The folk: music, modernity, and the political imagination

Abstract

Turkish community, but not an interest in other networks. Thus, only a minority of Turkish musicians are active in the wider, international ‘world music’ network characterised by the omnipresence of the stage and concert, the detachment from the social functions of music and the importance given to intercultural encounters between musicians. Liselotte Sels’s research is enriched with black and white illustrations, charts, transcriptions, an index and a glossary – the only additional resource I wish I had are audio excerpts, which are unfortunately lacking. The book concerns scholars and musicians interested in the current state of Turkish folk repertoires. Indeed, Sels brilliantly summarises the debates which address some of the issues raised in previous research, including the influence that Kemalist Reforms had on musical language (Stokes 1992) and the lack of studies of the ‘aesthetic crisis of Turkish music’ (Greve 2017). Moreover, Sels’s book fits into the line of case studies of musical practices in diaspora, which abound in the ethnomusicological world, and she is the first researcher to explore the topic in the Belgian context. Her research attests to the status of a traditional music repertoire other than Flemish or Walloon and opens the door to other studies of the musical practices of migrant communities in the country.