Melancholic Modalities

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 Figures
List of Examples
Acknowledgements
Conventions
Preface
Introduction
Melancholic Modalities
Rhizome One: "Turkish Classical Music"
Rhizome Two: Repertoires of Melancholies
Rhizome Three: The Practice of Affect
Rhizome Four: The Islamic Roots of Musicians' Melancholic Routes
Following the Rhizomes of Melancholic Modalities

Chapter One - The Melancholic State of Turkish Classical Music
Reforms as Roots
Cultural Policies and the Politics of Naming
Ottoman Music and the Turkish Nation-State
"Shaping Ears and Hearts": Emergent Media Practices
Institutional 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 Embodiment
Sufism as Separation
Hu as Sound
Hu as Instrument Technique
Hu as Sacred Embodiment
Hu as Istanbul
From Life to Death and Sound to Silence

Chapter Three - Melancholic Genealogies: Rhizomatic Listening and Bi-Aurality in Practice
Learning Melancholy, Learning Love
Understanding Mesk
Learning from a Master
Learning with Notation
Becoming Your Lineage
Bi-Aurality and the Problem of Assumed Listening Geographies
Genealogy, Orientalism, and Orientations
Listening Like a Ney
Case Studies: Listening Rhizomatically to Me?k Lineages
Learning Music as the Practice of Melancholy

Chapter Four -- Boundaries of Embodiment in Sounded Melancholy
Rendering Melancholy Musical
Embodying Gender, Melancholy, and the Boundaries Between
The Body's Boundary: Melancholic Musicking and Tears
Sema and Sama'
Conclusion: Living with the Boundary

Chapter Five -- Melancholic Musicking, Healing, and Reparation
Melancholy as Illness
Musical Modes as Music Therapy
Melancholy and Health between "East" and "West"
Iconic Melancholic Musicians: Neyzen Tevfik
Melancholic Musicking: "There is No Medicine"
Musicking as Food for the (Melancholic) Soul
Suffering as Remedy: What to Take Away from Melancholic Musicking

Conclusion -- Affect in Ethnomusicology and Beyond
Bringing the Rhizomes of Turkish Classical Musicians to Bear beyond the Academy

Bibliography
Discography