Assessment of influences among classical Turkish music composers: A social network analysis

Composers are important figures in society. Their works are admired and give pleasure to people who enjoy listening to music. In this research, we focus on assessing influence among classical Turkish music composers. There is a common understanding that classical Turkish music, rooted in Ottoman classical music, emerged from and is improved upon in Enderun, Mehterhane-yi Hümâyûn, Muzıkay-ı Hümâyûn, Mevlevihanes, and other music schools. Contrary to the style of western classical music, classical Turkish music is based on a different training technique, namely the Meşk system. We use a novel dataset gathered from Oktar (2009). The website was built by Remzi Oktar (Vocal Artist of Turkish Art Music in Radio of TRT Ankara) with contributions from music lovers. This archive depends on TRT sources. In this study, for the purpose of achieving better visualization, higher interpretative power, and a focus on the periods that are highly important in the development of classical Turkish music, data of composers who were born before 1901 and have at least 12 works were used. As a result, 99 unique composers are included in the social network analysis. Also, 181 unique maqams and 136 unique tempos are used by the composers in our data. From a methodological point of view, common network analysis techniques including degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, betweenness centrality, average weighted degree, modularity, and page-rank are applied in this study. As a social network analysis tool, Gephi Software, was chosen to illustrate and visualize data. In addition to the mentioned indicators, we also consider periods, locations, schools, workplaces, and nationalities of the composers to further interpret the network. Moreover, relationships among composers are measured using information that includes composer-teacher networks and composer networks from Öztuna (1990). Next, relationships among composers are calculated using maqam, tempo, and the combination of maqam and tempo similarity with Python software to reveal the composers' influence on each other. To measure maqam and tempo similarity, cosine similarity index is performed. Data of maqam and tempo, which are used by composers, are treated as of word groupings. Accordingly, the number of each maqam and tempo used by composers are taken into consideration to compute similarity. Maqam and tempo are important indicators since these are transferred from teacher to student through the Meşk system that lies at the core of education in classical Turkish music. The analysis, comparison, and interpretation are based on the information extracted from the encyclopedia (Öztuna, 1990) and the values of maqam and tempo similarity of composers. Based on the results of this study, important figures of classical Turkish music and areas where creativity occurs are revealed that provide a broader perspective for people who will study in this area in future.