Niyazi Sayın is an Istanbul-born ney (reed flute) virtuoso, and the most acclaimed musician of a ... more Niyazi Sayın is an Istanbul-born ney (reed flute) virtuoso, and the most acclaimed musician of a musical tradition controversially called “Ottoman-Turkish classical music.” Now 94 years old, Sayın has been called insan-i kamil (a perfect human), kutb-ı nayi, (the musical spiritual axis of his age), and hezarfen (master of a thousand arts). What do such titles mean? Building upon the work of Martin Stokes on popular music and its fashioning of intimate publics, this paper explores Sayın’s musical life. We argue that it provides an exemplary expression of cultural intimacy for listeners and students, one that (as reflected in his titles) demonstrates a particular way of becoming a person, a Muslim, and a model citizen. In contrast with more official constructions of citizenship, as well as with the political neo-Ottomanism of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Sayın’s life and music open up alternative possibilities of self-alteration for those who engage with it.
This is the first of three chapters that sketches out the core perceptual and sensorial transform... more This is the first of three chapters that sketches out the core perceptual and sensorial transformations that learners go through as they attend to new ways of hearing, listening, and playing. The starting point is the first and ultimately most esteemed action in ney playing: crafting a beautiful sound. To which particular sonic qualities must novices pay attention in their sound-work? What new aural perceptions are at work here? The discussion in this chapter shows that to gain competence in ‘sound-ing well’ also means to enter into the material world of the ‘willful’ reed and to skillfully engage with it.
Since the early 2000s, under successive Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, Turkey h... more Since the early 2000s, under successive Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, Turkey has developed more systematic ‘engagement’ policies with its extraterritorial communities, including citizens abroad, kin and ‘relatives’, and non-Turkish international students sponsored to study in Turkey. This article examines the governmental techniques taken up by the ruling AKP elites to mobilize these constituencies as a source of what Felix Krawatzek and Lea Muller-Funk call ‘political remittance.’ To achieve this goal, the Turkish state has configured itself as an ‘impresario.’ It utilizes public pedagogy and political spectacle as key devices through which to generate desired remittances from extra-territorial communities, as well as to cast and craft its future leaders, friends, and allies.
As much as crafting a desired ney tone is paramount to good playing, a high premium is also place... more As much as crafting a desired ney tone is paramount to good playing, a high premium is also placed on the competence of the player to bring pitches into intimate relationships with each other that are appealing to the ear. Given that Ottoman art music is always set in a modal system (makam), the novice must learn how to render the pitches effectively while satisfying the musical and emotional expectations of the makam in question. This chapter examines the aural perceptual modifications that one goes through so as to cultivate this capacity, a topic that engages with broader questions around the use of musical notation, as well as with discretion, intuition, and individuality in performance.
This chapter examines how ney musicians learn to improvise their own self-generated melodies. Bec... more This chapter examines how ney musicians learn to improvise their own self-generated melodies. Because improvisation (taksim) affords players the greatest freedom to show their wares, it is considered to be the most sublime sonic statement of one’s artistry. Yet there is more in this skilled action than its revelation of the musical or artistic capabilities of the player. Alongside the player’s musical self, the social/moral persona, too, is understood to be expressed in improvisation. According to ney masters, the art of improvising connects to the art of living, sounding out an aural revelation of how one lives their life. This pedagogy presents us with a conception of the creative self that is different to that imagined in some other musical practices, particularly in jazz music.
This chapter traces the key shifts in the ney’s modern history, from its de-legitimization in the... more 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.’
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Apr 11, 2022
‘Dealing with ambiguity’ has become a pressing concern in many spheres of contemporary life, ofte... more ‘Dealing with ambiguity’ has become a pressing concern in many spheres of contemporary life, often presented as a ‘survival skill’ in an uncertain world. Working with ambiguity also plays a crucial role in the musical pedagogy of the Ottoman‐Turkish ney (Sufi reed flute), the playing of which I discuss in this article. Rather than a constraint or deficiency to be resolved, in the context of ney apprenticeship, ambiguity emerges as a desired pedagogical force not only valued but also deliberately amplified. My aim is to show how ambiguity is embraced here as a productive condition that maximizes possibilities for artistic exploration, freedom of discernment, and aesthetic pleasures.
Engaging with current debates in anthropology around ethics, moral subjectivity, and self-formati... more Engaging with current debates in anthropology around ethics, moral subjectivity, and self-formation, this chapter examines the transformative power of this Islam-infused musical practice to cultivate in learners not only new artistic but also new ethical perceptions. It discusses the ways in which the process of becoming a skillful ney-player involves much more than technical competence, illustrating how students are socialized into new ways of being as well as into new ways of relating to other selves and to the city. I frame the transformative faculty of this musical enterprise ‘ethical modification’ to avoid over-privileging the efficacy of the skilled practice for fashioning radically different moral selves.
Over the last two decades, the skilled practice of learning the ney (Sufi
reed flute) has gone t... more Over the last two decades, the skilled practice of learning the ney (Sufi
reed flute) has gone through a massive revival in Turkey, as part of a
broader interest in the revitalised ‘Sufi music’ genre and in Islamic arts
learning. One key step in this process has been the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government’s incorporation of ney teaching
into mass public education through its council-run adult education
programme (İSMEK). While this development has been pivotal in broadening
access to skill attainment in the metropolitan area of Istanbul in
significant ways, it has also led to a rationalisation of pedagogical practices,
bringing with it transformed understandings of musical skill. To
show what this process of rationalisation involves, this article examines
skill training encouraged at government-sponsored lesson sites in tandem
with a second mode of learning the ney grounded in apprenticeship
pedagogy. The divergences emerging from this comparison reveal
two very different paths to becoming an expert ney player, demonstrating,
in turn, how pedagogical particularities foster different communities
of practice.
The technical skills and artistic knowledge fostered by education in the ney emerge not only in t... more The technical skills and artistic knowledge fostered by education in the ney emerge not only in the conduct of musical practice through watching, copying and imitating masters’ playing bodies, but are also powerfully cultivated by listening to their words, communicated through the skillful practice of sohbet (in the first instance, conversation). As an essentially Islamic practice that has a rich history in Sufism, sohbet constitutes the prime method of musical pedagogy: musical teaching and learning happens in conversation. The chapter presents a number of key processes that the pedagogy of sohbet is designed to facilitate in learners: new skills of hearing and musical understanding; extra-musical sensibilities germane to becoming a neyzen; and communal affections (an affect of intimacy) between those participating in the listening act.
This chapter redirects discussion to the pressing and more general issue of Muslim ethics, as add... more This chapter redirects discussion to the pressing and more general issue of Muslim ethics, as addressed in the fields of music production and Islamic piety. How does this music-making explicitly relate to Islam? And how does musical apprenticeship train students in a musical Islam? In addressing these questions, the ethnographic exploration reveals how this musical practice facilitates for learners and master musicians a particular way of engaging with Islam, shaping their subjectivities as Muslims, while fostering in them an explorative way of knowing both music and Islam. Theoretically, the analysis contributes to the ongoing conversation in anthropology over Muslim ethics and character formation by engaging with and critiquing the anthropological work on Muslim ‘piety movements’ and ethical ‘self-fashioning.’
Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World, 2015
In both Europe and Australia, certain key institutions of the Turkish State have for decades been... more In both Europe and Australia, certain key institutions of the Turkish State have for decades been producers of what we call long-distance Kemalism — the propagation outside of Turkey of the core political ideology informing the nation-building project of the Turkish Republic since its institution in 1923. From the late 1970s onwards, when Turkish State authorities realized that most ‘guest-workers’ were now permanent settlers in the destination countries, a shift in policy occurred, encouraging Turkey-born migrants abroad not to return home but to contribute to the political and economic affairs of their country of origin from their new places of residence. Accompanying this strategic change, State efforts to inculcate a nationalist subjectivity in Turkish emigrants and a political project to secularize Turkish ‘civil society’ abroad became key components of its transnational policy, a task that was carried out, in the main, by its consular institutions and by the offices of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Alongside activities aimed at mobilizing the (Turkish) diaspora, a second important component of the Republic’s ‘trans-Kemalism’ had been ‘diaspora dis-integration’, aimed at combating the perceived anti-Turkish influence of political or cultural ‘lobby-groups’ of non-Muslim or non-Turkish emigrants from Turkey, in particular those testifying to the traumatic experiences of the Greek, Armenian, and Kurdish communities there.
Reconciling migrants' well-being with the public …, 2008
297 II. Making citizenship an instrument for empowering migrants Ahmet Içduygu, Koc University, I... more 297 II. Making citizenship an instrument for empowering migrants Ahmet Içduygu, Koc University, Istanbul (Turkey) Banu Senay, Macquarie University, Sydney (Australia) Introduction In today's modern states, citizenship indicates the symbolic reality of the equality of its ...
ULUSAŞIRI TOPLUMSAL ALANLAR, ULUSAŞIRI KİMLİKLER: AVUSTRALYALI TÜRKLER ÖRNEĞİ BANU ŞENAY 1 "Ulusa... more ULUSAŞIRI TOPLUMSAL ALANLAR, ULUSAŞIRI KİMLİKLER: AVUSTRALYALI TÜRKLER ÖRNEĞİ BANU ŞENAY 1 "Ulusaşırı toplumsal alanların oluşumu" olgusu, uluslararası göç çalışmalarında son yıllarda ağırlıklı olarak incelenen konulardan biri haline gelmiştir. Bu durum yalnızca göç araştırmalarına yeni gündem konuları kazandırmakla kalmamış, aynı zamanda uluslararası göçün kavramsal ve yöntemsel açılardan ele alınış ve inceleniş şeklini de büyük oranda değiştirmiştir. Ulusaşırı 2 (transnational) alanların oluşumunu konu alan birçok çalışmanın (
Niyazi Sayın is an Istanbul-born ney (reed flute) virtuoso, and the most acclaimed musician of a ... more Niyazi Sayın is an Istanbul-born ney (reed flute) virtuoso, and the most acclaimed musician of a musical tradition controversially called “Ottoman-Turkish classical music.” Now 94 years old, Sayın has been called insan-i kamil (a perfect human), kutb-ı nayi, (the musical spiritual axis of his age), and hezarfen (master of a thousand arts). What do such titles mean? Building upon the work of Martin Stokes on popular music and its fashioning of intimate publics, this paper explores Sayın’s musical life. We argue that it provides an exemplary expression of cultural intimacy for listeners and students, one that (as reflected in his titles) demonstrates a particular way of becoming a person, a Muslim, and a model citizen. In contrast with more official constructions of citizenship, as well as with the political neo-Ottomanism of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Sayın’s life and music open up alternative possibilities of self-alteration for those who engage with it.
This is the first of three chapters that sketches out the core perceptual and sensorial transform... more This is the first of three chapters that sketches out the core perceptual and sensorial transformations that learners go through as they attend to new ways of hearing, listening, and playing. The starting point is the first and ultimately most esteemed action in ney playing: crafting a beautiful sound. To which particular sonic qualities must novices pay attention in their sound-work? What new aural perceptions are at work here? The discussion in this chapter shows that to gain competence in ‘sound-ing well’ also means to enter into the material world of the ‘willful’ reed and to skillfully engage with it.
Since the early 2000s, under successive Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, Turkey h... more Since the early 2000s, under successive Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, Turkey has developed more systematic ‘engagement’ policies with its extraterritorial communities, including citizens abroad, kin and ‘relatives’, and non-Turkish international students sponsored to study in Turkey. This article examines the governmental techniques taken up by the ruling AKP elites to mobilize these constituencies as a source of what Felix Krawatzek and Lea Muller-Funk call ‘political remittance.’ To achieve this goal, the Turkish state has configured itself as an ‘impresario.’ It utilizes public pedagogy and political spectacle as key devices through which to generate desired remittances from extra-territorial communities, as well as to cast and craft its future leaders, friends, and allies.
As much as crafting a desired ney tone is paramount to good playing, a high premium is also place... more As much as crafting a desired ney tone is paramount to good playing, a high premium is also placed on the competence of the player to bring pitches into intimate relationships with each other that are appealing to the ear. Given that Ottoman art music is always set in a modal system (makam), the novice must learn how to render the pitches effectively while satisfying the musical and emotional expectations of the makam in question. This chapter examines the aural perceptual modifications that one goes through so as to cultivate this capacity, a topic that engages with broader questions around the use of musical notation, as well as with discretion, intuition, and individuality in performance.
This chapter examines how ney musicians learn to improvise their own self-generated melodies. Bec... more This chapter examines how ney musicians learn to improvise their own self-generated melodies. Because improvisation (taksim) affords players the greatest freedom to show their wares, it is considered to be the most sublime sonic statement of one’s artistry. Yet there is more in this skilled action than its revelation of the musical or artistic capabilities of the player. Alongside the player’s musical self, the social/moral persona, too, is understood to be expressed in improvisation. According to ney masters, the art of improvising connects to the art of living, sounding out an aural revelation of how one lives their life. This pedagogy presents us with a conception of the creative self that is different to that imagined in some other musical practices, particularly in jazz music.
This chapter traces the key shifts in the ney’s modern history, from its de-legitimization in the... more 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.’
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Apr 11, 2022
‘Dealing with ambiguity’ has become a pressing concern in many spheres of contemporary life, ofte... more ‘Dealing with ambiguity’ has become a pressing concern in many spheres of contemporary life, often presented as a ‘survival skill’ in an uncertain world. Working with ambiguity also plays a crucial role in the musical pedagogy of the Ottoman‐Turkish ney (Sufi reed flute), the playing of which I discuss in this article. Rather than a constraint or deficiency to be resolved, in the context of ney apprenticeship, ambiguity emerges as a desired pedagogical force not only valued but also deliberately amplified. My aim is to show how ambiguity is embraced here as a productive condition that maximizes possibilities for artistic exploration, freedom of discernment, and aesthetic pleasures.
Engaging with current debates in anthropology around ethics, moral subjectivity, and self-formati... more Engaging with current debates in anthropology around ethics, moral subjectivity, and self-formation, this chapter examines the transformative power of this Islam-infused musical practice to cultivate in learners not only new artistic but also new ethical perceptions. It discusses the ways in which the process of becoming a skillful ney-player involves much more than technical competence, illustrating how students are socialized into new ways of being as well as into new ways of relating to other selves and to the city. I frame the transformative faculty of this musical enterprise ‘ethical modification’ to avoid over-privileging the efficacy of the skilled practice for fashioning radically different moral selves.
Over the last two decades, the skilled practice of learning the ney (Sufi
reed flute) has gone t... more Over the last two decades, the skilled practice of learning the ney (Sufi
reed flute) has gone through a massive revival in Turkey, as part of a
broader interest in the revitalised ‘Sufi music’ genre and in Islamic arts
learning. One key step in this process has been the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government’s incorporation of ney teaching
into mass public education through its council-run adult education
programme (İSMEK). While this development has been pivotal in broadening
access to skill attainment in the metropolitan area of Istanbul in
significant ways, it has also led to a rationalisation of pedagogical practices,
bringing with it transformed understandings of musical skill. To
show what this process of rationalisation involves, this article examines
skill training encouraged at government-sponsored lesson sites in tandem
with a second mode of learning the ney grounded in apprenticeship
pedagogy. The divergences emerging from this comparison reveal
two very different paths to becoming an expert ney player, demonstrating,
in turn, how pedagogical particularities foster different communities
of practice.
The technical skills and artistic knowledge fostered by education in the ney emerge not only in t... more The technical skills and artistic knowledge fostered by education in the ney emerge not only in the conduct of musical practice through watching, copying and imitating masters’ playing bodies, but are also powerfully cultivated by listening to their words, communicated through the skillful practice of sohbet (in the first instance, conversation). As an essentially Islamic practice that has a rich history in Sufism, sohbet constitutes the prime method of musical pedagogy: musical teaching and learning happens in conversation. The chapter presents a number of key processes that the pedagogy of sohbet is designed to facilitate in learners: new skills of hearing and musical understanding; extra-musical sensibilities germane to becoming a neyzen; and communal affections (an affect of intimacy) between those participating in the listening act.
This chapter redirects discussion to the pressing and more general issue of Muslim ethics, as add... more This chapter redirects discussion to the pressing and more general issue of Muslim ethics, as addressed in the fields of music production and Islamic piety. How does this music-making explicitly relate to Islam? And how does musical apprenticeship train students in a musical Islam? In addressing these questions, the ethnographic exploration reveals how this musical practice facilitates for learners and master musicians a particular way of engaging with Islam, shaping their subjectivities as Muslims, while fostering in them an explorative way of knowing both music and Islam. Theoretically, the analysis contributes to the ongoing conversation in anthropology over Muslim ethics and character formation by engaging with and critiquing the anthropological work on Muslim ‘piety movements’ and ethical ‘self-fashioning.’
Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World, 2015
In both Europe and Australia, certain key institutions of the Turkish State have for decades been... more In both Europe and Australia, certain key institutions of the Turkish State have for decades been producers of what we call long-distance Kemalism — the propagation outside of Turkey of the core political ideology informing the nation-building project of the Turkish Republic since its institution in 1923. From the late 1970s onwards, when Turkish State authorities realized that most ‘guest-workers’ were now permanent settlers in the destination countries, a shift in policy occurred, encouraging Turkey-born migrants abroad not to return home but to contribute to the political and economic affairs of their country of origin from their new places of residence. Accompanying this strategic change, State efforts to inculcate a nationalist subjectivity in Turkish emigrants and a political project to secularize Turkish ‘civil society’ abroad became key components of its transnational policy, a task that was carried out, in the main, by its consular institutions and by the offices of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Alongside activities aimed at mobilizing the (Turkish) diaspora, a second important component of the Republic’s ‘trans-Kemalism’ had been ‘diaspora dis-integration’, aimed at combating the perceived anti-Turkish influence of political or cultural ‘lobby-groups’ of non-Muslim or non-Turkish emigrants from Turkey, in particular those testifying to the traumatic experiences of the Greek, Armenian, and Kurdish communities there.
Reconciling migrants' well-being with the public …, 2008
297 II. Making citizenship an instrument for empowering migrants Ahmet Içduygu, Koc University, I... more 297 II. Making citizenship an instrument for empowering migrants Ahmet Içduygu, Koc University, Istanbul (Turkey) Banu Senay, Macquarie University, Sydney (Australia) Introduction In today's modern states, citizenship indicates the symbolic reality of the equality of its ...
ULUSAŞIRI TOPLUMSAL ALANLAR, ULUSAŞIRI KİMLİKLER: AVUSTRALYALI TÜRKLER ÖRNEĞİ BANU ŞENAY 1 "Ulusa... more ULUSAŞIRI TOPLUMSAL ALANLAR, ULUSAŞIRI KİMLİKLER: AVUSTRALYALI TÜRKLER ÖRNEĞİ BANU ŞENAY 1 "Ulusaşırı toplumsal alanların oluşumu" olgusu, uluslararası göç çalışmalarında son yıllarda ağırlıklı olarak incelenen konulardan biri haline gelmiştir. Bu durum yalnızca göç araştırmalarına yeni gündem konuları kazandırmakla kalmamış, aynı zamanda uluslararası göçün kavramsal ve yöntemsel açılardan ele alınış ve inceleniş şeklini de büyük oranda değiştirmiştir. Ulusaşırı 2 (transnational) alanların oluşumunu konu alan birçok çalışmanın (
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reed flute) has gone through a massive revival in Turkey, as part of a
broader interest in the revitalised ‘Sufi music’ genre and in Islamic arts
learning. One key step in this process has been the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government’s incorporation of ney teaching
into mass public education through its council-run adult education
programme (İSMEK). While this development has been pivotal in broadening
access to skill attainment in the metropolitan area of Istanbul in
significant ways, it has also led to a rationalisation of pedagogical practices,
bringing with it transformed understandings of musical skill. To
show what this process of rationalisation involves, this article examines
skill training encouraged at government-sponsored lesson sites in tandem
with a second mode of learning the ney grounded in apprenticeship
pedagogy. The divergences emerging from this comparison reveal
two very different paths to becoming an expert ney player, demonstrating,
in turn, how pedagogical particularities foster different communities
of practice.
reed flute) has gone through a massive revival in Turkey, as part of a
broader interest in the revitalised ‘Sufi music’ genre and in Islamic arts
learning. One key step in this process has been the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) government’s incorporation of ney teaching
into mass public education through its council-run adult education
programme (İSMEK). While this development has been pivotal in broadening
access to skill attainment in the metropolitan area of Istanbul in
significant ways, it has also led to a rationalisation of pedagogical practices,
bringing with it transformed understandings of musical skill. To
show what this process of rationalisation involves, this article examines
skill training encouraged at government-sponsored lesson sites in tandem
with a second mode of learning the ney grounded in apprenticeship
pedagogy. The divergences emerging from this comparison reveal
two very different paths to becoming an expert ney player, demonstrating,
in turn, how pedagogical particularities foster different communities
of practice.