Women and Music

The photograph on the cover of the book belongs to Ayten Şenaşık, known as Deli(crazy) Ayten, one of the Kambers of Bursa, in other words, a Roman/Gypsy citizen. The first year I came to Bursa (2014), when I saw the statue of Deli Ayten in the garden of the Çalgıcılar Mektebi (Musicians' School), located in the Kamber neighborhood where Romans lived in previous years, I immediately researched his story, talked to those who saw his last years and tried to understand. The reason why I put it on the cover of this book is because of how the identity of woman shapes other identities. Because she is a representative subject with her never-ending the Cümbüş and Drum.
Deli Ayten, with her colorful bags in one hand and her drum and Cümbüş instrument in the other, carried the Romanian woman identity on her back. Despite her family's disapproval, her marriage to Cümbüş Hasan, whom she fell in love with, came to an end after her husband's addiction to alcohol, leaving Ayten, and then her death. Losing her mind because of this, Ayten carries the difficulties of life peculiar to women and the instruments in her hands entrusted by her husband for years.
While the roles that societies assign to women vary, it is much more possible to dance and sing among Romans, rather than the presence of women playing instruments whom we know that music is at the center of their lives. Ayten losing her mind, her bags and instruments are the ones that stay in her mind the most. Because only a woman who has lost her mind can walk around with music instruments in her hands. Ayten Şenaşık, who has become the symbol of the Kambers community with her female identity and “otherness” Roman identity at the point of “otherness” female identity in various dimensions in different societies, also stands before us as the output of roles based on her gender in the society she belongs to.

At this point it should be noted that, in gender relationships next to arguments of the dominant structure (patriarchal) gender-based othering brings with itself distinctive living practices. We can clearly observe extensions of the said living practices in idea and artistic productions just like in every area of social life. Since the 1970’s fight against insufficient information on women and social constructions produced by women that are at the center of the said gender othering found place in basic pursuits of ethnomusicology and performance arts just like all areas of social sciences with the influence of feminist movement. The requirement to make detections about women in every area is sourced from gender-based othering that is in traditional social structure as well as in modern and postmodern social structures while musical productions of women who became a disadvantageous group in social structure patterns reveal the need to approach their ways of appearance in daily and special rituals with their musical performances through various layers. “Women identity in society” as one of the most important factors in gender- based research will be the main focus of the book.
While Özgecan Karadağlı, who had important points with her article named Slavery, Power, and Music in the Ottoman İmperial, Ioana Baalbaki, the writer of  Emilia Comişel and Her Contribution to Romanian Ethnomusicology takes Emilia Comişel which is just left  behind 75 years of working on Ethnomusicology of Romania and her works in hand comparatively.
Virginia Sánchez Rodríguez ise, Is Piano Playing a Woman’s Matter? Female Musical Performance in The Spanish Cinema (1939-1975) konusu ile an approach to female musicians in the Spanish cinema in the middle of the 20th century is proposed, specifically during the Franco Regime (1939-1975).
On the other hand, While Mohamed Haseeb  studies  historical files and field work of women’s role on Kattu Pattu which is a  result of the social and economic circumstances of 1970’s in the society of Mapila, Also Báyò Ògúnyemí intends to detail the place of Yorùbá women in the social organization of the Yorùbá society by using their musical arts under the title of Women, Music Ensemble, and the Social Structure of Traditional Yorùbá Society. Pătraş Andra Daniela, Ileana Szenik: A Subjective Approach of Her Work from the Volumes Traditional Carol in Transylvania - Musical Typological Catalogue.
All writing is also presented on Women Play/Sing the Earth- Music and Women symposium which has been orginised by Society of Ethnomusicology at May,2021 and re-edited for the book. I also like to add that the only article that had not presented on the aforementioned symposium, is the one named Is Being the Women Conductor At The Tip Of The Gendered Baton Better Than Being At The Tip Of The Barrel? Thinking of The Afgan Orchestra Conductor which is written by me.
You can access the visiual and auditory files which were used on their presentation by the writers from the link below https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDt-PzrTDXGdQYXjrdyVEzg/videos


I wish this work will contributes the field and its interested ones. A big thank you to our writers for their hardwork.
Prof. Dr. Özlem DOĞUŞ VARLI

This volume presents seventeen essays by twenty authors on diverse aspects of research on Spanish music heritage and digital resources, including case studies of historical musicology and traditional music related to the online IMF-CSIC platforms Books of Hispanic Polyphony (https://hispanicpolyphony.eu) and Fondo de Música Tradicional (https://musicatradicional.eu). The book offers a Hispanic perspective on the changes that technology and digital resources have brought to Musicology as a discipline in the age of Digital Humanities.