LOOKING BACH AND BUFFARDIN’S ISTANBUL MEETING FROM A TURKISH MUSIC HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Beginning with 16. century, Ottoman Empire began to encounter and get acquinted with Western music either through the Consulates that came to Ottoman lands from Europe or through their Consulates that they sent to different European Countries, or through musical ensembles sent by European Kings as a gift to the ruling Sultan. Even though the instruction, production, and performance of Western music on the Ottoman lands was undertaken during the 19. century, these first interactions act like a basis for the upcoming serious steps in the Western Art. Among those interactions, the one that is most interesting and hasn’t been published in any of the turkish resources in this area is the meeting of Johann Jacob Bach, who is the brother of famous composer Johann Sebatian Bach, and the most famous flute virtuoso of the era, French flutist and composer Pierre Gabriel Buffardin, and Bach’s taking flute lessons from Buffardin for several months in Istanbul.In this article, the historical significance of Bach and Buffardin’s Istanbul meeting will be analyzed through studying historical events that brought them to Istanbul. In this way, it is aimed to state one of the unknown sides of the interactions of Western music on Ottoman lands in Turkish music history.