Dr. Değirmenci from Harvard University Was a Guest at the Musicology Seminar

Musicologist Dr. Tülin Değirmenci, who conducts her research at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, was a guest at BAU Conservatory with her seminar titled "Writing Music in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Istanbul: Hamparsum and the Invention of Tradition." A comprehensive presentation was given on Hamparsum notation, a historically and functionally important system accepted among the music notation methods in the history of Ottoman Music. Derived from the notation signs used in Medieval Europe and developed by Hamparsum Limonciyan (1768-1839) based on "neume" notation, this system played an important role in transferring Ottoman Music to written sources until the transition to Western notation.

Some sections of İsmail Dede Efendi's Bestenigar Mevlevi ayin, transcribed by Dr. Değirmenci from Hamparsum notation, were performed on the ney by Mahmut Ergin, one of the first graduates of our conservatory. At the event, which was attended by many students and researchers both in person and online, our conservatory director Dr. İsmet Aydın extended his congratulations and thanks to Dr. Değirmenci and Mahmut Ergin.