26 November 2024 | 2:00-4:00pm on Zoom &
in Lecture Room 1, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge
Özge Özyılmaz (Istanbul Kent University)
Sounds of Silents: The Auditory History of Early Cinema in Istanbul, 1896–1929
The exhibition strategies of early cinema have often been perceived as uniform, but recent studies have significantly challenged this notion. This presentation contributes to this evolving discourse by exploring the diversity of soundscapes in silent film screenings in Istanbul and examining the potential reasons behind this. Film screenings in Istanbul were held in a wide range of venues, from garden dinner parties and hotel balls to military museum presentations, Ramadan festivities, and open-air exhibitions. The audiences were equally varied, including non-Muslims, Ottoman elites, and Muslim women and children. In parallel with the range of venues and audiences, the musical accompaniments of the silent period were equally eclectic and hybrid. An analysis of music programs from this era reveals a vibrant panorama of sound. Accompaniments ranged from expansive symphonic orchestras and classical Turkish music to the mehteran and popular genres of the time, such as kanto and duetto. This presentation argues that this diversity in sound did not disappear with the arrival of synchronized sound but continued to influence film screening practices throughout the country.
Özge Özyılmaz is an Associate Professor at Istanbul Kent University, specializing in cinema history, particularly the culture of cinema in the 1930s and the transition to sound cinema in Turkey. Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, and Music, Sound, and the Moving Image. She recently completed a postdoctoral research project at Birkbeck, University of London, where she focused on music and sound practices during the silent cinema period in the Ottoman Empire.
Ottoman Auralities 