Ottoman and European Music in Alî Ufukî's Compendium (c. 1640): analysis, interpretation, (trans-) cultural context

• Applicant: Dr. Judith Irmela Haug
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 214593380

The manuscript F-Pbn Turc 292, a subsequently bound loose-leaf collection from the legacy of the Polish-born renegade, Ottoman court musician and court interpreter Ali Ufuki (Albert Bobowski, c. 1610 - c. 1675) is an exceptional, complex source of high value to various scholarly disciplines. On 626 pages, it contains the earliest known notations of Ottoman music of diverse genres in a modified Western staff notation. Thus it is one of the very few extant records in writing of otherwise almost exclusively orally transmitted Ottoman art and folk music prior to the 19th century. Further, it contains European compositions (mainly spiritual songs), tablatures and texts in a large amount of languages, among them comments on music theory, music teaching and performance practice as well as lyrical texts meant for vocal performance by various, also famous authors, medical, alchimistic and culinary recipes, grammatical and linguistic notes, documents and personal remarks. Ali Ufuki's compendium, as a kind of snapshot in time of mid-17th century musical life in Istanbul and in the Sultan's palace, is a source of inestimable value and a singular witness for transcultural processes and knowledge transfer between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. From a musicological viewpoint, this unique source requires a detailed analysis by way of a critical edition of its music-related contents as well as interpretation and contextualisation of the Ottoman and European repertoires. Crucial questions here relate to transculturality, fixation of orally transmitted music in a sign system originating from a different musical culture, the author's inclusion in international networks of knowledge and his location in Ottoman and European music history concerning repertoire, contexts of transmission, theory and performance practice.As the first funding period was mainly dedicated to making accessible, critically editing and analyzing the musical and music-related contents, besides extensive search for sources and secondary literature, contextualisation of repertoire and theoretical background will be in the focus during the second period. The lines of tradition of which the Compendium forms part extend to the present time and to modern performance practice of Ottoman music.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants