The Story of Ali Ufki̇-Bobovski. Notation of Turkish Music

Abstract

The first Ottoman musician to use Western notation to write down melodies was Ali Ufk & icirc; (ca. 1610-1675), born as Wojciech Bobowski (named also Albertus Bobovius or Ali Beg), later convert and lived at the Ottoman palace as a slave at the beginning of his stay in the Ottoman Empire. He gained fame thanks to his versatile personality and became a great dragoman in 1673. He wrote down the Turkish melodies by using European Music Notation and was compiling an anthology of vocal and instrumental melodies called Ali Ufk & icirc;'s Mecmua, which is a unique document of Turkish musical culture of the seventeenth century. He eliminated the cumbersome transliteration, wrote all the music from right to left, and added the words of the songs written in Turkish with Arabic script, partly under the notes, and partly below the music. The evolution of his method is a case in point of acculturation between the Western system and the Islamic concept of graphism. We learn many things from Ali Ufk & icirc;, not only about music culture but also Ottoman culture and life as well. His manner to working with music recalls Umberto Eco's conception of The Open Work. While he was at the Ottoman Court, he thought to arrange and create symbols for Turkish Music. He kept his former identity in this way and was assigned to carry the Ottoman Sound as an absolute.