Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, whose life and mystical poetry provided the inspiration for the Mevlevi Sufi order, is one of the world's best-known poets, yet the centuries-long musical tradition cultivated by the Mevleviye remains much less known. In this deeply researched book, renowned scholar Walter Feldman traces the historical development of Mevlevi music and brings to light the remarkable musical and mystical aesthetics of the Mevlevi ayin
the instrumental and vocal accompaniment to the sublime ceremony of the 'Whirling' Dervishes.
List of Music Examples and FiguresList of ImagesA Note on Orthography and TransliterationTurkish Musical Symbols and the Intonation of Ottoman MusicPrefaceAcknowledgements Part I: History and Culture of the Mevlevi Dervishes Introduction: Continuities and Ruptures in the Mevlevi Tradition 1. Defining the Mystical Music of the Mevlevi Dervishes ‘Mystical Music’ in the Anatolian Turkish Context Comparison of Sema and Zikr (Dhikr) Musical Style of the Zikr Terminology of the Sema The Mevleviye and Music 2. The Mevlevi Phenomenon Brief Outline of Mevlana’s Career Brief History of the Mevleviye The Mevlevi Centres Women Sheikhs and Dervishes Basis of Mevlevi Training and Education 3. Development and Cultural Affinities of the Mevlevi Ayin Possibility of a Historical Approach to the Mevlevi Ceremony Movement within the Sema Western European Sources Spatial Structure and Movement Symbolism of the Mevlevi Sema 4. The Ney in Mevlevi Music Aesthetics of the Ney in Mevlevi Literature Myths and Metaphors Technical Development of the Ney, and the Ney as the Mevlevi Instrument Ney and Taksim The Origin of the Taksim 5. The Mevlevi Neyzen as an Ideal Representative of Ottoman Culture The Mevlevi Neyzen and the Transmission of Ottoman Music The Instrumentarium of the Late Ottoman Empire The Leading Neyzens in History Transition to the Early Republic Emin Dede (1883–1945) Halil Dikmen (1906–1964) Neyzen Tevfik Kolaylı (1879–1953) Part II: Music of the Mevlevis 6. The Position of Music within the Mevleviye Was There a Mevlevi Musical Discourse? Mevlevi Musicians and Poets in Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Culture The Mevleviye and Musical History in Anatolia and Iran The ‘Science of Music’ in Iran and Istanbul and the Role of Mevlevi Musicians 7. The Musical Structure of the Ayin The Music of the Ayin as Part of an Oral Transmission Musical Structure of the Ayin compared with the Ottoman Fasıl Rhythmic Cycle and Poetic Metre Modulation Musical Techniques within a Mystical and Artistic Compositional Form The Na’at-i Peygamberi The Baş-taksim Devr-i Kebir: Origins and Issues of Historical Change in the Peşrev and in the Third Selam 8. Music, Poetry and Composition in the Ayin Devr-i Revan and the First Selam The ‘Ancient’ Dügah Ayini The Beyati Ayini of Mustafa Dede The Saba Ayini of Ismail Dede A Note on the Second Selam 9. The Sema’i in the Third Selam and the Son Yürük Sema’i: Nucleus of the Antecedent Sema? ‘Ey ki Hezar Aferin’ Irak Sema’i Sultan Veled, ‘Kadim’ Bektashi Nefes and Instrumental Sema’i A Brief Musicological Conclusion Postlude GlossaryReferences CitedIndex
Walter Feldman is a leading scholar of both Ottoman Turkish and Jewish music. His major publications include Klezmer: Music, History and Memory (Oxford, 2016) and Music of the Ottoman Court: Makam, Composition, and the Early Ottoman Instrumental Repertoire (Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 1996). As a lifelong musician, Feldman performs on the Ottoman tanbur and the cimbal—the traditional Klezmer dulcimer. He has held teaching positions at Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University Abu Dhabi and is a board member of the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae Project of the Wilhelm Westphalian University in Münster, and of the Istanbul Research Institute.