Towards a new theory of historical change in the Ottoman instrumental repertoire 1

Abstract

The use of nineteenth-century sources can widen the scope of Owen Wright's theory of historical change by increasing the corpus of pieces from the repertoire that were retained into the nineteenth century. This chapter explores these pieces in relation to the main areas of historical change as identified by Wright, namely, melodic density, structural transformation and the augmentation of the rhythmic cycle. It offers a reappraisal of Wright's hypothesis and suggests a new model of historical change in the Ottoman instrumental repertoire. The chapter describes presents evidence relating to differential rates of increase in melodic elaboration and irregular structural changes that suggests an alternative model of historical change. While Wright's original paper identified a relatively small body of the pieces, an analysis of one of the earliest Hamparsum collections, probably dating from 1825–1839, reveals that around 45% of pesrevs during this period were also notated in sources.

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