Musical Traces of a Lost Past

Dilek Kızıldağ; Martin Greve

doi:10.5771/9783987402708

Summary

This book offers a music-centered approach to the contested history, memories, and identities of greater Dersim. Through laments, songs, oral history, and shifting performance contexts, it reveals how music captures violence, loss, migration, and longings for a lost, idealized past. Combining ethnography, archival research, and multi-sited fieldwork, the study uncovers fragmented traditions, hybrid styles, and the emotional worlds they express.The book is aimed at researchers of music, memory, trauma, and (Eastern) Anatolian cultures.

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Bibliographic data

Publication year: 2026
Publication date: 07.01.2026
ISBN-Print: 978-3-98740-269-2
ISBN-Online: 978-3-98740-270-8
Publisher: Ergon, Baden-Baden
Series: Istanbuler Texte und Studien (ITS)
Volume: 50
Language: English
Pages: 492
Product type: Edited Book

1. Table of Contents No access
Martin Greve, Dilek Kızıldağ
1. 1. Our Fieldwork Ethnography of Music No access
2. 1. Martin Greve No access
  2. Dilek Kızıldağ No access
3. 3. Fieldwork at Home No access
4. 4. Fieldwork in the Time of Corona No access
5. 5. Research and Fieldwork by Two No access
6. 6. Multi-Sited Fieldwork No access
7. 7. Use of Languages and Acknowledgements No access
Dilek Kızıldağ
1. 1. Dersim Geographically No access
2. 1. Dersim’s Autonomous Position and Social Structure No access
  2. The Ottomans’ Dersim Problem and their Search for Solutions No access
3. 1. Kurds, Alevis, and State Violence at the Emergence of the Republic No access
  2. Koçgiri 1921: Exception or Rebellion or Massacre? No access
  3. Kurdish Radicalization Following the Proclamation of the Republic, and the Regime’s Response No access
  4. “Dersim Issue” of the Republic: “Civilising” through Violence No access
Martin Greve
1. 1. Introduction: The Feeling of Loss No access
2. 1. Music in the villages No access
  2. Atmospheres No access
3. 1. The Dede/Pir and his Talips No access
  2. Performing Cems No access
  3. Music No access
  4. Trance and Keramet No access
  5. Semah No access
4. 1. Muhabbet in Kondılan No access
  2. Singers in the villages No access
  3. Singers and Aghas No access
  4. Learning and Transmission No access
  5. Women No access
  6. Dengbêjs No access
  7. Urban Gatherings No access
5. 5. Historical Violence, Trauma, and Music No access
6. 6. Conclusion No access
Dilek Kızıldağ
1. 1. Women, Death, Mourning, Lament: The Case of Koçgiri No access
2. 2. The Lamentation Tradition in Dersim No access
3. 3. Laments as Historical Documents: The Cases of Koçgiri 1921 and Dersim ’38 No access
4. 4. Case Studies of Alternative Historiography on Dersim ‘38 with Laments used as Historical Document No access
5. 5. Dersim Political Laments, or the Politicization of Dersim Laments No access
6. 6. Conclusion No access
Martin Greve
1. 1. Voices No access
  2. Performativity and Open Form No access
  3. Terminology No access
  4. Entangled Social Identities No access
  5. Families and Tribes No access
2. 1. Zaza Music No access
  2. Between Âşık and Dengbêj No access
3. 1. Alevi Songs in Zaza and Kurmanji No access
  2. Alevi Ritual Music No access
4. 1. Dersim – Koçgiri – Arguvan – Eastern Dersim and Western Bingöl No access
  2. Bingöl – Varto and Hınıs No access
5. 5. Mapping Musical Instruments: Violin and Kemençe No access
6. 6. Conclusion No access
Martin Greve
1. 1. The People’s Houses (Halkevleri) No access
  2. Listening to the Radio No access
  3. The Creation of Turkish Folk Music No access
2. 1. The Urbanisation of Greater Dersim No access
  2. Istanbul No access
  3. Europe No access
  4. Village Music in the City No access
3. 1. Entering the Turkish Music Industry No access
  2. Music Production in the Diaspora No access
  3. The Professionalization of Music No access
  4. The Music Market in the East No access
4. 1. Music and Politics No access
  2. Music within New National Movements No access
  3. Music and Atmospheres of Urban Alevism No access
  4. Musicians from Greater Dersim as European Musicians No access
5. 5. Conclusion No access
Martin Greve
1. 1. Broken Memories No access
2. 2. Safeguarding Traditional Music from Dersim No access
3. 3. Musical Reconstruction and Innovation No access
4. 4. Staging the Myth of Dersim No access
5. 5. The Decline of the Dersim Revival No access
6. 6. Conclusion No access
VIII. Conclusion No access Pages 435 - 442 Martin Greve, Dilek Kızıldağ
IX. Closing Dialogue No access Pages 443 - 448 Martin Greve, Dilek Kızıldağ
X. Bibliography No access Pages 449 - 492