Aims and objectives
This project will digitise and catalogue the private collection of Cemal Ünlü, one of the most significant repositories of early sound recordings of late-Ottoman and early Turkish music. In partnership with Cemal Ünlü, the principal applicant William Sumits will work with a small team to digitise the +3000 phonograph records, along with their labels, and associated print ephemera including record catalogues, notations, etc. The project will be hosted by the Orient-Institut Istanbul, where a dedicated digitisation lab will be setup. In close consultation with Cemal Ünlü, Ottoman music specialists and audio technicians, the collection will be digitised and all associated metadata will be catalogued and indexed. The project will thereby preserve the sound of the cosmopolitan musical landscape of the late-Ottoman Empire and early Turkish republic.
