Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi (Dec 2013)
I have too much proclivity for artistry…”: Things hidden in the forgotten letters of the Music Teacher School
Abstract
This study is based on letters sent in 1937 to a newly-founded school in Ankara. This school was established with the purpose of producing music teachers for the new generations, but formed the nucleus of the State Conservatory with the addition in 1936 of a drama department. These documents, ignored by the school’s academic staff and overlooked by archive institutions, were found by chance at the basement of the school’s old building. These consist of petitions of student candidates for acceptance to take the exams. Reading these letters we not only feel their desires to change their monotonous lives, but also see the echoes of the contemporary thoughts of the newly-formed Republic of Turkey. Their thoughts, writings and most importantly their self-definitions present a historical panorama of the developing Turkish Society.
