Melancholic Modalities

Today, teachers and performers of Turkish classical music intentionally cultivate melancholies, despite these affects being typically dismissed as remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Melancholic Modalities is the first in-depth historical and ethnographic study of the practices socialized by musicians who enthusiastically teach and perform a present-day genre substantially rooted in the musics of the Ottoman court and elite Mevlevi Sufi lodges. Author Denise Gill analyzes how melancholic music-making emerges as pleasurable, spiritually redeeming, and healing for both the listener and performer. Focusing on the diverse practices of musicians who deploy and circulate melancholy in sound, Gill interrogates the constitutive elements of these musicians' modalities in the context of emergent neoliberalism, secularism, political Islamism, Sufi devotionals, and the politics of psychological health in Turkey today. In an essential contribution to the study of ethnomusicology and psychology, Gill develops rhizomatic analyses to allow for musicians' multiple interpretations to be heard. Melancholic Modalities uncovers how emotion and musical meaning are connected, and how melancholy is articulated in the world of Turkish classical musicians. With her innovative concept of "bi-aurality," Gill's book forges new possibilities for the historical and ethnographic analyses of musics and ideologies of listening for music scholars.

Denise Elif Gill is an ethnomusicologist specializing in the musics of Turkey and former Ottoman territories. Her research engages music-making and affective practice, Islam, health, gender/sexuality, sound studies, and post-humanism. Her work has been funded by Fulbright and by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

Table of Contents
List of FiguresList of ExamplesAcknowledgementsConventionsPrefaceIntroductionMelancholic ModalitiesRhizome One: "Turkish Classical Music" Rhizome Two: Repertoires of MelancholiesRhizome Three: The Practice of AffectRhizome Four: The Islamic Roots of Musicians' Melancholic RoutesFollowing the Rhizomes of Melancholic Modalities
Chapter One - The Melancholic State of Turkish Classical MusicReforms as RootsCultural Policies and the Politics of NamingOttoman Music and the Turkish Nation-State"Shaping Ears and Hearts": Emergent Media PracticesInstitutional Changes for Practices of Musical Transmission Neoliberalism, Islamic Movements, and the Privileges of Privatization Death of a Genre
Chapter Two - Separation, the Sound of the Rhizomatic Ney, and Sacred EmbodimentSufism as SeparationHu as SoundHu as Instrument TechniqueHu as Sacred EmbodimentHu as IstanbulFrom Life to Death and Sound to Silence
Chapter Three - Melancholic Genealogies: Rhizomatic Listening and Bi-Aurality in PracticeLearning Melancholy, Learning LoveUnderstanding MeskLearning from a MasterLearning with NotationBecoming Your Lineage Bi-Aurality and the Problem of Assumed Listening GeographiesGenealogy, Orientalism, and OrientationsListening Like a NeyCase Studies: Listening Rhizomatically to Me?k LineagesLearning Music as the Practice of Melancholy
Chapter Four -- Boundaries of Embodiment in Sounded MelancholyRendering Melancholy MusicalEmbodying Gender, Melancholy, and the Boundaries BetweenThe Body's Boundary: Melancholic Musicking and TearsSema and Sama'Conclusion: Living with the Boundary
Chapter Five -- Melancholic Musicking, Healing, and ReparationMelancholy as IllnessMusical Modes as Music TherapyMelancholy and Health between "East" and "West"Iconic Melancholic Musicians: Neyzen TevfikMelancholic Musicking: "There is No Medicine"Musicking as Food for the (Melancholic) SoulSuffering as Remedy: What to Take Away from Melancholic Musicking
Conclusion -- Affect in Ethnomusicology and BeyondBringing the Rhizomes of Turkish Classical Musicians to Bear beyond the Academy
BibliographyDiscography