“Signs of Sound in Constantinople”

Signs of Sound in Constantinople: Cultural memory and intertextuality in neumatic music notations

Presented by The Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Zehra Tulin Degirmenci
Visiting Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

This talk examines neumatic music notations as a sign system and questions their cultural roles in historical context through a socio-cultural approach. In the 19th century, musical symbols that had been preserved in the collective memory of Constantinople for hundreds of years were transformed into a new neumatic music notation, known today as the “Hamparsum” or “Modern Armenian Notation.” Through transliteration and analysis of over a thousand pieces preserved in 15 Hamparsum manuscripts, I will explain with which signs and how the Hamparsum music notation represents the Turkish music pitch system, its usul cycle, and its form structures. Moreover, using the approach of cultural relativism, this talk examines the role of the Hamparsum music notation in representing the musical traditions of both Ottoman Armenian and Turkish communities. I will also propose socio-cultural reasons for the transformation of the earlier basic symbols of neumatic notations into this new musical sign system. Different opinions have emerged since the 19th century regarding the origins of neumatic notations – however, the Hamparsum music notation has been overlooked in these theories so far. Examining the sign systems of Byzantine, Latin and Armenian neumatic music notations through intersemiotics reveals the relationship of Hamparsum notation with other neumatic music notations.