Journey among Dervishes between past and Present

The present book intends to invite readers on a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted journey meeting dervishes in different places and environments of the Muslim world; its peculiarity is to bring together a classical orientalist approach, based on texts and written documents, with the approach typical of Anthropology, Ethnography and Ethnomusicology, based on research in the field and oral sources: the ethnographic study of the present sheds new light on practices, methods and theories exposed in treatises of the Past while, at the same time, practices of the present may be clarified and illuminated by the study of ancient Sufi texts and authors. These different approaches want to draw attention to the multiple dimensions embraced by tasawwuf (Sufism) both in its historical and social context and in its non-temporal aspect, concerning spirituality and the ways the latter is conveyed and transmitted, both in the past and present

I ki hezar aferin bon nidge Sultan olur. Dervishes Ceremonies in Constantinople Described by Western Travellers and Painters between Sixteenth and Eighteenth Century

Between the sixteenth century and the eighteenth century many Europeans visited Constantinople, the new Ottoman capital, and wrote reports that took various aspects of its cultural and musical life into consideration. Among the recurring elements of such reports, we note the description of Dervishes and their ceremonies, o en accom- panied by engravings and more rarely by musical transcriptions. Through time, such a description became a topic (and a stereotype) both in literature and in fine arts. Without claiming to be exhaustive, my article retraces and comments descriptions of Dervish ceremonies, in a chronological order, by Western travellers and scholars between six- teenth and eighteenth century, between the so-called Age of Exploration and Modernity

Ensemble Marâghî "Sounds from the Seray The Young Bobowski at the Ottoman Court in 17th Century"

CD of the Ensemble Marâghî, "Sounds from the Seray. The Young Bobowski at the Ottoman Court in 17th Century", Turin, Felmay, 2021, fy 8278. Stefano Albarello, plucked zithers qānūn, cánon Giovanni De Zorzi, flute ney Fabio Tricomi frame drums daf, zillidef, bendir, goblet drums zar

Between Phanar and the Ottoman Court: Greek Composers in Constantinople in 18th Century

With the taking of Constantinople on 29 May 1453, a new capital made its appearance on the scene of the main cultural and artistic centres of the Islamic world. In this new context, Constantinople, although already having a millennial past, suffered from a certain cultural backwardness. Nevertheless, in just a few decades, forms and genres developed that would be typically and exclusively ‘Ottoman’. The birth of a new Ottoman art music (maqām) came about thanks to some particular characteristics that were rather rare in the Islamic world that the article takes into exam. Moreover, the ‘new’ Ottoman Art music was heavily influenced by the aesthetic of the earlier Byzantine tradition and by the presence of many Greek composers coming from the milieu of Phanar. The most renowned are certainly Zaharya Efendi (1680?–1740?) and his student Petros the Peloponnesian, Lambadarios of the Great Church (1735? 1740?-1778). Their life and works conclude and significantly exemplify the article

"Il Bîrûn veneziano"

Breve introduzione, scritta insieme a Giovanni Giuriati, al progetto Bîrûn giunto alla sua quinta edizione e al suo terzo CD, in questo caso: Ensemble Bîrûn, diretto da Kudsi Erguner, I Maftirîm e le opere degli ebrei sefarditi nella musica classica ottomana. The maftirîms and the Works of Sephardic Jews in Ottoman Classical Music

From the Birth of the Soundscape Concept to the Sound Ambient in Disneyland-Paris

Giovanni De Zorzi traces the historical and aesthetical background of ‘soundscape’, from the sound/noise opposition in physics to the reconsideration of ‘noise’ by the avant-gardes of the twentieth century arriving to the conceptions of Murray Schafer and Steven Feld, which gave birth to many nowadays disciplines. After this, Alessio Calandra deals with the possible influence of the soundscape of Disneyland Park, an amusement park in Disneyland Paris: he begins from some ‘physical’ places of the Park, such as Main Street U.S.A., Frontierland, Adventureland, and arrives to the detailed analysis of their specific soundscape related to the sale of Disney-branded gadgets and products within the park

Walter FELDMAN: From Rumi to the Whirling Dervishes. Music, Poetry, and Mysticism in the Ottoman Empire, Series «Music & Performance in Muslim Contexts». Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.

Recensione di /Review of/ Compte Rendu de: Walter FELDMAN, 'From Rumi to the Whirling Dervishes. Music, Poetry, and Mysticism in the Ottoman Empire', Series «Music & Performance in Muslim Contexts», Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2022

"No sentido das tradições musicais dos uigures"

L'articolo inizia prendendo in esame il contesto storico e geo-politico nel quale sono sorte le tradizioni musicali classiche, d'arte, dette complessivamente muqam, degli uiguri, genti di lingua turca che da millenni vivono nei territori dell'attuale Xinjiang. Da questa introduzione generale si passa ad una analisi delle dodici suites di musica d'arte, dette onikki muqam, sorte sulla rete delle sei città oasi (altishahr) che costeggiano il deserto dei Gobi, descrivendone modi, cicli ritmici, strumenti musicali e solisti. Da qui l'articolo si sofferma sulla poco nota tradizione musicale delle genti Dolan e sul genere semi-classico, o classico-leggero, noto come Ili Nakhshesi. L'articolo si conclude con un approfondimento sulla principale occasione sociale del fare musica nell'area, il mashrap, e sulle sue influenze sufi. L'articolo fornisce al lettore una serie di riferimenti bibliografici di approfondimento e una discografia ragionata

Kudsi Erguner & Lâmekân Ensemble – Fragments des Cérémonies Soufies. L’invitation à l’extase (Seyir Muzik, 2021).

Recensione al CD: Kudsi Erguner & Lâmekân Ensemble – Fragments des Cérémonies Soufies. L’invitation à l’extase (Seyir Muzik, 2021) per la rivista online BlogFoolk. https://www.blogfoolk.com/2021/07/kudsi-erguner-lamekan-ensemble.htmlReview of the CD: Kudsi Erguner & Lâmekân Ensemble - Fragments of Sufi Ceremonies. Invitation to Ecstasy (Seyir Muzik, 2021) for the online magazine BlogFoolk. https://www.blogfoolk.com/2021/07/kudsi-erguner-lamekan-ensemble.htm

Note intorno alla pratica del samâ' ("ascolto, concerto spirituale") tra i sufi

Samâ‘ è un termine arabo che può essere reso con “ciò che viene udito, ciò che viene ascoltato” e, per estensione, “l’audizione; l’ascolto”. Nel tasawwuf (“sufismo”), esoterismo islamico di tipo iniziatico, con questo termine si indica l’ascolto di musica e/o poesia, e la particolare tradizione sufi di “concerto spirituale”, sviluppatosi in forme e modi diversi a seconda dei luoghi e delle culture musicali. Da questa introduzione di carattere storico e orientalistica, l'articolo passa ad un approccio di tipo antropologico ed etnomusicologico prendendo in esame diverse specifiche tradizioni sufi sviluppatosi nel mondo islamico