Music of the Black Sea being archived with a new project

TRABZON - Anatolia News Agency

Thanks to the project, everyone will have the chance to listen the music of the Black Sea region, which has unique instruments and a variety of sounds.

A new project is gathering the musical works of the Black Sea and creating an archive. The project, conducted by Abdullah Akat, assistant professor at the Black Sea Technical University, is titled “Creating the Archive from Eastern Black Sea Music.”

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Akat said the project formally started in October 2011. It collects information gathered by researchers for ten years, with many researchers, foundations and associations having contributed to the project.

First of its kind
“We will serve the music scene with the digital, video and voice recordings,” said Akat, adding that they were realizing a first with this project.

There are many technical procedures in creating the archive and opening it to use, said Atak. “We are creating a musical archive model in Turkey.”

The project will collect musical sounds and number them, he added. “Music teachers, musicologists, researchers and students will use the archive as a resource for their works. It is possible to analyze the changing musical culture in the Black Sea regions thanks to this project,” said Akat. Everyone will have the chance to listen the music of the region, according to Atak. “We will be protecting the music archive of the Black Sea region and will transfer it on to coming generations.”

Noting that the project was supported by those working in musicology, Atak said: “The project is a very important one as it will be served as a digital archive for the researchers. Currently, most of the projects like this are closed to researchers or unusable. With this new process a huge gap will be closed in Turkish culture.”

The project will be finished by October 2013. The archive center founded in the Faik Ahmet Barutçu Library is currently open, and work is continuing there. “Our aim is to make this project continue for a long time,” said Atak.