Representing the Sung Poetry of Ottoman Art Music in a Critical Digital Edition in TEI XML

Abstract

The research project “Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae” dedicates itself to the critical editions of Near Eastern music manuscripts that saw increasing production from the early 19th century onwards to record music especially centered in Ottoman Istanbul. The principal way to write down this originally oral tradition was in Hampartsum notation, invented around 1812 by an Armenian of the same name before it became discontinued with the introduction of Western staff notation from 1830 onwards. Within the project’s scope, there are three areas of research and deliverables: the indexing of sources in a catalog, the music edition under consideration of modal and rhythmic principles of Ottoman music, and the text edition of sung poetry mainly in Ottoman Turkish written in various scripts. Overarching are the digital humanities to present the research output in a holistic approach. This paper will focus on the design of representing the text edition in TEI XML format.