Music in Cyprus ed. by Jim Samson and Nicoletta Demetriou

Abstract

Music in Cyprus. Edited by Jim Samson and Nicoletta Demetriou. Farnham, Surrey, Eng.: Ashgate, 2015. [xiv, 196 p. ISBN 9781409465737 (hardcover), $109.95; (e-book), various.] Illustrations, bibliography, index.Music in Cyprus is a pioneering book, bringing together work of scholars covering all aspects of island's musical history (with one notable exception, to which I shall return below) in a series of chapters that interconnect in many ways. further one reads, more one understands way complex threads of Cyprus's history have affected and enabled a unique musical legacy of remarkable richness.The book's first chapter, by Yiannis Papadakis and Mete Hatay, gives a very valuable, indeed essential, background to The Cultures of Partition and Partition of Cultures, ranging through language, folklore, music (folk, art, and ecclesiastical), and of course (underlying all these) politics of nationalism. acts of cultural cleansing attendant on partition of Cyprus are neatly summarized in general terms by authors thus: was a dialectical process of construction and deconstruction; construction of a supposedly pure and homogeneous national Self entailed destruction, cleansing and expulsion of those (people or cultural practices) who, within logic of ethnonationalism, were defined as Others (p. 19). But it is when particular is used to exemplify general that things are brought into sharper focus, as in authors' observations on question of folklore, which was employed as a political tool: Like individuals, nations are thought to own various cultural attributes, which are regarded as solely and authentically theirs. It is this logic that gives rise to questions like: 'To whom does belong?' (Is it Greek/Byzantine, Turkish/Ottoman or really Arabic?) problem here lies with way question is phrased . . . (p. 25). Indeed, and authors' perception of and ability to transmit this problem provides a fundamental tool for understanding of wider context of music in Cyprus.Effie Tsangaridou continues discussion of coffee question, as it were, in second chapter, One Music, Two Labels, which demonstrates a profound understanding of intertwining of Greek and Turkish identities in Cyprus and way repertories of traditional music and dance were employed by both communities until partition of country. She guides us through myriad associations between Greek and Turkish Cypriot folk music and dance; symbiosis between two is likely to be surprising to many. Chapters 3 and 4, by Nicoletta Demetriou and Bekir Azgin respectively, continue discussion, dealing with subsequent ideas of what Cypriot tradition(s) could be, or have been considered to be, under politicocultural pressure, bringing story right up to date. Azgin's analysis of traditional Turkish Cypriot music as an agent of cultural policy after 1974 (p. 77) leads to inevitable but sad conclusion that the truth is that folk music and folk dance have ceased to play an integral role in everyday life. Even shepherds have largely given up playing kava . . . and are more likely to be seen carrying transistor radios (p. 86). His final paragraph is even bleaker: a word, he says, Turkish-Cypriot folk music and folk dances have come to look like artefacts in a museum (ibid.). A similar fate might be thought to have awaited island's Ottoman legacy, but in his fascinating survey (chapter 5), Eralp Adanir, in spite of his documentation of erosion of tradition, gives, at end, some grounds for hope. In some ways most interesting parts of chapter are his coverage of Mevlevi tradition and Darul-Elhan music society's transmission, until its dissolution in 1936, of postOttoman canon. references provide a useful bibliography, and more of it is in languages other than Turkish than one might suppose. …