Over several decades, Dr. Martin Schwartz, Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley collected 78 rpm records with an ear toward building source materials for a comparative study tracing mutual influences of four types of music from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that are usually categorized and conceptualized as separate traditions:
- Sophisticated urban Ottoman popular music (which itself includes Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Moldavian, and Sephardi Jewish input from throughout the Ottoman Empire [which lasted 1300-1923])
- Greek “smyrneika” (during the Empire) and “rebetika/rembetika” (post-Ottoman) music
- Ashkenazi Jewish “klezmer” music from Eastern Europe, especially from areas that were at times part of the Ottoman Empire, and
- Romany (“Gypsy”) music from the same geographic area
The idea is that there was more of a multicultural “Venn diagram” of musicians and composers influencing each other in these times and geographies than the marketing strategies of the record companies imply – selling, as they were, by targeting newly individuated nationalities, and ethnic communities in diaspora. Although there are ethnomusicology texts on the separate traditions to help identify performers and composers, it takes a carefully curated ensemble such as the Martin Schwartz Collection to help “connect the dots” by providing both musicological examples for comparative study, and information on performers and composers working together across genres; the fact that this treasure trove now sits among other collections with similar supporting materials here at UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections – particularly the Benno Häupl, Kutay Derin Kuğay, and Joel Ackerman collections – provides unique opportunities for music researchers whether investigating the individual genres or for comparisons of the sort Dr. Schwartz envisioned as he built the collection.
-Dr. Eric Ederer
Sound recordings in the Schwartz collection are currently being cataloged and selectively digitized. Digital copies will be available through the Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR).
For more information on the collection or assistance in using the materials, please contact Special Collections staff at special@library.ucsb.edu.
