Turkey’s first music museum to open soon

30 April, 2007

Turkey is to open its first music museum in the summer of 2007, possibly by the end of June. The long-awaited project is at present in its final stages of completion in Istanbul, capital of Turkey.

According to Bayram Bilge Tokel, Director-General of Fine Arts of the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Turkish music would get the attention it deserves for its notation and form, already appreciated by international music and art authorities.

Turkish musical instruments like the baglama, kanun and oud have been introduced as Greek instruments in Greece. “We are going to put an end to these arguments by revealing our musical identity at this museum,” Bayram Bilge Tokel said.

As a part of preparing for the music museum project, officials of Directorate-General of Fine Arts had visited a number of places such as Rome, Paris and Bremen.

Turkey’s music museum will feature instruments, books, magazines, other publications and audio and video materials documenting the historical development of Turkish music.

Pieces collected from Topkapi Palace (Istanbul), the Mevlana Museum (Konya) and a number of other Anatolian museums will also be displayed.

The instructors of the Istanbul Technical University’s Conservatory Instrument Making Department has been entrusted with the maintenance of the musical instruments in the museum. Other experts will also contribute to the project.

Thought the music museum has not yet opened, the University of Vienna has requested Turkey to send a representative to a conference on the world’s music museums, which will be held in Vienna on August 16, 2007.

Officials of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism expect the music museum to attract tourists in large numbers. Special tours will be organised to the museum, and tour operators will be advised about assisting the tourists on these visits. An information kiosk at Topkapi Palace will provide tourists with details of the music museum.

The music museum project, work on which was resumed in 2006 following the government’s green signal, is housed in a storehouse in Uskudar which had been transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The museum will periodically host activities related to art as well as present concerts which would be open to the public.

The Directorate-General of Fine Arts has been, for the last two years, classifying and publishing a series of books in all categories of Turkish music, including classical, folk, sufi, mehter, symphonic, contemporary and polyphonic.

Though the museum would be the first one of its kind in Turkey dedicated exclusively to music and musical instruments, many countries have more than one music museum. The United Kingdom, for instance, has 40 such museums.