The Sound of Politics: Party Music in Lebanon and Turkey

INVITATION to an ONLINE LECTURE

in the Musicology Lecture Series (2025)

The Sound of Politics: Party Music in Lebanon and Turkey

SPEAKERS:

Sophia Zervas (Orient-Institut Istanbul)

Pierre France (Aix-Marseille University)

MODERATOR:

Dr. habil. Martin Greve (Orient-Institut Istanbul, Orient-Institut Beirut)

Wednesday, 2 July 2025, 19:00 (Turkish Time GMT+3)

Beginning in the 20th century and continuing up to the present, sound has been instrumentalized as a tool of political persuasion, celebration, mobilization, and domination in Lebanese and Turkish elections; however, this phenomenon has yet received little scholarly attention. Based on historical, sociological, and ethnographic research carried out in both countries, the panelists seek to address this gap from neighboring standpoints. The presentations map their respective socio-cultural contexts to first address the subject from a historical perspective.  They also investigate different kinds of party songs, their commissioning, production, and circulation. This leads them to further examine issues of artistic agency particular to this genre of music: whereas in Lebanon, a category of mercenary songwriters—who may work for rival candidates—has emerged since the 1980s, in Turkey, unauthorized borrowing of songs is rampant. Beyond music itself, sonic mobilization broadly defined—such as dueling car horns or the leveraging of religious sound—constitutes another topic of inquiry.

Finally, while the employment of political songs in Lebanon seems to be in decline, in Turkey, despite the government’s recent efforts to curb the use of music in elections, available data suggests that regulatory legislation is prone to manipulations. These findings prompt us to question what the ultimate goals and impacts of election music may be.

Sophia Zervas is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University studying Ethnomusicology. Her research examines the interaction of music, politics, and nationalism in the Mediterranean and West Asia. In her dissertation, she analyzes cultural and educational policy in Türkiye, with a focus on transformations in musical life in Türkiye under the government of Erdoğan and the conservative AKP. She has received grants to conduct research from Harvard University, the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), and most recently, the Orient-Institut Istanbul.

Pierre France is a political sociologist and graduate of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. He has published on music both as a researcher and as a music journalist and is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation on the 1975–1992 wartime in Lebanon, where he has been conducting extensive research since 2009. He has been a Research Associate at the Orient Institut Beirut (2020–2023), a Fellow at Stanford University, Centre Marc Bloch (Berlin), and a fellow-in-residence at the Camargo Foundation.

Martin Greve is a German ethnomusicologist based in Istanbul and Beirut and a  Senior Research Associate at the Orient-Institut Istanbul and an Research Associate at the Orient-Istanbul Beirut. His doctoral thesis focuse on the history of Turkish Art Music in the 20th century. His habilitation thesis is a study of Turkish music in Germany. Since December 2020, he is directing the DFG-funded research project entitled “Migration, Memory, and Musical Expression: Musical Traditions from Central Eastern Anatolian Turkey, Berlin, and Paris” at the Orient-Institut Istanbul, together with Dr. Dilek Soileau.

This event is free of charge and the language is English. To join this invitation in person please register through the link below. To join online no registration is necessary. Photos or videos will be taken during the event. By participating, you agree that these may be used on the OII website, newsletter and social media. The event will not be recorded.

VENUE

Orient-Institut Istanbul

Galip Dede Cad. 65, Şahkulu Mah., TR – 34421 Istanbul

Tel: +90 212 293 60 67 oiist@oiist.org www.oiist.org

REGISTRATION

To join this invitation at the venue please register here:

To join Online please use this Zoom Link. No registration necessary:

https://maxweberstiftung.zoom-x.de/j/69107995260?pwd=Sp1I5a9bRUmRloyaaUNyCOrZIraubf.1

Meeting ID: 691 0799 5260

Passcode: 250681