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Music as Labor; Music as Work: 100 years of Turkish Roman Musician Narratives

Sounding Roman book cover and photo of author, Sonia Tamar Seeman
January 27, 2020
4:00PM - 5:30PM
18th Ave Library, 175 W 18th, Room 205

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Add to Calendar 2020-01-27 16:00:00 2020-01-27 17:30:00 Music as Labor; Music as Work: 100 years of Turkish Roman Musician Narratives Turkish Roman musicians elevate or dismiss their work as “earning bread money” (ekmek parası kazanmak) and point to their tables (feeding their families) and roof (providing shelter). But this disarmingly simple summary belies the complexity of their training, extensive labor and highly-developed guild-like system of in-family training. Roman professional musicianship is a family trade, passed on through generations over several hundred years, and defines kin group as well as individual subjectivity. Furthermore, “earning bread money” is a mutation for the earlier expression widespread up to the mid-twentieth century, “music/musicianship is the mold for making bread” (müzik ekmek teknesi). This earlier expression encapsulates the understanding that one’s profession shapes subjectivity as well as the means to survive. And the transition between these two expressions (from “shaping one’s bread” to “earning money for bread”) provides a metaphoric encapsulation of the pre- and early-modern focus on craftsmanship to a period of capitalist — and alienating — exchange of labor for cash. This talk explores these developments through the narrated lives of Turkish Roman professional musicians in their own words, documents, recordings and lived experiences, culled from 25 years of fieldwork and close family relationships, outlining key themes for a new book project. Sonia Tamar Seeman is an associate professor at the University of Texas, Austin in the Butler School of Music and Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She has conducted research and published on the topics of Macedonian and Turkish Roman musical practices. Her works include articles in Ethnomusicology Forum, Middle Eastern Studies Journal, Music and Anthropology of the Mediterranean, and liner notes for Macedonian and Turkish Roman recordings. This talk is co-organized with the Ohio State’s School of Music “Lectures in Musicology” 18th Ave Library, 175 W 18th, Room 205 Global Arts and Humanities globalartsandhumanities@osu.edu America/New_York public
Sounding Roman book cover

Turkish Roman musicians elevate or dismiss their work as “earning bread money” (ekmek parası kazanmak) and point to their tables (feeding their families) and roof (providing shelter). But this disarmingly simple summary belies the complexity of their training, extensive labor and highly-developed guild-like system of in-family training. Roman professional musicianship is a family trade, passed on through generations over several hundred years, and defines kin group as well as individual subjectivity. Furthermore, “earning bread money” is a mutation for the earlier expression widespread up to the mid-twentieth century, “music/musicianship is the mold for making bread” (müzik ekmek teknesi). This earlier expression encapsulates the understanding that one’s profession shapes subjectivity as well as the means to survive. And the transition between these two expressions (from “shaping one’s bread” to “earning money for bread”) provides a metaphoric encapsulation of the pre- and early-modern focus on craftsmanship to a period of capitalist — and alienating — exchange of labor for cash. This talk explores these developments through the narrated lives of Turkish Roman professional musicians in their own words, documents, recordings and lived experiences, culled from 25 years of fieldwork and close family relationships, outlining key themes for a new book project.

Sonia Tamar Seeman is an associate professor at the University of Texas, Austin in the Butler School of Music and Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She has conducted research and published on the topics of Macedonian and Turkish Roman musical practices. Her works include articles in Ethnomusicology Forum, Middle Eastern Studies Journal, Music and Anthropology of the Mediterranean, and liner notes for Macedonian and Turkish Roman recordings.


This talk is co-organized with the Ohio State’s School of Music “Lectures in Musicology”

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