Collegicum Musicologicum - Gastvortrag, Martin Greve (Orient-Institut Beirut/Istanbul)
The best-known early field recordings of music in Palestine made by European scholars are those of Abraham Zwi Idelsohn (1882–1938), recorded between 1911 and 1913, and Robert Lachmann (1892–1939), recorded between 1936 and 1938. Far less well known are four additional collections of wax cylinder recordings preserved in archives in Vienna, Kyiv, and Berlin. This presentation offers an overview of the early collections of Péter, Klameth, Isaac, and Helfritz, situating them within the broader context of Orientalist and musicological research, and in relation to the better-known collections of Idelsohn, Lachmann, and Brigitte Schiffer. Marked by evolutionary and Orientalist perspectives, these collections may be understood as instances of epistemic violence, sustained by the enduring prestige of Western archival institutions. In recent years, however, various efforts have sought to recontextualise these recordings and to open them up to new musical interpretations.
Auf einen Blick
10117 Berlin
Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft
Beschreibung
The best-known early field recordings of music in Palestine made by European scholars are those of Abraham Zwi Idelsohn (1882–1938), recorded between 1911 and 1913, and Robert Lachmann (1892–1939), recorded between 1936 and 1938. Far less well known are four additional collections of wax cylinder recordings preserved in archives in Vienna, Kyiv, and Berlin. This presentation offers an overview of the early collections of Péter, Klameth, Isaac, and Helfritz, situating them within the broader context of Orientalist and musicological research, and in relation to the better-known collections of Idelsohn, Lachmann, and Brigitte Schiffer. Marked by evolutionary and Orientalist perspectives, these collections may be understood as instances of epistemic violence, sustained by the enduring prestige of Western archival institutions. In recent years, however, various efforts have sought to recontextualise these recordings and to open them up to new musical interpretations.
Martin Greve is a German ethnomusicologist based in Istanbul and Beirut. His habilitation thesis examines Turkish music in Germany. From 2005 to 2011, Dr Greve served as coordinator of the Study Programme in Turkish Music at the Rotterdam World Music Academy. Between 2011 and 2018, he was a research fellow at the Orient-Institut Istanbul, where he was responsible for the research field "Music in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey”. His most recent book, Looking for Greater Dersim: Musical Traces of a Lost Past, was published by Ergon Verlag (Baden-Baden) in 2025.