ABSTRACT
Prior to the 1820s, the Greek population within the Ottoman Empire was subject to purges and massacres by Ottoman forces, bearing in mind that the Janissaries were the effective rulers of Trabzon until the ‘auspicious event’ that marked their demise. Yet later in the 19th century that same Greek minority was in a position to enact its own semi-colonial story in the city. The Greek elites generated considerable wealth, but little of it reached native Turks, who lived, for the most part, well away from the commercial quarter, either on and around what is now the Meydan Square, or along the narrow alleyways leading from there down to the sea. The Greek ascendancy and a strong Armenian presence at this time ensured that Christian music of various kinds would have been part of the city soundscape, with the Constantinopolitan tradition of Byzantine chant predominant.
