ABSTRACT
Questions about style are questions about society. That is, the debate about alaturka was not only concerned with a modernist reading of Turkish music but it was also bound up with a social understanding of Turkish class. Here, the question of taste is central. On the one hand, an older version of alaturka had become synonymous with the cultural capital of a subaltern class, for the most part an underclass of non-Muslim musicians who performed in popular venues. On the other hand, a newer version of alaturka had been developed to suit the westernizing sensibilities of a bourgeois class, for the most part an upper class of Muslim performers who performed in concert settings. In this matter, Münir Nurettin Selçuk played a critical role since he wished to modernize alaturka by means of westernization and he sought to socialize alaturka by way of refinement. Significantly, Selçuk was musically and socially in a position to realize this goal.
