Dr. Nihan Tahtaişleyen

Research Fellow

Tel.: +90 – 212 293 60 67 / 124
Email: tahtaisleyen@oiist.org

Nihan Tahtaişleyen has been a musicologist, and a research associate for Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae (CMO) Project at the Orient-Institut, Istanbul, since January 2022. The project focuses on the critical edition of Near Eastern music manuscripts. She has also been teaching music history as a research associate of the Musicology Department at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MSFAU), Istanbul State Conservatory, since 2014. She received her Ph.D. degree with a thesis entitled Kurt Reinhard as a Representation of the Transition from Comparative Musicology to Ethnomusicology (2021) in the Institute of Social Sciences, Musicology Program at MSFAU. Her Ph.D. research was focused on sound and written documents of Turkish music field research by Kurt and Ursula Reinhard (1955-1978), which is sheltered in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv. In 2019, she studied these materials in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv as a guest researcher thanks to the Musicology Department of Westfälische Wilhelms University Münster’s Erasmus Program.

Before her archival research, she focused on field research between 2006-2012 as a researcher of the Ministry of Culture of Turkey, Turkish Folklore Organization (TFK), and individual projects in Anatolia. She received her MA degree with a thesis entitled The Features of Anatolian Elegy Tradition and Its Role in Cultural Continuity (2013) in the Ethnomusicology Program of MSFAU. During these years, she taught traditional Turkish music theory, folk music in Turkey, field research methodology, and methods of musical notation in the Ethnomusicology and Musicology Departments of MSFAU. She worked as an editor for several academic journals and international festivals such as MSFAU Journal of Social Sciences, The Journal of Musicology, and IKSV 46th International Istanbul Music Festival. She also worked as a researcher for a TUBITAK 1001 Project about descriptive and semiotic analysis of popular music production in Turkey and was part of Scientific Research Projects (BAP) at MSFAU about cultural memory. Besides her academic studies, she is a professional and a half-amateur western classical, rock, and Turkish traditional music performer.

Her current study with her colleagues on early wax cylinder recording in Turkey has been published in 2020 entitled Fonograf Alanda – Erken Dönem Karşılaştırmalı Müzikolojiye Çalışmaları ve Türkiye [Phonograph in the Field – Early Studies in Comparative Musicology and Turkey]; it includes field research and recordings of Hubert Octave Pernot (1898-99) and Felix von Luschan (1902). Nihan Tahtaişleyen continues to study early field recordings, music archives, and historical ethnomusicology.

To the Team Page

Academic Activities

Research Interests

Historical ethnomusicology

Early field recordings

Sound & audiovisual archives, and their sustainability in a critical perspective

Field research methodologies in ethnomusicology

Historical musicology

Manuscript studies in Ottoman Music

Contemporary music as a “New Music” in Turkey

Current Research Projects

2023 – 2025: Researcher & Co-curator

Camera Anatolica: Five German Researchers in Search of Sounds and Images in Eastern Anatolia (1955-1979) Exhibition in Istanbul and Berlin. Leading partnership with Orient-Institut Istanbul, Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, Department of Ethnomusicology, and Goethe-Institut Istanbul.

Project Directors: Dr. Martin Greve (Orient-Institut Istanbul), Dr. Richard Wittmann (Orient-Institut Istanbul), Dr. Maurice Mengel (The Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Department of Ethnomusicology).

2022 – 2024: Research Associate & Musicologist

The Interdisciplinary Edition and Source Cataloguing Project

“Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae” (CMO). Cooperation with the Orient-Institut Istanbul, part of the Max Weber Stiftung – Foundation German Humanities Institutes Abroad & The University of Münster (WWU Münster) & “Répertoire International des Sources Musicales” (RISM).

Project Director: Prof. Dr. Ralf Martin Jäger (WWU Münster).

2021 – 2022: Curator

The view to Eastern Anatolia.

Four ethnologists from Germany in Turkey (1957 – 1979) Exhibition

in Berlin, Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Tunceli, and Sivas. Leading partnership with Orient-Institute Istanbul, Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, Department of Ethnomusicology, and Goethe-Institut Istanbul.

Project Directors: Dr. Martin Greve (Orient-Institut Istanbul), Dr. Richard Wittmann (Orient-Institut Istanbul), Dr. Maurice Mengel (The Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Department of Ethnomusicology).

2018 – 2022: Researcher

MSFAU Scientific Research Project (BAP), Türkı̇ye Halk Müzı̇ği Derleme Çalışmalarında Gözden Kaçmış Bı̇r Koleksı̇yon: Berlı̇n Phonogramm Arşivi’ndekı̇ Kurt Reinhard Koleksı̇yonu [An Overlooked Collection in Turkish Folk Music Research: Reinhard Collection in the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv]

Project Director: Assoc. Prof. Elif Damla Yavuz (MSFAU Istanbul).

Lectures

23.09.2023: “On the Possibilities of Cataloging Ottoman Music Materials: Challenges, Limitations, and Achievements” in the panel titled Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae – Challenges and Perspectives in the Scholarly Critical Edition of Nineteenth -Century Ottoman Music Manuscripts. Turkologentag 2023. University of Vienna.

12.09.2023: “Kurt Reinhard: ‘A professor came from Germany!’” in the panel titled South & Eastern Anatolia, overflowing from the archives of German Researchers, Reinhard, Christensen, Bumke. International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives 54th Conference. Istanbul University.

26-29.09.2022: “Bring the Past into the Future: Sound and Audiovisual Institutional Archives in Turkey”. International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives 53rd Conference. Mexico (recorded presentation).

24.08.2022 “The Example of the Ottoman Context: Historical Transcriptions of Performative Repertoires across Ethnic Borders and Bonders of Time”. International Musicology Society (IMS) 21st Quinquennial Congress. Athens (Roundtable respondent).

12.06.2022: “Lachmann Türken: Lachmann Koleksiyonunda Mesut Cemil [Lachmann Türken: Mesut Cemil in Lachmann Collection]”. 12. Uluslararası Hisarlı Ahmet Sempozyumu. Kütahya.

23.03.2022 “Süreli Yayın Arşivlerinde Muammer Sun’un Türkiye Müzik Politikalarına Dair İzleri [Muammer Sun’s Traces on Turkish Music Politics in Periodical Archives]”, Muammer Sun Sempozyumu. Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Ankara.

08.12.2021: “Reinhard Turkey Collection in Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv”. MSGSÜ Müzikoloji Bölümü Seminerleri. MSFAU Istanbul State Conservatory, Istanbul.

28.07.2021: “Alandan Arşive: Müzik Araştırmacılığında Dönüşüm” [From Field to Archive: The Transformation in Music Research]. Ortak Belleğe Katkı Buluşmaları. Anadolu Müzik Kültürleri Derneği, Ankara.

04.06.2021: “Etnomüzikolojide Tarihsel Kaynaklar: Fonograf Kayıtları, Ses Arşivleri ve Türkiye [Historical Sources in Ethnomusicology: Phonograph Recordings, Sound Archives and Turkey]”. Bilgi Müzik Seminerler. Bilgi University, Istanbul.

24.04.2021: “Kurt ve Ursula Reinhard’ın Türkiye’deki Geleneksel Müzik Araştırmaları [Kurt and Ursula Reinhard’s Studies on Traditional Music in Turkey]”. Middle East Technical University THBT. Moderation: Prof. Yıldırım Şentürk & Prof. Cenk Güray. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUfJOrZDCdw

11.03.2021 (with Assoc. Prof. Elif Damla Yavuz): “Fonograf Alanda – Erken Dönem Karşılaştırmalı Müzikoloji Çalışmaları ve Türkiye [Phonograph in the Field – Early Studies in Comparative Musicology and Turkey]”. Istanbul Research Institute Talks. Moderation: Derya Türkan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXqSHjXfOxA

04.01.2021 (with Assoc. Prof. Elif Damla Yavuz): “Fonograf Alanda: Karşılaştırmalı Müzikolojiye Türkiye’den Bakmak [Phonograph in the Field – Looking Comparative Musicology from Turkey]”. T24-K24. Moderation: Deniz Koloğlu https://t24.com.tr/k24/yazi/fonograf-alanda-karsilastirmali-muzikolojiye-turkiye-den-bakmak,3018?fbclid=IwAR0ixjEFTEDPzcmC3z-TisqyO58ao9X9CQDGUSVdrJxI920JSAIJmFdBrrc

30.03.2017: “Türkiye’de Müzik Derlemesi Tarihini Ali Ufki ile Yeniden Düşünmek Mümkün mü?[Is It Possible to Rethink the History of Music Compilation in Turkey with Ali Ufki?]”. Kırıkkale University, Student Congress on National Music Studies- I. Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale.

10.03.2017: “Romans ve Feminen İmge [Romance and Feminine Image]”. AIMA (Ayvalık International Music Academy) Music Talks. AIMA, Ayvalık.

20.04.2016: “Müzikte Ölümün Temsili [Representation of Death in Music]”. Karadeniz Technical University Musicology Department Seminars. Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon.

20.11.2014: “Ağıt İcrasında Mekân Değişimi [Change of Venue in Elegy Practice]”. Death, Art, and Space Symposium – V. Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul.

06.03.2014: “Edebiyat ve Müzik İlişkisi Bağlamında Ağıt [Lament in the Context of Literature and Music Relationship]”. Seminars on Music and Literature. Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Department of Musicology, Istanbul.

04.10.2013: “Anadolu Ağıtlarının Şaşırtan Yanı: İşlev Değişikliği [Surprising Aspect of Anatolian Elegies: Change of Function]”. Youth in Musicology Meeting – III. Istanbul Technical University Center for Advanced Studies in Music, Istanbul.

Publications

Editorships – Books, Peer reviewed journals, Concert catalogs

Tahtaişleyen, Nihan (Ed.). Current Archival Studies in Musicology. MSFAU Journal of Social Sciences, Issue 27, Spring 2023. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/msgsusbd

Yavuz, Elif Damla; Nihan Tahtaişleyen; İlke Boran (eds.). MSGSÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi [MSFAU Journal of Social Sciences] Vol. 2 Issue 24. Istanbul: MSGSÜ Yayınları 2021.

Yavuz, Elif Damla; Nihan Tahtaişleyen; Erdener Önder (eds.). Fonograf Alanda-Erken Dönem Karşılaştırmalı Müzikoloji Çalışmaları ve Türkiye [Phonograph in the Field – Early Studies in Comparative Musicology and Turkey]. Istanbul: Berceste Yayınevi 2020.

Cited in “Appendix to Turkey country report, Bulletin of the ICTM 145 (January 2021).”

Yavuz, Elif Damla; Nihan Tahtaişleyen (eds. & writers). 46th International Istanbul Music Festival Full Catalogue & Concert Programs. Istanbul: Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) 2018.

Tahtaişleyen, Nihan (ed.). Müzik-Bilim Dergisi [The Journal of Musicology] Vol. 1 Issue 9. Istanbul: MSGSÜ Yayınları 2019.

Yavuz, Elif Damla; Nihan Tahtaişleyen; Evrim H. Öğüt (eds.). Müzik-Bilim Dergisi [The Journal of Musicology] Vol. 2 Issue 8. Istanbul: MSGSÜ Yayınları 2017.

Tahtaişleyen, Nihan; Kıvılcım Yıldız; Evrim H. Öğüt; A. Tül Demirbaş (eds.). Müzik-Bilim Dergisi [The Journal of Musicology] Vol. 1 Issue 7. Istanbul: MSGSÜ Yayınları 2015.

Book Chapters / Articles

“Doğudaki Seslerin Peşinde – Reinhard’ların Adana, Antep, Hatay, Malatya, Sivas Derlemeleri (1955-1979). [In Search of Voices in the East – The Reinhards’ Compilations in Adana, Antep, Hatay, Malatya, Sivas (1955-1979)]”. Pera-Blätter 42. Bonn: Max Weber Stiftung. ISSN 2192-6816. https://perspectivia.net/publikationen/pera-blaetter/tahtaisleyen_pera_42

“İstanbul’da Çağdaş Müzik [Contemporary Music in Istanbul]”. Müzik İstanbul. İstanbul: Esenler Belediyesi Şehir Düşünce Merkezi Şehir Yayınları 2023, 824-869. https://esenler.bel.tr/sehir-dusunce/yayinlar/muzik-istanbul/

“Lachmann Türken: Lachmann Koleksiyonunda Mesut Cemil [Lachmann Türken: Mesut Cemil in Lachmann Collection]”. 12. Uluslararası Hisarlı Ahmet Sempozyumu Full Paper Book. November 2022, 341-351.

(with Ela Alpman). “Hubert Pernot’s Turkish Land: Phonograph Recordings in Chios”. Phonograph in the Field – Early Studies in Comparative Musicology and Turkey. Elif Damla Yavuz, Nihan Tahtaişleyen, and Erdener Önder (eds.). Istanbul: Berceste Yayınevi 2020, 19-79.

“The Source of the First Phonograph Recordings: The Berlin Phonogram Archive”. Phonograph in the Field – Early Studies in Comparative Musicology and Turkey. Elif Damla Yavuz, Nihan Tahtaişleyen, and Erdener Önder (eds.). Istanbul: Berceste Yayınevi 2020, 121-141.

“Ağıtların Edebi Özellikleri Üzerine Bir Literatür ve Veri Analizi [Literature Review and Data Analysis on the Literary Characteristics of Elegies]”. MSGSÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi. Istanbul: MSGSÜ Yayınları, Vol. 1 Issues 16 (2017): 222-239.

“Ağıt İcrasında Mekân Değişimi [Change of Venue in Elegy Practice]”. Ölüm Sanat Mekân V. Gevher Gökçe Acar (ed.). Istanbul: DAKAM Yayınları, November 2015. 283-294.

“Neşet Ertaş”. Türkiye’nin Birikimleri 3 – Müzisyenler. Istanbul: İlke Yayınları 2014, 269-281.