Nejla Melike Atalay
© Nejla Melike Atalay

Dr. Nejla Melike Atalay

Research associate

Fields of interest

  • Music History and Music Historiography of Turkey in the 19th and 20th Centuries
  • Europeanisation of Music in the Ottoman Empire
  • Music and Gender / Gender Studies
  • Interpretation research

  • Vocal music manuscripts in Armenian letters

  • Vita

    Nejla Melike Atalay studied musicology and composition in Istanbul (Mimar Sinan University) and Vienna (Prayner Conservatory, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna-mdw). Doctorate at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).

    Atalay wrote her doctoral thesis on the creative conditions of composing women before and during the Turkish Republic. In 2009-2017, parallel to her dissertation, she compiled the unpublished works, letters and diaries of the Turkish composer Avniye Nazife Aral-Güran (1921-1993).

    Since 2009, she has been involved in numerous projects as an organiser and coordinator and participated as a lecturer in symposia on music and gender, women's studies at national and international level.

    In 2019, Atalay's PhD thesis (Women Composers' Creative Conditions Before and During the Turkish Republic. A Case Study on three composers: Leyla Saz Hanımefendi (1850?-1936), Nazife Aral-Güran (1921-1993) and Yüksel Koptagel (b. 1931)) was awarded a prize (Herta-Kurt Blaukopf Awards) because of its social relevance.

    Since January 2021, Atalay has been working as a research assistant at the Corpus Musicae Ottomanicae (CMO) project at the Universität of Münster.

  • Publikationen/Publications/Yayınlar

    Monographien

    • Codex TR-Iüne 216-14: Cedīd Ṭaḳımlar : Transcription & Commentary, Münster 2023, https://doi.org/10.60670/cmo.00000913.

    • Women Composers' Creative Conditions Before and During the Turkish Republic, Hollitzer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-99012-850-3.

    Buchbeiträge

    • "Instrumentallehrerinnen aus Pera. Über französische und deutsche Musikerinnen in Konstantinopel um 1900," in: Schriften online: Musikwissenschaft 12.1, Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig, (2024), 185–208.

    • “Die Istanbuler Komponistin Nazife Aral-Güran und ihr musikalisches Erbe [Bir İstanbullu Besteci Nazife Aral- Güran ve Geride Bıraktıkları]," in: İstanbul’un Çoksesli Batı Müziği Tarihi, Ed. Serhan Bali. (İstanbul: İstanbul Kültür ve Sanat Yayınları, 2022), 327–348.

    • Orchesterlandschaft der "Türkei", in: Lexikon des Orchesters, eds. Frank Heidlberger, Gesine Schröder, Christoph Wünsch, Band 2 (Lilienthal: Laaber Verlag, 2021) 562-565. ISBN 978-3-89007-551-8.

    • "Aserbaidschan" (Co-Autor Rauf Kerimov), in: Lexikon des Orchesters, Hrsg. Frank Heidlberger, Gesine Schröder, Christoph Wünsch. Band 1, (Lilienthal: Laaber Verlag, 2021), 70–71. ISBN 978-3-89007-551-8.

    • “Güran-Aral, (Avniye) Nazife”, Lexikon Musik und Gender, ed. Annette Kreutziger-Herr and Melanie Unseld. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, Metzler, 2010), 146f.

    • “Doğuduyal, Meliha," Lexikon Musik und Gender, ed. Annette Kreutziger-Herr and Melanie Unseld. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, Metzler, 2010), 120.

    Artikel

    • “Materyal, Kuram ve Tatbik Çerçevesinde Nazife Aral-Güran Kişisel Arşivi [Nazife Aral-Güran's Personal Archive within the Framework of Material, Theory, and Practice]”, MSGSÜ Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 2023, 1 (27), 138–147.

    • “Ein Harmonium im Konak von Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi (A Harmonium in the Konak of Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi)”, TheMA: Open Access Research Journal for Theatre, Music, Arts Vol. IX/1-2 (2022) ISSN 2307-440X.

    • "Institutionalisierung der 'westlichen' Musik in der Republik Türkei- Teil II [Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Batı Müziği'nin Kurumsallaşma Süreci]", Tuna Zeitschrift, Wien (Dezember 2020), 40–43.

    • Müzik Tarihi Yazımında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda Batı Müziği'nin Kurumsallaşma Süreci [Institutionalisierung der 'westlichen' Musik im Osmanischen Reich in der Musikgeschichtsschreibung], Tuna Zeitschrift, Wien (November 2020),4–11.

    • "The place of Walzes in the Ottoman Palace [Osmanlı'da Vals'in Yeri]", Tuna Zeitschrift, Wien (Dezember 2019), 6–9.

    • "Ein Essay über Frau, Musik und Männerherrschaft", Orkestra, Ausgabe 432, Istanbul (Nov-Dez. 2013), 13–21.

    Wissenschaftliche Vorträge

    • 03/2025 "Tracing the presence of women composers in Turkey", CRR Concert Hall, Istanbul.

    • 02/2025 "A Cultural Memory Through Language and Music: Armenian Script Lyric Sources" (Dil ve Müzik Üzerinden Bir Kültürel Bellek: Ermeni Harfli Güfte Kaynakları), Orient Institut Istanbul.

    • 05/2024 "Cataloging and Critical Edition of Ottoman Music Notation Sources" (CMO Uygulamalı Atölye Çalışması: Osmanlı Müziği Nota Kaynaklarının Kataloglanması ve Eleştirel Basımı), Istanbul Technical University, OTMAG.

    • 09/2023 "An Example of an Ottoman Vocal Music Manuscript Written with Armenian Letters: TR-Iboa 521", in 'Challenges and Perspectives in the Scholarly Critical Edition of Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Music Manuscripts' at Turkologentag, University of Vienna.

    • 09/2023 "Rethinking Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi's Oeuvre: Remembrance of the Burning Pavilion" (Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi'nin Üretimleri Üzerine (Yeniden) Düşünmek: Solmuş Çiçekler ve Yanan Köşk'ün Yâdı), in 'Ottoman musicians and poets' at Turkologentag, University of Vienna.

    • 04/2023 "Women Composers’ Creative Conditions Before and During the Turkish Republic" at Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik (ÖGM) Vienna.

    • 01/ 2023 "Besteci Kadınların Türkiye Cumhuriyeti önce ve sonrasında Yaratım Koşulları. Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’ndan Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’ne müzik tarihinde üc besteci üzerine bir vaka çalışması: Leyla [Saz] Hanımefendi (1850?-1936), Nazife Aral-Güran (1921-1993) ve Yüksel Koptagel (d. 1931)’in üretim ve yaratım koşulları" at Orient-Institute Istanbul.

    • 08/ 2022 “The Example of the Ottoman Context: Historical Transcriptions of Performative Repertoires across Ethnic Borders and Borders of Time”, Roundtable chair with Ersin Mihci (Introduction to the topic and basic considerations on performative repertoire and its contexts, codified musical parameters, and general starting points for their critical transcription and edition) at 21st Quinquennial Congress of the International Musicological Society, Athens-Greece.

    • 04/ 2022 "Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Müzik (Music and Gender)" at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul State Conservatory Department of Musicology.

    • 01/2020, Istanbuler Komponistinnen Produktionsbedingungen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien

    • 06/2019, Instrumentallehrerinnen in Istanbul um 1900 und ihre Bezüge auf französische und deutsche Musiker*innen, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien

    • 03/2017, Ein Harmonium im Konak von Leyla (Saz) Hanimefendi, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien

    • 01/2015, The Biography of a female composer. Nazife Aral-Güran, at Orient Institute, Istanbul

    • 04/2014, Turkish Composer Avniye Nazife Aral-Güran's (1921-1993) Life and Representation in Mass Media in the Light of Republican Politics of Music, Yeditepe Universität, İstanbul

    • 03/2014, Musik von Komponistinnen, Österreichisches Kulturforum Istanbul

    • 11/2013, Produktionsbedingungen komponierender Frauen vor und nach der Gründung der Republik Türkei, Archiv Frau und Musik, Frankfurt am Main

    • 09/2013, Über die eigene Musik-Komposition: Azab-ı mukaddes, Ort/e des Denkens an der Universität Wien

    • 12/2012, Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Müzik (Music and Gender), Bilgi Universität, İstanbul

    • 05/2010, Musikalische Intertextualität in der zeitgenössische Musik mit zwei Beispielen: Davetsiz Misafirler Hasan Uçarsu und Saz Semaisi No:2 Evrim Demirel, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien