Aims and objectives
This project will digitise and catalogue the phonograph record archive of the Darülelhân, one of the first official music schools of the Ottoman empire. Founded in 1916, the Darülelhân archive contains around 4700 shellac 78rpm records, preserving more than 600 unique sound recordings of Anatolian folk and Ottoman art music. In partnership with the Rare Works Library of Istanbul University, the team will work to digitise the sound recordings and associated written materials and ephemera. The project will be hosted by the Orient-Institut Istanbul, and all digitisation will occur at Istanbul University's Rare Works Library with support from their staff members. The Darülelhân collection preserves many rare early recordings of folk music from all over Anatolia that was collected on expeditions carried out in 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1929. Additional materials to be digitised will be drawn from the Ulaş Özdemir collection in order to expand upon the repertoires preserved in the earliest folk music recordings made during the Darülelhân expeditions.
