Inventors of Notation Systems in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Istanbul: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

Abstract

This paper aims to take yet another look at the problem of notation within the Ottoman/Turkish musical tradition, but from a rather unusual perspective. I will deal with neither the causes nor consequences of the absence of the widespread use of notation since this is an issue I have dealt with elsewhere, nor will I glorify the handful of inventors of notation systems and any of their shortcomings. There is already an overabundant amount of literature on all of these topics. I will try to look at the other side of the coin—that is, notation systems from their inventors’ perspective. Some of the questions I will try to answer—or at least to clarify a bit—are the following: Within the Ottoman/Turkish musical tradition and before the advent and the generalization of the use of European staff notation, what did the inventors or users of notational systems think of their own notation; why did they invent it or use it in the first place; what did they expect from it and to what use did they put it; how did they justify it; and what value did they attach to the notation system they invented or used?