Influenced by the study of ethnomusicology, many of Stefan Pohlit‘s articles on contemporary music are indebted to Gregory Bateson’s Ecology of the Mind, opening the discourse towards anthropology and even genetics.

    “Tendenzen des Materials? Über den Begriff der Verfremdung in der Interkulturellen Neuen Musik” in German for Kunstmusik (Vol. X, 2008) discusses an argument in Theodor W. Adorno‘s philosophy of new music, concerning cross-culturalism and its perspectives. Link

    “Musical Life and Westernization in the Republic of Turkey. Schismogenesis and Cultural Revisioning in Contemporary Music”, written for the symposium Europa in Opera of the Celsius network in 2010 and one of Pohlit‘s most widely read papers, deals with the legacy of Western music in Türkiye under the AKP, noting the growing interest in once rejected vernacular traditions. Link

    “Dialog mit der Türkei: Interkulturalität in Neuer Musik”, in German for Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (Nr. IV/2010) elaborates on this theme in further detail. Link

    “Epistemology of Tone. An Obituary to Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss” was written for Tempo (Vol. 71, Issue 281, July 2017) as a defense of Weiss‘s tuning system in the context of the growing xenophobia in Türkiye. DOI: Link

    A slightly different version of this paper appeared in German as “Parsifal in Aleppo. Ein Nachruf auf Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss” for Positionen – Texte zur aktuellen Musik (No. 110, Feb. 2017). Link

    “Das Schwarze Loch. Modernismus und globale Krise” in German for MusikTexte (Nr. 163, Nov. 2019) analyzes the consequences of atonality in music through Bateson‘s methodology, proposing a “Green New Deal” based on extended harmonic relationships, interdependence, and ethnomimesis (a term coined by Robert Cantwell in folklore studies). Link

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    “Modulation in 13-Limit Harmony”, a book chapter in Les Espaces Sonores (Pfau Verlag, edited by Michael Kunkel in 2016), summarizes earlier inventions by the composer in the field of extended prime limits and their effect on the harmonic structure. The paper has been read widely on the internet. Notably, it proposes Schenkerian reduction analysis for planning large-scale harmonic maps. Link

    “Towards a ‘Treatise’ of 7-Limit Harmony”, presented at the GMTH conference 2019 in Zürich, uses Sabat&Schweinitz‘s Helmholtz-Ellis JI microtonal notation, limited to only one additional arithmetic prime factor compared to traditional thirds harmony. Accompanied by audio samples of various new cadential formulae, it explores a number of cadences to introduce extended harmonic space to a theory of tonal functions.  Link1 Link2

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    “Towards a Theory of Ika: The Rhythmic Identity of Turkish Art Music”, written together with Dr. Nikolaus Grill in 2021, features the astounding occurence of discrete layers in the rhythmic organization of vocal compositions from the Ottoman-Turkish repertoire. The discovery came on Grill‘s suggestion to analyze the temporal organization of melody by means of Schenkerian Züge. These layers had never been seen before and promise a completely new approach to melody in composed makam music. The analysis was published as a book chapter in Trends in Word Music Analysis (Routledge 2022) and can be accessed only through a paywall. The book should be available in any university library.
(DOI: 10.4324/9781003033080-13) Link

    By presenting Julien Jalâl Eddine Weiss‘s tuning theory for the first time to the academic community, Stefan Pohlit participated in a contemporary dispute on the intonation of Turkish music. The different opinions on this subject would later personify in some characters of his novel, Münzevi Adası (Heyamola, Istanbul 2021).

    Due to Weiss‘s international fame, the doctorate thesis (Ph. D. in Music), Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss: A Novel Tuning System for the Qānūn. Its Application in the Performance Practice of the Ensemble ‘Al-Kindi’ and in Western Contemporary Music, was widely read upon its release. Pohlit explored Weiss‘s different tuning systems by applying them to a multitude of “general scales from” Farābī to the conference of Cairo (1932). The first chapter places Weiss within the history of makam music, the last chapter shows his collaboration with contemporary composers. The appendix contains a catalogue of modal genres in Weiss‘s performance practice. Link

    “Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss: A Novel Proposal for the Middle-Eastern Qānūn”, published in the Analytical Approaches to World Music Journal (Vol. 1, No. 2, 2012), is a condensed version of the dissertation‘s main arguments, concentrating on the most commonly used system among Weiss‘s kanuns.  Link

    “Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss – Kanun’un akortlaması için yeni bir öneri” in Porte Akademik. Müzik ve Dans Arastırmalar Dergisi (Nr. 8, 2013) appeared as Turkish-language companion piece to the dissertation.

    After Weiss‘s death, his heirs did not allow access to his archives. Only his last composition, a lengthy experimental suite of more than twenty minutes, had been entrusted to Stefan Pohlit and could thus be saved for the future. Pohlit‘s edition of the piece is accompanied by an analysis and commentary (“Maqām and Beyond: A Unified Theory in Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss’s Last Composition”), published in the Analytical Approaches to World Music Journal (Vol. 8 No. 1 2020), under terms of fair use. Link

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    Stefan Pohlit has always been primarily a Western composer and music theorist, concerned with contemporary and historic techniques and teaching them in class. In classical Western theory, however, he has only published analytical papers on subjects that interested him specifically, using a variety of analytical tools.

    “Grenzen harmonischer Deutbarkeit – J. Sibelius’ IV. Symphonie”, published in Musiktheorie (Nr. III 2005), features the extraordinary discovery of a novel harmonic system and its consequences in the final movement of Jean Sibelius‘s IVth Symphony. The paper relies on Diether de la Motte‘s Riemannian approach to functional theory, as it was common in Germany at the time. Its insights from this study had major impact on his composing between 2003 and 2007. Link

    Oddly for Pohlit‘s usual analytical tools, “Kurtág/Beckett: Pitch Organization in Opus 30b”, published in Seiltanz – Beiträge zur Musik der Gegenwart (Vol. 15, Oct. 2017) uses set theory to uncover the harmonic organization and its idiomatically “Hungarian” characteristics in Kurtág‘s Beckett interpretation. Link

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    Stefan Pohlit started playing the Persian santur as an autodidact in 2011. On Julien Jalâl Eddine Weiss‘s suggestion, he concentrated on the Chahâr-Mezrab repertoire, such as Faramarz Payvar‘s 40 Pieces for the Santur. In 2022, he was able to order an instrument equipped with microtonal tuning levers in Turkish commas from the Izmir-based luthier Ozan Özdemir. This instrument, originally meant for the talysh||pontos project, has since been introduced in other works, such as the Tâleshi Folk Songs and Şâfâkların Cihangîri for solo kanun and large orchestra. A new cycle of solo pieces is scheduled to be completed in fall 2025 during a one-month residency at Visby International Center for Composers on the island of Gotland/Sweden.

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    Since 2018, Stefan Pohlit has contributed to Zenith – Zeitschrift für den Orient, mediated originally by one of his former “schoolfellows” at Institut Bourguiba Tunis who, today, works as correspondent for major German newspapers. All of these articles are written in German. They offer uncommon views on current topics and news from the Middle East, inspired by Pohlit‘s personal encounters and experiences.

    “Aufräumen in Urfa” (11/2023)  Link describes the clean-up process inTurkey after the earthquakes of February 2023, following Pohlit’s second visit to Şanlıurfa (Southeast Anatolia) and its surroundings.

    “Der Magnat von Menzil” (07/2023)  Link was written after the death of Şeyh Seyyid Abdülbaki Erol of the Naqshbandiyya. It includes a rather ironic narration of Pohlit‘s own visit to the brotherhood in July 2001 where he met the religious leader and one of this sons personally.

    “Allah beschütze uns vor der Regierung!”, an interview with famous seismologist Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ercan on the earthquakes in Southest Anatolia and Syria, was published in Heft 1/2023.

    The series “40. Jahrestag des Militärputsches in der Türkei” (09/2020) evolved on Pohlit‘s proposition to document the aftermath of 1980‘s military coup in Turkey by interviewing contemporary witnesses. The intention was to reflect a great diversity of opinions, ranging from politics to the culture scene, from the far left unto the ruling AKP:
1. Ömer Asan (+introductıon)  Link
2. Christiane Schlötzer-Scotland & Gün Zileli  Link
3. Doğan Akhanlı & Jürgen Gottschlich  Link
4. David Ezra Okonşar & Gündüz Vassaf  Link
5. Hüseyin Sermet & Gülhan  Link
6. Hugh Pope & Ali Ergur  Link

    “Wem gehört die Hagia Sophia?” (07/2020)  Link  is a rather uncommon analysis of the historic milestones that led to the highly disputed reconversion of the Hagia Sophia. A modified version was printed in Evangelischer Kirchenbote.

    “Rotz und Wasser” (04/2020)  Linkdocuments the historic transformation from horse carriages to electric vehicles on Istanbul‘s Princes‘ Isles as seen by activists and politicians.

    “Der totale Todenhöfer” (05/2019)  Link, was written after Pohlit‘s visit to a book presentation with Jürgen Todenhöfer. While acknowledging the seriousness of the topic and despite the participation of Oskar Lafontaine and Sahra Wagenknecht, it contains ironic undertones, motivated by the stylistic weaknesses of Todenhöfer‘s new book, Die große Heuchelei. A longer passage of this article has been cited in German Wikipedia:Link

    “Erdoğan und die Nudisten” (04/2019)  Link documents the municipal elections of 2019 in an unusual portrait of life on the Princes‘s Isles, Istanbul, concentrating on environmental activists.

    “Die Hexen von Izmir” (12/2018)  Link offers detailed insight into the milieu of diviners and local saints in the province of Izmir.

    “Die Geisternetzjäger” (09/2018) Link documents the recent attempts to save the last coral populations off the coast of Istanbul, featuring the renowned diver Serço Ekşiyan from the Princes‘s Isles.

    “Der neue Reiz der Provinz” (Heft 1/2018 and online) Link portrays the municipality of Urla in the Gulf of Izmir from the perspectives of newcomers from Istanbul.

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