Direklerarası Music Scene and İncesaz Ensembles: Musicians, Repertoire, Audience and Taste Structure
Onur Güneş AyasThis study analyzes the incesaz ensembles in Direklerarası, one of the most important entertainment hubs of late Ottoman Istanbul, from the perspective of music sociology, and attempts to reveal their role in the transformation of Turkish music in the late Ottoman period. Direklerarası, a cultural center identified with Ramadan festivities in late Ottoman society, hosted a music economy that connected various commercialized music activities related to incesaz culture. Incesaz, an extension of Ottoman high culture, compensated for the loss in status it suffered in the late 19th century compared to Western music by broadening its socioeconomic base, eventually assimilating into commercialized popular culture in Turkey. This process of interacting with different taste cultures and audiences resulted in certain changes in the social background of its major performers, the composition of its instruments, the scope and quality of its repertoire, and the expectations of its audience. This study claims that Direklerarası played a central role in the transformation of Incesaz. In Direklerarası, which did not spatially or institutionally separate serious and popular music, incesaz ensembles had to appeal to a diverse audience with varying expectations, blurring the position of incesaz in the hierarchies of taste. Focusing on the period roughly from the 1870s to the 1910s, this study analyzes the taste structure of incesaz ensembles in the Direklerarası music scene in terms of interactions among places, performers, repertoires, and audiences, using documents derived from periodicals, advertisements, memoirs, and biographical sources.
Direklerarası Müzik Sahnesi ve İncesaz Takımları: Müzisyenler, Repertuar, Dinleyiciler ve Beğeni Yapısı
Onur Güneş AyasBu çalışmanın amacı, son dönem Osmanlı İstanbulu’nun en önemli eğlence merkezlerinden biri olan Direklerarası’nda sahne alan incesaz takımlarını müzik sosyolojisi perspektifiyle analiz etmek ve Türk müziğinin Osmanlı’nın son döneminde geçirdiği dönüşümde nasıl bir rol oynadıklarını ortaya koymaktır. Geç dönem Osmanlı toplumunda Ramazan eğlenceleriyle özdeşleşmiş bir kültür merkezi olan Direklerarası, aynı zamanda incesaz dünyasıyla ilişkili çeşitli faaliyetleri birbirine entegre eden bir müzik ekonomisine de ev sahipliği yapmaktaydı. Osmanlı yüksek kültürünün bir uzantısı olan incesaz, on dokuzuncu yüzyıl sonlarında Batı müziği karşısında yaşadığı statü kaybını sosyo-ekonomik tabanını genişleterek telafi etti ve sonunda ticarileşmiş popüler kültür dünyasına entegre oldu. İncesazı farklı beğeni kültürleri ve dinleyici gruplarıyla etkileşime sokan bu süreç, belli başlı icracılarının sosyal arkaplanlarında, çalgılarının bileşiminde, repertuarının kapsam ve niteliğinde ve dinleyicilerinin beklentilerinde belli değişimlere yol açtı. Bu çalışma, incesazın Osmanlı’nın son döneminde yaşadığı bu dönüşümde Direklerarası’nın merkezi bir rol oynadığını iddia etmektedir. Ciddi müzikle eğlence müziğinin uzunca bir süre mekânsal ve kurumsal olarak ayrışmadığı bu eğlence merkezinde incesaz takımları, birbirinden farklı beklentilere sahip, heterojen bir dinleyici kitlesine hitap etmek zorunda kalmış, bu da uzantısı olduğu müzik geleneğinin beğeni hiyerarşileri içindeki konumunu bulanıklaştırmıştır. Kabaca 1870’lerden 1910’lara kadarki döneme odaklanan bu makale, dönemin süreli yayınları, gazete ilanları, hatırat metinleri ve biyografik kaynaklara dayanarak, Direklerarası müzik sahnesindeki incesaz takımlarının beğeni yapısını icracı, mekân, müzik ve dinleyici etkileşimi ekseninde incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.
This study presents a sociological analysis of music bands playing Ottoman art music (fasıl music) known as incesaz in Direklerarası, an entertainment hub associated with Ramadan festivities in late Ottoman Istanbul. İncesaz, which was previously performed by distinguished musicians on high-status instruments such as tanbur and ney for intimate audiences, became accessible to a wider audience in the late nineteenth century through the performances of professional ensembles in commercial music venues. Despite being a type of urban music that was not monopolized by the Court or an aristocratic circle and being open to the influence of lower classes and non-elite music cultures, the Ottoman music tradition had always maintained a distinction between the standards of art music, which appealed to the elite (havas), and those of popular/military music, which generally appealed to the common people (avam), as reflected in the traditional distinction between incesaz and kabasaz.
In late Ottoman society, the elites were increasingly orientated toward the West, resulting in the dwindling of the high prestige of incesaz in the Court and among the upper classes. Incesaz compensated for this loss in prestige it suffered in comparison to Western music by broadening its socioeconomic base through commercialized music activities that appealed to larger crowds. These aspects of incesaz coexisted and were intertwined in the Direklerarası music scene, which did not separate venues for serious and popular music until the 1910s. For example, Fevziye Kıraathanesi, which hosted the most distinguished incesaz musicians of the period and functioned as a conservatory for Istanbul, as Ahmet Rasim put it, was not only frequented by a group of high-level musicians and men of letters but was also a place of entertainment, where crowds coming to Direklerarası for Ramadan festivities spent time for a relatively low fee. Incesaz ensembles also performed popular pieces during interludes in musical comedies, theater plays, and Karagöz shows, and occasionally accompanied less prestigious popular musicians such as kanto singers and dancers. The interaction of incesaz music with various taste cultures, musical styles, and taste publics resulted in significant changes in the social backgrounds of its performers, the composition of its instruments, the scope and quality of its repertoire, and the expectations of its audience. This study claims that Direklerarası played a crucial role in this transformation.
The scene is a primary conceptual framework used in music sociology to emphasize the context that space creates for musical activities. Direklerarası can be viewed as a local music scene in a narrow street where theaters, coffeehouses, teahouses, music shops, and other music-related venues congregate, and various music cultures and styles interact closely with one another thanks to the social network and local economy offered by the space. In this study, this non-homogeneous taste structure of Direklerarası was analyzed using Gans’ notions of taste cultures and publics. Popular and intellectual oriented taste publics coexisted in incesaz programs in the Direklerarası scene. The competing demands of taste publics interacted to reshape the norms and values of the relevant taste cultures, enabling transitions in the repertoires and the groups of musicians belonging to different cultures. In Ottoman society, incesaz was semiologically linked to high culture, whereas kabasaz was associated with low culture. However, the actual incesaz performances in Direklerarası served as a melting pot of cultural forms that moved around the hierarchies of taste, because these musicians needed to satisfy the needs of a wide range of listeners. Focusing on the period from the 1870s to the 1910s, this study analyzes the taste structure of incesaz ensembles in the Direklerarası music scene in terms of the interactions among venues, performers, music, and audience. The data used for this article were gathered from periodicals, advertisements, posters, memoirs, and biographical sources as part of a research project and analyzed from the perspective of music sociology.
After 1909, the founding of music societies and schools in the same district can be seen as a step taken toward clarifying the boundaries between serious and popular music, which were intertwined in Direklerarası. A comparative study revealed that the members of these schools and societies, mainly government officials of overwhelmingly Turkish and Muslim origin, differed significantly from those of professional incesaz ensembles, which were primarily composed of professional entertainment musicians, mostly of non-Muslim and Gypsy origin. In addition, the former group’s concert programs were more meticulously organized than the latter’s, and they favored a more classical repertoire. However, during the early Republican period, when Turkish classical music received little official support or patronage from powerful groups and consequently had to appeal to a wider audience, the two art worlds continued to interact and intertwine in the mediums and institutions they had to share.
