Description
This presentation examines the limitations in the fieldwork conducted by German ethnomusicologists Kurt and Ursula Reinhard in Turkey between 1955 and 1979, through the audiovisual materials preserved in the Berlin Phonogram Archive. As institutional researchers trained in the German tradition of comparative musicology, unfamiliar with the field and lacking linguistic fluency, the Reinhards attempted to align themselves with the evolving discipline of ethnomusicology. Funded by the DFG and supported by state institutions, they conducted fieldwork in selected regions, excluding certain ethnic and religious groups under the guidance of official intermediaries, with the aim of mapping “Turkish music.” Their publications based on this curated data became the earliest sources on Turkish music in global music history literature. However, these contributions also raise questions about what was excluded or overlooked during the research and archival process. This presentation, from the perspective of a researcher with field experience who has worked with this archive, seeks to explore what the archive contains and what remains unspoken and why, and to reflect on methods of knowledge production that grapple with the endless possibilities these silences entail.
