Beating the Drum

The heritage of music across the Ottoman Empire was a dynamic force throughout the nineteenth and the early twentieth century.

This heritage is now largely unseen in the United Kingdom. The National Curriculum for England & Wales contains no examples of Ottoman or Turkish music, despite many thousands of citizens of Turkish, Arab and Eastern European or Mediterranean descent living in the UK. This is not only inequitable, but neglects an invaluable resource of pleasure and inspiration.

The Beating the Drum project aims to change this.

Working with expert musical practitioners, the project aims to:

• promote and celebrate the current sources of access to Turkish/Arabic music in Edmonton
• encourage, support and disseminate local developments that incorporate such music, classical and folk, as well as the instruments, including the human voice, that traditionally allow it to flourish
• work with schools in Edmonton to develop and disseminate curriculum resources that can be used to open up the wealth of such music to their pupils and others locally
• collect and publicise stories of Turkish and other community music and musicians from Enfield residents
• seed ambition in Edmonton’s young people by bringing in musicians and composers to inspire and explore the heritage in performance
• use film, audio and performance to enable and achieve a strong profile for the heritage within Edmonton and beyond

Access project teaching resources here