An Ottoman Woman Composer

Her Excellency the Wife of Ömer Pasha

Musical relations between the Turks and the rest of Europe can be traced back many centuries. The influence exerted by the janissary bands on European composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven is well-known, The Military Symphony, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Abduction from the Seraglio) and Rondo a la Turca being good examples.

 The European military bands of the 18th century not only introduced the percussion instruments of the Ottoman janissary bands, but also their musicians were dressed in Turkish costume. A similar development in the opposite direction, that is the Europeanisation of the Ottoman army band, began in the nineteenth century. It was also during this period that the famous opera composer Gaetano Donizetti’s brother, Giuseppe Donizetti, was invited to become Master of Music to Sultan Mahmud II in 1827. He was later given the title of paşa, thus becoming known in Turkey as Donizetti Paşa. His arrival also marks the beginnings of a taste for European style music at the Ottoman court, later manifested in works composed by members of the imperial family, including reigning sultans like Abdulaziz, and more prominently Sultan Murad V, who left behind a corpus of unpublished works in autograph, mainly in European dance forms of the period, and all composed for the pianoforte.

The story of an Ottoman woman composer is a fascinating aspect of this interest in European music. Her works were published in British newspapers and in France in the 19th century, yet her identity and the fact that she existed at all only came to light very recently. I discovered this mysterious lady when by sheer chance, about ten years ago, I found and bought an original copy of a march composed by her published in The Illustrated Lo