Greeks, Jews, and Music Sociality in Late Ottoman Istanbul

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines the different registers of music interaction between Greek Orthodox and Jewish communities of Istanbul in the late Ottoman period. Intercommunal interaction is approached within the broader framework of modernization of music and in relation to the degree in which this interaction was implicated in the modernization process. New forms of music sociality related to music print and entertainment in which musicians and other agents from the two communities participated are analyzed in terms of their spatial dimension and as knots in a network of important locales within the city. This spatial approach challenges the centralized narratives concerning the modernization of Ottoman music and highlights the important role of local intermediaries and new economic patterns in shaping Ottoman musical modernity.