Osmanlı Dönemi Mesleki Müzik Eğitiminde İki Solfej Kitabı: Solfej ve Talim-i Kırâat-ı Musiki

Abstract

During the Ottoman period in the time of Mahmud II (1826), the education of Western music started to be given formally alongside Turkish music by doing away with the janissary band, through the establishment of the military band, Muzika-i Humâyun and by the commissioning of the Italian composer Giuseppe Donizetti . Donizetti trained many students until his death in 1856. After that another Italian composer, Callisto Guatelli, was commissioned by Abdulhamid II until his death in 1899. The Spanish composer D'Arenda helped Guatelli in Muzika-yi Humâyun and replaced him later.Turkish students have published many books or translations of Western music theory and solfege education. One of the first and most important works among these publications is "Solfej Yahud Nazariyat-i Musiki (Solfege or Music Theory) (1888/1889)" by the flautist Mustafa Safvet [Atabinen] Bey, who is an educator of the Muzika-i Humâyun (The Imperial Band of the Ottoman Empire) and the other is "Kutubhane-i Musikiden Talim-i Kiraat-i Musiki (Teaching and Reading of Music From Library of Music) (1899/1900)" by theviolinist Mehmed Zati [Arca] Bey, who is also an educator of the Muzika-i Humâyun. These works are the first printed Turkish solfege books of the Ottoman period. The aim of this study is firstly to examine the extant terms used by converting these two books from old letters to new letters and then to investigate the usability of the solfege samples included in the books in today's professional music education and to bring them into today's solfege education. The titles of the works which were prepared for practice are determined as follows: "ta'limler", "temrin", "kirâat", "vazifeler", "tenbihler", "mulâhâzat", "mesk" and "imlâ". These titles are determined according to the purposes of consolidating, performing, printing and evaluating the theoretical knowledge. Moreover, in this book, twenty five "two voice solfege" examples are also included. Some of these solfeges are vocal works. Turkish music works are used for teaching syncopated rhythms which occur frequently in the book. Moreover it can be said that two voice solfege examples are also crucial in terms of polyphonic hearing. It is seen that the books Solfej Yahud Nazariyat-i Musiki and Kutubhâne-i Musikiden Talim-i Kirâat-i Musiki play an important part in comprising the terminology of Turkish Western music.