Lost in Scales: Balkan Folk Music Research and the Ottoman Legacy

Balkan folk music researchers have articulated various views on
what they have considered Oriental or Turkish musical legacy. The discourses
the article analyses are nationalism, Orientalism, Occidentalism and
Balkanism. Scholars have handled the awkward Ottoman issue in several
manners: They have represented ‘Oriental’ musical characteristics as
domestic, claimed that Ottoman Turks merely imitated Arab and Persian
culture, and viewed Indian classical raga scales as sources for Oriental scales
in the Balkans. In addition, some scholars have viewed the ‘Oriental’
characteristics as stemming from ancient Greece.
The treatment of the Segâh family of Ottoman makams in theories and
analyses reveals several features of folk music research in the Balkans, the
most important of which are the use of Western concepts and the exclusive
dependence on printed sources. The strategies for handling the Orient within
have meandered between Occidentalism and Orientalism, creating an
ambiguity which is called Balkanism.