ABSTRACT
The rationalization, theorization and subsequent standardization of traditional Ottoman/Turkish music was a vast enterprise, initiated towards the end of the last century by Rauf Yekta Bey (1871-1935), and brought to fruition in the 1940s and 50s by two of his colleagues and contemporary composers and musicologists: Hüseyin Sadettin Arel (1880-1955) and Dr. Subhi Zühtü Ezgi (1869-1962). Pitch, scale, intervals and makams were standardized and adapted to western staff notation. Rhythmic patterns (‘usûls), musical genres and pieces were classified and systematized. Large portions of the orally transmitted repertoire were transcribed, new treatises and books were written for the teaching and transmission of traditional music, new teaching methods were devised etc., etc.
