istanbul with which the ney interacts. Attention is given to the creation and consumption of new forms of ‘Sufi music’, and the popularization of Sufism sponsored by both private and state actors in Turkey, including the implications of these processes on the re-contextualization of the ney as a ‘spiritual sound.’Less
This chapter traces the key shifts in the ney’s modern history, from its de-legitimization in the early Republican period, its survival in the transitional years of its learning through the master-disciple pedagogic system (meşk), to its re-invigoration in the 1990s. These episodes underline how the meanings informing the ney are context-bound and socially constructed. The chapter also sketches out the incredibly rich sonic landscape of the city of Istanbul with which the ney interacts. Attention is given to the creation and consumption of new forms of ‘Sufi music’, and the popularization of Sufism sponsored by both private and state actors in Turkey, including the implications of these processes on the re-contextualization of the ney as a ‘spiritual sound.’
Banu Senay
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252043024
- eISBN:
- 9780252051883
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043024.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
At the heart of this study is a musical practice that occupies a significant place in the contemporary public soundscape of Turkey: the art of playing the ney. Intimately connected with Sufism in ...
More
At the heart of this study is a musical practice that occupies a significant place in the contemporary public soundscape of Turkey: the art of playing the ney. Intimately connected with Sufism in both the Ottoman Empire and, for better or worse, in modern secular Turkey, the ney has been a popular instrument throughout the Middle East and North Africa. After enduring a checkered social life during the Turkish Republic’s modernizing reforms, today in a more Islam-friendly socio-political environment the ney is flourishing. Based on extensive field research in Istanbul and an apprentice-style method of inquiry, the book documents the lifetime of preparation required to become an expert player of the ney (neyzen). It examines in particular the transformative power of this Islamic art pedagogy to cultivate new artistic and ethical perceptions in learners. Crafting oneself as a neyzen transcends ‘mere’ musical technique in profound ways, as it also involves developing a certain way of living. Exploring firsthand the practical process of musical teaching and learning, together with their ethical scaffolding, the book has theoretical implications for scholars studying many other forms of apprentice-style learning. It also helps redress the underdeveloped understandings and often-polemical claims made in both the media and by Islamophobic discourse concerning processes by which Muslims develop a religious and moral sense.Less
At the heart of this study is a musical practice that occupies a significant place in the contemporary public soundscape of Turkey: the art of playing the ney. Intimately connected with Sufism in both the Ottoman Empire and, for better or worse, in modern secular Turkey, the ney has been a popular instrument throughout the Middle East and North Africa. After enduring a checkered social life during the Turkish Republic’s modernizing reforms, today in a more Islam-friendly socio-political environment the ney is flourishing. Based on extensive field research in Istanbul and an apprentice-style method of inquiry, the book documents the lifetime of preparation required to become an expert player of the ney (neyzen). It examines in particular the transformative power of this Islamic art pedagogy to cultivate new artistic and ethical perceptions in learners. Crafting oneself as a neyzen transcends ‘mere’ musical technique in profound ways, as it also involves developing a certain way of living. Exploring firsthand the practical process of musical teaching and learning, together with their ethical scaffolding, the book has theoretical implications for scholars studying many other forms of apprentice-style learning. It also helps redress the underdeveloped understandings and often-polemical claims made in both the media and by Islamophobic discourse concerning processes by which Muslims develop a religious and moral sense.
