HIST Semineri: “Understanding Byzantine Music”, Cenk Güray, Nevin Şahin, 18:00 23 Aralık (EN)

Date: 23 December 2020, Wednesday
Time: 18.00 (Ankara Time Zone)

Title: Understanding Byzantine Music
Speaker: Cenk Güray & Nevin Şahin, Hacettepe University & Orient Istanbul Institut

Abstract
Byzantine music tradition, having a millennium of written record and surviving performance practices in the Near East, is among the longest living music traditions in the world. Forming a bridge between past and present among different cultural networks, understanding Byzantine music requires the tools of multiple disciplines. This presentation provides and overview of the history of Byzantine music, answering these questions: How was music performed during the Byzantine period? What do we know about the music of that specific period concerning performers, instruments, and musical events? Through which sources do we gather information on Byzantine music? How was Byzantine music written? Can we understand the written sources on Byzantine music now? Besides looking at the history and study of Byzantine music, this presentation also offers an interdisciplinary path to understand Byzantine music through historical, cultural, and musicological research and examples from re-interpretations of Byzantine music together with examples from Byzantine chant.

Biographies

Cenk Güray
He received his Ph.D. from Ankara University with a thesis entitled “A Survey on the Relation between Belief and Music in Anatolia based on the concepts of Sema and Semah”. Güray is currently working as a Professor of Music Theory in the Music Theory Department of Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory and his main areas of interest include “Makam Theory and Applications”, “Theory of Cycles and its relations with music theory” and the reflections of these aspects on “bağlama performance”. Cenk Güray is also in duty as the executive coordinator of the “Association for the Anatolian Music Cultures”.

Nevin Şahin
She completed her PhD in Sociology in 2016 upon her research on music and power among performers of Mevlevi music. She worked in several research projects, including a comparative theoretical research on makam music and Byzantine music. In 2018, she joined the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae team at the Orient-Institut Istanbul.

This is an online seminar. To obtain the event link and password, please send a mail to byzantiumatankara@hotmail.com