Newsletters
Türkiye plans to open a free digital archive to the public in 2027, bringing centuries-old musical works, historical scores and performance recordings together in one place.
The Culture and Tourism Ministry's General Directorate of Fine Arts, the state body that oversees the country's orchestras, choirs and other musical ensembles, is leading the project.
It will collect scores from the Seljuk period and the Ottoman period, along with religious hymns, gazels (a form of lyrical poetry set to music), concert recordings and stage performances.
The archive aims to let musicians, researchers and the wider public explore Türkiye's musical heritage on a single online platform.
Omer Faruk Belviranli, director general of Fine Arts, said that the directorate oversees 29 orchestras, choirs and musical ensembles, including six state symphony orchestras and the State Polyphonic Choir. Other ensembles specialize in traditional Turkish music, folk music, folk dances and music from different regions.
A separate project is also underway to digitally record artistic productions by the directorate's ensembles.
"Works we produce must definitely be recorded. If it is visual, there must be a video recording; if it is audio, they must definitely be recorded through the YouTube channel," Belviranli said.
He said 15 of the directorate's 29 units have professional recording studios and that an existing archive of performances will be transferred to an online platform.
"We currently have an archive. All that remains is to bring this archive to life and transfer it to the YouTube channel, or whichever channel we will publish it on, in accordance with our minister's instructions," he said.
The digital archive will also include historical musical notation reflecting centuries of Turkish musical tradition.
"Turkish music is a sea," Belviranli said. "We have in our possession, in the form of an archive, very special scores inherited from the 700-800-year-old Seljuk and Ottoman tradition to the present day, Hamparsum notation, scores written in Ottoman Turkish and many more." Hamparsum notation is a historical system developed during the Ottoman period to record Turkish music.
"We will definitely transfer all of these to the archive and make them available to those interested," he said. "We will create a digital sea that our listeners can access free of charge, where everyone interested can see everything with one click and gain access to the details of the archive."
Belviranli said an exact number of works could not yet be given, but the archive would cover the programs of the directorate's 29 units and eventually include tens of thousands of works.
He said the recordings would allow people to study individual pieces and performances, while stressing that digital access would not replace the experience of attending a live concert.
"Music lovers will be able to listen to the concerts digitally through our archive, but being at concerts is like watching the same match. Watching it on television and going to the stadium to watch it are very different," he said. "Being able to feel that atmosphere, that spirit, is very important."
The directorate also plans to continue sending musical ensembles abroad. Belviranli said it had received requests from at least 42 countries for performances marking Oct. 29, Türkiye's Republic Day, which commemorates the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923.
He said foreign audiences accounted for nearly 80% of spectators at some overseas programs, particularly those featuring traditional music, whirling dervish performances, Turkish World music and folk dances.
"We are striving to be a bridge carrying the past into the future," Belviranli said.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
2 min read
1 min read
