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Music, Nostalgia and Memory
Historical and Psychological Perspectives
Sandra Garrido & Jane W. Davidson
palgrave macmillan memory studies

Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
Series Editors
Andrew Hoskins
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, UK
John Sutton
Department of Cognitive Science
Macquarie University
Macquarie, Australia
The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends
that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to
that of memory, from ‘what we know’ to ‘how we remember it’; changes
in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory;
panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination
with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of
trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to
an intensification of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years.
Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect
what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This
groundbreaking new series tackles questions such as: What is ‘memory’
under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for
its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theo-
retical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination?
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14682
Sandra Garrido • Jane W. Davidson
Music, Nostalgia and

Memory
Historical and Psychological Perspectives
Sandra Garrido Jane W. Davidson
MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour Associate Dean Research, Deputy
& Development Director ARC Centre of Excellence for
Western Sydney University the History of Emotions
Milperra, NSW, Australia Faculty of Fine Arts & Music
The University of Melbourne
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies

ISBN 978-3-030-02555-7 ISBN 978-3-030-02556-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02556-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019931332
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
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publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Claudio Tebaldi / EyeEm / Getty images

Cover design: Samantha Johnson
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Music as a Soundtrack to Our Lives 1
The Conceptual Framework of This Book 4
The Methodological Approach to This Research 10
Systematic Narrative Review of Historical and Cross-
Cultural Sources 11
Analysis of Musical Works: Texts and Musical Settings 13
Empirical Survey of Modern-Day Listeners and Case-
Studies of Individual Listeners 17
The Structure of This Volume 20
References 21
Part I Personal and Contextual Variables Influencing Music

Listening Choices 27
2 Longing for the Past and Music Listening Preferences 29

Nostalgia in History 29
Personal Nostalgia 32
Historical Nostalgia 37
Case Study: Nostalgia and Classical Music 40
Summarising Music and Nostalgia 43
References 43
v
vi CONTENTS
3 Desire for Family Connections: Family History and

Cultural Context 49
The Influence of Family 49
Race and Culture 52
Cultural Displacement 56
Conclusions 60
References 61
4 Personality, Gender, and Education 65

Personality 65
Gender 69
Social Class and Education 71
Conclusions 74
References 75
5 Setting the Mood: Throughout History and in the

Modern Day 79
Affective Regulation Using Music Throughout History 81
The Ancients 81
Medieval Period 84
The Renaissance and Elizabethan Era 88
Baroque Period, Classicism and the Enlightenment 89
Mood Altering and Self-Medicating with Music in Modern
Times 91
References 95
6 Music Throughout the Life Span 99

First Memories 102
Case Studies: Andrew and Simonne 106
Music in Identities 107
Case Study: Hreimur Choir, Iceland 109
Case Study: Choirs to Celebrate and Embrace Old Age 111
On Performance and Performers Across the Lifespan 116
Case Study: Music, Activism, Memory and Emotion 117
Conclusion 118
References 119
CONTENTS vii
Part II Historical and Psychological Variables Reflected in

Music Choices for Key Life Events 125
7 Birth127
Historical and Cross-Cultural Practices 127
Music for Labour and Childbirth 129
Announcing the Birth 131
Re-integration into the Community and Celebrations
of the Birth 133
Modern Day Playlists 136
Music for Labour and Childbirth 136
Celebrations of the Birth 140
The Trajectory from the Past to the Modern Day 141
References 146
8 Childhood151
Introduction 151
Lullabies 154
Play Songs 155
Social and Psychological Functions 156
A Case Study: Emma 162
Changing Cultural Values 164
Functions of Singing to Children 167
References 169
9 Coming of Age and Birthdays173

Case Study: Joy’s Birthday 181
References 187
viii CONTENTS
10 Love and Heartbreak189

Love in Songs of Ancient Times 189
The Medieval and Early Modern Periods 191
After the Renaissance 196
Modern-Day Playlists 199
Songs for Romance 200
Songs of Heartbreak 203
References 213
11 Weddings217
Common Formats and Phases of Wedding Rituals 221
Processions and Preparations for the Marriage 221
The Ceremony 226
Recessional and Post-ceremonial Celebrations 227
Modern-Day Playlists 229
Traditional Versus Personal: Two Case Studies 232
References 237
12 Funerals and Mourning Rituals241

Georgian Laments 243
Little Angels 244
The Jazz Funeral 245
Mourning, Bells and English Early Modern History 247
Modern Day Playlists: Australian Funerals Today 250
MLAP Funeral Studies 251
Diana, Princess of Wales (1 July 1961–31 August 1997) 254
Philippa Maddern (24 August 1952–17 June 2014) 257
Benjamin Patrick Leske (11 September 1980–7 March
2018) 258
References 261
Contents ix
13 Towards a New Contextual Psychology of Music and

Emotion265
References 275
Index277
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List of Figures
Fig. 5.1 Bi-directional relationship between memories and emotions 80

Fig. 13.1 Model of a contextual psychology of music and emotion 271
Fig. 13.2 A contextual psychological approach to music and emotion
research274
xi
List of Tables
Table 1.1 Documents reviewed in systematic narrative reviews 13

Table 1.2 Primary musical works analysed by topic 15
Table 1.3 Survey instruments used 19
Table 8.1 Sleep songs and play songs selected for lyrical analysis 161
Table 9.1 Top 15 most frequently used words in birthday lyrics 179
Table 10.1 Frequently nominated songs for a first date 201
Table 10.2 Frequently nominated songs for heartbreak 204
Table 11.1 Frequently nominated songs for a wedding 230
xiii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Music as a Soundtrack to Our Lives

Since the beginning of recorded human history music has created a sense
of the sacred around key life events such as birth, marriage and death,
heightening the experience of these peak moments. The ancient Greeks
used music in all kinds of rituals to the gods, such as rain-making rituals
(Haland, 2001). In Plato’s Laws (Fourth to fifth century BC), he spoke at
length about the use of music and dance in rituals to the gods. Terracotta
figures found in Ibiza, Spain which date from the fifth to third centuries
BC, depict women playing musical instruments and were likely used in
funerary marches or fertility rituals (Lopez-Bertran & Garcia-Ventura,
2012). Similarly in ancient Egypt, music was used to appease the gods,
and musicians often held religious titles (Lopez-Bertran & Garcia-Ventura,
2012). The Chinese Xunzi (ca. 312-230 BC) also discussed the attain-
ment of perfection in ritual through music (Knoblock, 1994).
There is evidence of music use even in pre-human times. The Divje
Babe flute, found in a Slovenian cave, is believed by many to be the earliest
found example of a musical instrument, being over 40,000 years old and
possibly manufactured by Neanderthal man (Tuniz et al., 2012). The
Hohle Fels flute is also an example of a musical instrument dating from the
paleolithic era (Conard, Malina, & Muenzel, 2009). The finding of a
female figurine on the same site as the Hohle Fels flute, probably used as
© The Author(s) 2019 1

S. Garrido, J. W. Davidson, Music, Nostalgia and Memory, Palgrave
Macmillan Memory Studies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02556-4_1
2 S. GARRIDO AND J. W. DAVIDSON
a symbol of fertility, suggests that the two items were linked and may have
been used together for ceremonial purposes (Conard et al., 2009).
While the functions and uses of these prehistoric musical instruments
can only be speculated upon at this stage, it is likely that early rituals
involving music and dancing served as ways of binding communities
together in a common purpose. To our evolutionary ancestors, coopera-
tion between members of the group was important in terms of survival.
Not only are groups more effective at defending against predators—pic-
ture the lone zebra being attacked by a lion as opposed to a herd of zebra
stampeding away—but they are also more effective at obtaining precious
resources such as food. One theory about the evolutionary origins of
music therefore suggests that music was a form of ‘vocal grooming’ that
developed when social groups amongst our ancestors became too large for
physical grooming to be a practical way of bonding between individuals
(Dunbar, 1998). Music may therefore have become a way of improving
group cohesiveness and cooperation.
There is no doubt that even today music has a binding function between
individuals in a group. In live performance venues, hundreds of people
may move in unison together, sing in unison, and experience the emo-
tional highs and lows of the music as one. One of the most powerful
mechanisms believed to trigger emotional responses to music is that of
emotional contagion, in which, through a process involving empathy,
mimicry and mirror neurons, the listener begins to feel the very emotions
being expressed in the music (Molnar-Szakacs & Overy, 2006). In a group
listening situation this contagion is compounded when the people around
also begin to express emotional responses to the music, in much the same
way that the impact of a film viewed in a crowded cinema may be height-
ened by the emotions of those around us (Garrido & Macritchie, 2018).
In fact, research suggests that the situation in which music is heard can
have a profound impact on both the functions music serves and how we
respond to it (Greb, Schlotz, & Steffens, 2017).
However, while music has evidently been a powerful force for binding
communities and groups together from prehistoric times until today,
increasingly in the modern world it also provides a way of isolating an
individual from the world around them. The advent of recording technol-
ogy was the first step in shifting music from being a communal activity to
something that could be enjoyed in private.
The invention of the phonograph enabled people to listen to music in
solitude in the comfort of their own homes rather than in a concert hall.
INTRODUCTION 3
As digital technology advances, music is becoming ever more portable.

Listeners can now carry hundreds of tracks of music on small devices that
can be taken wherever they go. The use of headphones means that even
while walking on a crowded city street or sitting in a cram-packed train at
peak hour, an individual can create a sense of personal space, a bubble of
isolation from those around them (Garrido & Schubert, 2011). Thus,
music in the modern world is playing an increasingly important role in our
inner lives as individuals. We use it on a daily basis to create atmosphere,
shape our moods, to aid us in the fulfillment of personal goals, to express
personal values and emotions, and to delineate personal and cultural
boundaries. Our daily lives are accompanied by a musical soundtrack that
is sometimes of our own creation and sometimes not, with the key
moments of our existence as humans being marked by music in
striking ways.
One of the primary ways by which music is able to take on such signifi-
cance in our inner world is by the way it interacts with memory. Memories
associated with important emotions tend to be more deeply embedded in
our memory than other events. Emotional memories are more likely to be
vividly remembered (Kensinger & Corkin, 2003) and are more likely to be
recalled with the passing of time than neutral memories (Sharot & Phelps,
2004). Since music can be extremely emotionally evocative, key life events
can be emotionally heightened by the presence of music, ensuring that
memories of the event become deeply encoded. Retrieval of those memo-
ries is then enhanced by contextual effects, in which a recreation of a simi-
lar context to that in which the memories were encoded can facilitate its
retrieval. Thus, re-hearing the same music associated with the event can
activate intensely vivid memories of the event. Memory is therefore closely
intertwined with how our musical preferences develop and the personal
significance that music holds in our individual lives, and will be a key
theme considered throughout this volume.
Globally, music listening is now the predominant musical experience
enjoyed by most people, with statistics revealing that sales of recorded
music worldwide are massive: US$17.3 billion in 2017 (IFPI, 2018). At
other points in history, prior to recorded sound and the mass production
of recorded music, musical enjoyment was contingent on active participa-
tion. Many people had skills that facilitated communal musical activities
ranging from barns dances to sing-alongs in pubs. The notion of music
listening as a rarefied experience was not imaginable. There is thus no
doubt that the recording revolution in the availability of recorded music
has changed the way people use music. Questions remain about the degree
to which this has changed our very perception of music.
While the ways in which we engage with music have changed dramati-
cally in the last century—with an inevitable flow-on effect to the functions
that music serves—in some ways music still fulfills fundamental purposes
that have ensured its prominence in human society since the beginning of
recorded history. One of the primary aims of this volume is to examine the
twists and turns in the flow of music use throughout history, with a view
to generating a better understanding of the role it serves both socially and
psychologically in our lives today.
The Conceptual Framework of This Book

How are our personal soundtracks of life devised? What makes some pieces
of music more meaningful to us than others? The answer is that a complex
interaction of variables takes place to shape our musical tastes and prefer-
ences. Our personality, our family background, the music of our peers and
our parents, the culture and the history of that culture in which our lives
are situated, the daily experiences which shape our moods, and many other
things act together in creating the personal soundtracks of our lives.
However, many music and emotion studies typically consider the inter-
action of only one or two variables. For example, some studies have con-
sidered the correlations between personality and genre preferences
(Delsing, Ter Bogt, Engels, & Meeus, 2008; Litle & Zuckerman, 1986)
or between mental health and genre preferences (Martin, Clarke, & Colby,
1993) without considering the influence of the social, cultural, or histori-
cal meanings of such genre choices. However, as acknowledged by McCrae
and colleagues (2000), formulators of the Five-Factor model of personal-
ity, “trait manifestations must fit within a cultural context” (p. 175). Other
discussions have focused on the cognitive mechanisms by which emotional
responses are induced (Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008) without considering the
contextual variables which may influence the different emotional out-
comes produced.
Similarly, discussions of music and emotion rarely consider the histori-
cal context of the music itself, nor the way the listener’s response to it is
shaped by historical and cultural factors. This has led to two divergent
streams of research on music and emotion, one led by the universalist
premises of cognitive psychology, and the other based on the construc-
tionist perspectives of cultural anthropology and contextualism (Reddy,
INTRODUCTION 5
2001). Thus, historians of emotion argue that while emotions may have a
biological basis, they are both shaped and expressed in varying ways in
different historical and cultural contexts (Matt, 2011; Rosenwein, 2002).
Psychology and other sciences, on the other hand, often focus on the bio-
logical underpinnings of emotion or the cognitive mechanisms by which it
is evoked.
However, the two viewpoints are not necessarily mutually exclusive. As
emotions historian Rosenwein states: “social constructionism and biologi-
cal approaches to emotions have opposite tendencies. But their differences
are not insuperable” (p. 9). Indeed, psychological theories of emotion
include appraisal theories, some models of which suggest that while the
biophysical manifestations of emotions may be similar from one individual
to another, an individuals’ evaluation of the situation giving rise to the
emotional response are what determine the ‘label’ or value the emotion is
given (Scherer, Shorr, & Johnstone, 2001). Thus, historical studies find
ample evidence of embodied emotional responses even in contexts in
which conventions for the expression of emotion differed from conven-
tions in Western cultures today (see for example McGillivray, 2013).
Similarly, studies in music psychology indicate that while some emo-
tions seem to be cross-culturally recognizable in music, others rely on
culturally-specific conventions for their expression (Balkwill & Thompson,
1999) and are strongly affected by cultural influences on our perception of
emotion. Appraisal theories of emotion posit that since physiological
symptoms of numerous emotions can be similar, it is our appraisal of an
event that determines the emotion we will experience in response to an
event. Anthropological studies provide much evidence for appraisal theo-
ries, such as the work of Levy (1973) who reported that when people in
Tahiti experienced psychological symptoms in situations of loss that we
would call sadness or grief, they attributed these symptoms to other causes,
having no concept of sadness or grief in their language. This illustrates
how both biological mechanisms and social constructs interact to create
an emotional response.
In relation to art appreciation, Bullot and Reber (2013) therefore pro-
pose a “psycho-historical framework” (p. 123) in which psychological
responses toward art must be understood in the light of the unique his-
torical context in which the artworks were created. In fact, any compre-
hensive approach to the psychology of music and emotion must consider
the fact that biological and contextual factors such as culture and historical
influences have profound interactions with each other in creating our
emotional response to music. This volume therefore aims to draw together

these divergent perspectives to create a new framework for understanding
music and emotion. The starting point for our framework is therefore
individual differences psychology and the belief that individual experi-
ences with music are all vastly different. In order to understand the human
experience of music, we must take multiple variables into consideration,
including the influence of history on shaping musical perspectives.
Neglecting to consider this point has meant that many philosophical dis-
cussions of emotional response to music and the emotional meaning of
music have become mired in discussing the merits of various viewpoints
without considering the fact that multiple points of view may actu-
ally be valid.
Take the question of whether people experience ‘real’ emotions when
listening to music. Philosophers of different camps variously argue that
when listening to music we experience real emotions (Krumhansl, 1997),
a special set of aesthetic emotions (Levinson, 1996), or that we only expe-
rience ‘aesthetic awe’ which we then mistake for the emotions we perceive
being expressed by the music (Kivy, 1989). However, it has been argued
elsewhere that all these viewpoints may be true (Garrido & Schubert,
2010). Some people may experience emotions with all the physiological
manifestations and subjective feelings of emotions evoked by real-life
events, while others may experience a more detached emotion tempered
by the knowledge that the situation contains no real-life implications. Still
others may feel only awe at the beauty of the music.
Similarly, conflict exists over the issue of whether or not ‘problem
music’ genres such as rap/hip-hop, heavy metal or rock are to blame for
various incidences of violence or suicide. Proponents of Drive Reduction
Theory would argue that music provides an outlet for people experiencing
negative emotions that reduces the likelihood of them expressing their
feelings in less appropriate contexts (Berkowitz, 1962). On the other
hand, advocates of Social Learning Theory would argue that the presence
of media which displays certain attitudes or behaviours encourages belief
that such behaviour is socially acceptable (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961).
There is empirical evidence supporting each theory (for a summary see
Davidson & Garrido, 2014; McFerran, Garrido, & Saarikallio, 2013). It is
therefore possible that both lines of argument are valid and that in fact for
some people rap music or heavy metal, for example, might provide a useful
outlet for their feelings of aggression, while for others it might encourage
them to feel that violence and aggression in public is acceptable behavior.
INTRODUCTION 7
The basic fact is, that to untangle the various ways that music has an
emotional impact on people, we must consider the individual differences
in the ways people respond to and use music. To a large degree this may
include personality. Several large-scale studies have demonstrated the rela-
tionships between music preferences and certain personality traits (Dunn,
Ruyter, & Bouwhuis, 2012; North, Hargreaves, & Hargreaves, 2004;
Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006). Thus, the research outlined in this volume
takes individual differences psychology as a basis for examining emotional
response to music and music preferences.
However, in addition to personality are the strategies for mood man-
agement that people have learned throughout their lives. Thus a second
theoretical approach that forms an important part of the discussions in this
book is mood management theory. Mood management theory in its vari-
ous modifications argues that a basic motivation for music choices—at
least in the modern day world—is mood improvement, i.e. people will
choose music that either improves their mood or helps them to sustain a
previously good mood (Knobloch & Zillmann, 2002). Empirical evidence
supports this, demonstrating that people do rate mood regulation as one
of their primary motivations for music listening (Saarikallio & Erkkila,
2007). People learn strategies for affect and mood regulation throughout
the course of their lives, although they tend to be largely formed in child-
hood and adolescence (Cole, Michel, & O’Donnell Teti, 1994). Since
mood modification is such a large part of modern music use, logically,
these learned strategies play an important role in shaping personal music
use and the effectiveness of those strategies in terms of moderating mood.
A third premise behind the arguments and research outlined in this
book is the idea of context shaping emotional response to music. The term
“contextual psychology” is sometimes used to refer to forms of therapy
derived from the philosophy of contextualism (Stolorow, 2000). While we
do not necessarily advocate some of the more radical aspects of contextu-
alism such as the philosophically controversial argument that ‘truth’ only
has meaning relevant to a specific context, in this volume we do argue that
a complete understanding of emotional response to music cannot be
achieved without examining the context in which it occurs.
Both cultural and historical context, and personal situational variables
are important to such an understanding. An individual’s personal history
and experiences play a large role in their emotional response to music.
Personal memories become entangled with particular pieces of music to
the extent that we can’t hear a particular piece of music without thinking
of a certain person, a certain place or a certain event. In fact, music is one

of the strongest triggers of nostalgic remembrance (Barrett et al., 2010;
Zentner, Grandjean, & Scherer, 2008). Therefore our personal need to
connect with the past—whether it be our own personal past, or a historical
past—also influences the music we listen to.
Music is laden with cultural associations, forming a language of expres-
sion that is, at least in part, closely associated with the culture one has
grown up in (Gorbman, 1987). However, this is an aspect that is seldom
considered in literature about music preferences. Take for example the
Javanese pelog scale. It contains intervals that are slightly larger or smaller
than intervals from Western scales, which tend to be based on regular
measurements of a semitone (Kunst, 1973). Lynch and colleagues (1991)
found that the more musical exposure their participants had had to
Western music, the more they perceived Javanese intervals as being a result
of mis-tuning, illustrating how acculturation shapes our perception of
what is pleasant or unpleasant.
Many musically informed people in Western cultures also believe
strongly that specific keys are linked to particular moods (Powell &
Dibben, 2005). They may believe, for example, that the key of D major
expresses joy, while the key of E flat is more mellow or melancholy. These
beliefs stemmed from seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophies
which derive from the time when mean-tone tuning systems meant that
there were some minor differences between intervals in different keys
(Powell & Dibben, 2005). However, the belief has remained in the cul-
tural lexicon despite the fact that equal tempering has been used on key-
board instruments for several centuries now.
Similarly, in Western art music, minor keys are usually perceived as sad.
However, numerous studies reveal that minor keys of themselves do not
necessarily seem to evoke sadness in all listeners (Collier & Hubbard,
2001; Huron, 2008). Rather, its usual coupling with slow tempos and a
low melodic pitch range may be why we often think of sad music as being
in minor keys. However, one would never think that the well-known
Rondo alla Turca by Mozart1 is sad, despite the fact that it is in the key of
A minor for much of the movement. There is some strength to the argu-
ment that we may even be biologically programmed to perceive some of
these other features of the music such as tempo and pitch range as sad,
1
See Track 1 (Rondo alla Turca by Mozart) of the Spotify playlist which accompanies this
book at https://sandragarrido.weebly.com/hearing-memories%2D%2D-companion-page-
to-the-book.html
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INTRODUCTION 9
because of the similarities with features of speech prosody that express

sadness.
That a knowledge of the historical context of a work and the historical
context of the listener is important to understanding emotional response,
is further illustrated by the case of Elton John’s “Goodbye England’s
Rose”.2 This piece, which the Guinness Book of World Record’s of 2009
states is the highest selling single in the U.S. and U.K. since the charts
began, is well-known to many as the re-versioning of Elton’s “Candle in
the Wind” as a tribute to the late Princess Diana. The emotional response
of a teenage girl listening to this song in 2019 who may not have an inti-
mate knowledge of the context of its creation would obviously differ from
that of a young woman in the 1990s who may have felt personally impacted
by the tragic death of a public figure. Thus emotional response to that
particular song is influenced by both the context of the song’s creation
and the listener’s relationship to that knowledge.
These examples highlight the fact that cultural history and cultural
memory shape our perceptions of the present. Drawing connections
between historical and modern day uses of music and emotional responses
to music can help us to better understand the influence of heritage and the
past on music’s role in contemporary settings. Given the fact that so much
of the world’s population is displaced—an estimated 92.6 million people
in 2012 (Worldwatch, 2013)—the impact of historical influences becomes
even more tangled. Tastes and preferences become coloured by the cul-
tural conventions of the place of residence. However, people continue to
have an emotional investment in their culture of origin even several gen-
erations after the displacement occurs. We therefore have a variety of per-
sonal and cultural histories to consider when examining the shaping of
music preferences and emotional responses to music in Western societies
in modern times. Insight from history thus informs our understanding of
the present and provides a context for modern-day responses to music.
This volume therefore takes a novel approach by attempting to draw
together historical evidence and evidence from a large-scale study of music
choices in the modern day in order to provide a comprehensive model of
music preferences and emotional response. Although we will touch on
beliefs in ancient civilizations and the classical era, the historical focus of
this book will be on the Medieval and Early Modern periods. This was a
period in Western European history when education levels were rising,
2
See Track 2 of the accompanying Spotify playlist: Goodbye England’s Rose/Candle in
the Wind (1997).
movable type was invented resulting in the increased availability of printed

reading materials, and in which both the Protestant Reformation and the
Scientific Revolution occurred. It thus represents a period in which
remarkable changes in thinking and world-views occurred, changes that
still influence life in Western societies today. It is also the era in which the
tradition of Western art music became solidified in much the same way
that we still know it today. It thus provides a fascinating platform from
which to view the music of today.
It is evident that the subject of how our music choices are shaped is
multifaceted, entailing a detailed discussion of the reciprocal relationship
between music and numerous variables. It therefore necessitates an inte-
gration of approaches from across the academic spectrum. Thus, in this
book, these three conceptual premises—individual differences, mood
management and history shaping the modern—converge to create a
broad-reaching framework for understanding emotional responses to
music and music preferences and the role of memory within them. Within
this framework we set out to answer the following questions:
1. What is the role of cultural memory and historical nostalgia in shap-

ing our music preferences and listening choices today?
2. How do modern day music choices reflect the societal beliefs and
values that have occurred over time?
3. Why are some people still attracted to music of the past despite the
vast transformations to our viewpoints and ways of life in the
last century?
4. How do personal, psychological, historical and social factors interact
with our hard-wired biological make-up in creating emotional
response to music?
These questions were examined in this research by examining both cul-

tural and historical contexts, personal variables and situational variables.
The Methodological Approach to This Research

The research reported in this volume was a large-scale project conducted
over a period of more than four years within the Australian Research
Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. Ethics
approval was granted for the project from the University of Western
Australia’s Human Ethics Committee. Given our aim to draw together
INTRODUCTION 11
historical and cross-cultural information along with empirical data from

the modern-day, the research reported in this volume utilizes a variety of
methods—methods that are often viewed as irreconcilably different—but
which complement the cross-disciplinary perspective taken in this volume.
Overall, our methods derive from the fields of musicology, history of emo-
tions research, and music psychology. Three overall methodological strat-
egies were utilized:
1. Systematic narrative review of both primary and secondary documents

relating to historical and cross-cultural uses of music
2. Analysis of musical works—their texts and musical settings
3. Large-scale empirical surveys of modern-day listeners using psychomet-
ric measures.
For some topic areas we also supplemented our understanding of how

modern-day listeners use music by conducting interviews with several
individuals. This enabled us to look at some of the individual variations in
music use that occurred within the patterns revealed by the large-scale
quantitative data.
Systematic Narrative Review of Historical and Cross-Cultural

Sources
Given the breadth of the topics being considered in this project—one of
which could alone provide enough material for an entire career’s worth of
study—it was not our intention to conduct in-depth historical analyses of
any of the subject areas covered in this volume. Rather our intention was
to draw on the work of other expert historians in these areas and to per-
haps draw new insights from our unique cross-disciplinary perspectives.
Thus our consideration of each key topic area—birth, childhood, coming
of age, love and heartbreak, weddings, and funerals—thus began with a
systematic review of the literature which led us to identify a number of
primary historical documents for closer examination.
Our approach here differed from many systematic reviews in that the
purpose was to consider historical practices and theories rather than to
conduct a meta-analysis of the results of clinical studies and interventions.
The process thus resembled the techniques of narrative synthesis, drawing
on principles of historical analysis. Narrative synthesis can be described as
an approach to the synthesis of evidence that relies primarily on the use of
words and text to ‘tell the story’ of the literature that has been reviewed
(Bender, 2002; Popay et al., 2006). It is therefore a method applicable to
a wide range of questions not just those relating to the effectiveness of
particular interventions. Historical comparative analysis is a method used
in social science research which is defined as having “a concern with causal
analysis, an emphasis on processes over time, and the use of systematic
contextualized comparison” (Mahoney & Rueshemeyer, 2003, p. 6). We
thus drew on the methodological principles of these traditions in the cur-
rent study in order to compile narratives of music use at key life moments
in a variety of contexts.
The first step in our investigation was to undertake a comprehensive
search of online databases such as Informit, Ingenta Connect, and JSTOR
for any mention of our topic area in relation to music. For example, for the
section on music and birth, search terms such as Music* AND Birth* (or
other related terms) were used. Similar search methods were used for each
topic area of consideration. Any relevant beliefs, theories, anecdotes, texts
or historical figures that were mentioned in these texts were noted and an
effort made to trace the information back to its original source.
While primary sources were of principal interest, secondary sources
were also reviewed in line with the methods of historical comparative anal-
ysis. This was done because of their potential to help situate the primary
texts within their historical context and to determine how the information
found within the primary sources had shaped later perspectives. In addi-
tion, where primary texts and/or their translations were not accessible,
secondary sources were used as evidence of their content.
The quality of the literature that was reviewed was assessed in several
ways. In the case of primary sources, evidence of the historicity of the texts
was gleaned from historians who have studied the texts in detail. It was
not considered necessary to ascertain the veracity of each anecdote con-
tained in such texts, as anecdotes themselves provide evidence as to the
beliefs and theories held at the time, whether the events described actually
occurred or not. In the case of secondary sources, quality was assessed
according to the scholarship displayed in their writings as well as the fre-
quency with which they were cited by other scholars.
Table 1.1 displays the number of documents included in the review, the
number and type of primary sources examined in relation to the key topic
areas of the research covered in this volume. Primary sources included
medical and philosophical texts as well as treatises on music theory. Each
topic considered texts from a wide variety of time periods, depending on
the sources available, ranging from transcriptions of ancient texts from the
INTRODUCTION 13
Table 1.1 Documents reviewed in systematic narrative reviews

Topic Documents Number of Document sources Date range of
reviewed primary primary texts
documents
Birth 57 13 Medical, religious texts, 1098–2013

ethnographies
Childhood 40 12 Song collections, 4000 BC–1999
ethnographies, literary
works, transcripts of
blackletter broadsides and
historical artefacts
Coming of 24 6 Ethnographies 1952–2013
age
Love & 50 13 Transcripts of blackletter 1300 BC–
heartbreak broadsides and historical nineteenth
artefacts; song collections century
Weddings 45 19 Newspapers; paintings; Eighth century
biographies; ethnographic BC–2013
texts
Funerals 71 12 Newspapers; Letters; 1475–2013
Ethnographic texts
pre-Christian era to modern day ethnographic records or song texts from

the twenty-first century.
As a second step in the review process the data was organized chrono-
logically and preliminary syntheses of key theories, beliefs or practices
were formulated in relation to each topic. Data from both primary and
secondary sources were then coded and thematic analysis was conducted
in order to search for patterns of thinking and recurrent concepts across
different time periods and cultural contexts (Arai, Britten, Roberts,
Petticrew, & Sowden, 2007). Given the breadth of material and subjects
covered in this volume, only a sample of the texts examined could be cited.
Decisions were made about the documents to cite based on their power to
illustrate the themes and patterns that were identified.
Analysis of Musical Works: Texts and Musical Settings

History of emotions research is concerned with the role of emotions in
history and how they are shaped by the contextual and historical time-
periods in which they exist (Matt, 2011). Sources for history of emotions
research are usually written texts such as books and letters, or other mate-
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and rushed into Sergy’s study, my heart beating wildly. The next
instant I was in my husband’s strong arms, listening with rapture to
his voice. “My wife, my love,” he repeated constantly and smothered
my face with kisses. It was no dream, I was resting on Sergy’s
breast and felt plainly that one can become mad with joy. What ages
we had been apart, and now my darling husband was wholly given
back to me. I nestled against him and the world seemed to me a
pleasant place again and I forgot that I had ever been wet and cold
and lonely. I have him now for good and all and always. The day of
suffering was over!
CHAPTER XVII
ERZEROUM
It is all cheery, home-like and delightful out here after my lonely

life in Alexandropol and Kars. I began to take an interest in all my
surroundings once more. When I waked up next morning my first
thought was, “Can it be true, or is it only a dream that I have my
husband to myself?” and I almost cried for joy when I was quite
sure it was true.
March 16th.—Life in Erzeroum is an Elysium after my lonely life in
Alexandropol and Kars. I am in such a radiant mood that I think
everything I see is perfect. I have nothing left to wish for and am
able to allow myself the luxury of a piano, a lovely saddle-horse, and
all sorts of nice things. Our house is one of the biggest in Erzeroum;
it looks palatial after my lodgings in Alexandropol and Kars. From the
top of our terrace-roof one can see the whole town from a bird’s eye
view, with its sixty-six minarets rising to the sky, its imposing citadels
and floating flags over different Consulates. In the far distance there
is the encircling chain of the Palantek mountains, with glittering
snow-peaks. The houses are low, with balustrades round them like
those in Biblical pictures. There are about 15,000 inhabitants in
Erzeroum; the majority are Turks, then come Greeks and Armenians.
After sunset the town looks gloomy, only soldiers can be seen in the
streets. As for the population, it is represented only by a multitude
of errant dogs, the usual street-sweepers of Turkish towns. I hear
every evening the voices of the muezzins (Turkish priests) calling to
prayer: “Alla huac bar, Alla huac bar!” (God is great.)
I had a nightmare last night, and with a loud scream I woke up. I
dreamt that Sergy was ordered to the war and clung to him, fearing
to be parted again. Sergy held me close to him and kissed away my
tears, assuring me that nothing and nobody could part us now, and
that I shall be with him always, night and day. He succeeded at
length in calming my fears. I felt safe again under his wing and fell
peacefully asleep.
March 17th.—My arrival caused the greatest excitement among
the Christian inhabitants of Erzeroum. They are all singing my
praises for having come out here by those shocking roads, and they
say that I certainly deserve a medal as a reward for my bravery.
Was it curiosity to see a European woman, or was it a desire to
show devotedness to the Russians? Perhaps both reasons together
made visitors overflow our drawing-room. All the big wigs of the
town came to pay their respects to me. To-day, for instance, I
received the family of George Effendi, one of the richest Greek
merchants of Erzeroum. His wife wore a splendid silk dress
interwoven with gold and silver, and a small velvet cap adorned with
gold spangles and tassels. Her daughter-in-law, a woman of
fourteen, of childish stature and appearance, was obliged to keep
the most absolute silence in her presence, whilst her own daughter
chatted in very bad French all the while. After them came the family
of Antoine-Effendi Schabanian, the most noted Armenian inhabitant
of the town, who had come to present his respects to me the day
before.
The native Christian women, being under the dominion of Turkish
rule, find themselves here in such a state of degradation, that their
husbands consider it unsuitable to appear with them anywhere.
Antoine Effendi speaks very good English for a foreigner; he has
been a correspondent of the Times during the Russo-Turkish war.
Other guests came in quick succession, amongst them the French
Consul, M. Gilbert, with his wife, a charming young woman, so
bright and winsome. Mme. Gilbert seems very friendly; she has put
her books and music at my disposal. We propose to see each other
often, and to take long walks together. During the Gilbert’s visit an
old Pasha came in. That ancient fanatic, more than eighty years of
age, didn’t venture to look into my face, but kept his eyes fixed
chastely on the carpet, murmuring sotto voce something I didn’t
understand. Mme. Gilbert, who speaks Turkish, explained that the
aged mussulman was making oriental compliments to me. Just
before dinner an Australian doctor came in, holding a stick and a
Scotch cap in his hand. That young physician is summoned away to
Constantinople and has come to ask Sergy for a passport. He is the
son of a rich cattle-breeder residing in Melbourne. I saw on his arm
a white band with a red crescent and the letters S.H.S. on it,
indicating that he belonged to the “Stafford House Society.” There is
a great number of European doctors attending the Turks in
Erzeroum; nearly all the nations have sent their contingents of
medical men. These Christians in the Turkish service produce rather
a painful impression on me.
A telegraphic office is just opened. No telegram can be sent
without my husband’s permission as censor. Heaps of telegraphic
despatches are brought to him every day. The first telegram was
sent by Sergy to Ismail-Pasha, the former governor of Erzeroum, in
which he congratulated the Turkish warrior on the inauguration of
the telegraph.
March 18th.—To-day my husband gave a grand dinner in honour
of a dozen officers belonging to the Turkish army who happen to be
staying here at present. A military band announced the arrival of our
Turkish guests by a loud march. The dinner was a very gay and long
one, consisting of twelve courses. Our guests, not being fanatics, did
ample honour to the champagne. I sat opposite Sergy, between
Houssein-Pasha and Daniel-Bek, a smart young officer of the Turkish
staff, aide-de-camp to the celebrated Moukhtar-Pasha. This young
Turk wore his fez jauntily on one side, and looked quite European,
having been educated in Paris. He has been military attaché at the
Turkish Embassy at St. Petersburg for three years and speaks perfect
French and Russian. Daniel-Bek surveyed me with appraising eyes
and set himself to be charming to me all through the meal. I found
him most amusing, and was soon chatting away to him as if I had
known him for years. Houssein-Pasha teased me all through dinner
by insinuating that his subordinate was paying court to me too
openly.
March 19th.—It is Sunday to-day. We have attended mass at the
Greek Cathedral. Though it is situated far away from the centre of
the town, we proceeded thither on foot, escorted by Hamid-Bey, an
officer attached to the person of my husband, a dragoman, a Turkish
zaptieh, and about a dozen Cossacks. The attitude of the Armenian
inhabitants that we met on our way was most cordial and
sympathetic towards us, but the Mussulmans showed open hostility
by the glances full of hatred that they cast upon us. By these
glances it was easy to distinguish the Turks from the Armenians,
notwithstanding the similitude of their garments.
The Greek Cathedral was erected in honour of St. George the
Conqueror. There is a throne in the middle for the Archbishop who
said mass, arrayed in his sacerdotal vestments; he wore on his head
an immense mitre adorned with the Byzantine Eagle. The prayers
were sung in Greek with a very nasal sound. Our Russian officers
have made a present to this church of the image of St. George with
the following dedication: “In commemoration of the sojourn of the
Russian army in Erzeroum in the year 1878.”
We didn’t remain till the end of the service, for on that same
morning a requiem was sung in the Armenian Cathedral for the
repose of the soul of General Shelkovnikoff, my husband’s
predecessor. I aroused much curiosity and attention at church,
where an enormous congregation had gathered. The Cathedral
appeared very imposing with all the wax lights and chandeliers
ablaze, and the Metropolitan looked magnificent, clad in a robe that
was stiff with gold embroideries. About a hundred chanters, in black
and red surplices, sang melodious hymns; from time to time
choristers shook big silver disks with much noise. The loud voice of
the Metropolitan was suddenly drowned by a deafening uproar
above in the choirs. A loud squabble arose among the Armenian
women, who protested loudly at seeing me down in the nave of the
church where they were not allowed to penetrate. As soon as the
service was over the Metropolitan delivered a long sermon of which
we couldn’t make out a word. It proved to be an ovation in favour of
the Russians, as well as a demonstration against the Turks. I fear
that he will have to pay dearly for his eloquence as soon as we leave
Erzeroum. After service the Metropolitan invited us to have a cup of
tea. During our visit Sergy asked him the reason of the women’s
screams in the choirs, and he explained to us that it was quite
natural that the liberty given to European women had created an
animosity between these recluses, who protested against it in that
noisy way.
We have spent the afternoon in paying calls in a victoria belonging
to General Heimann, the only carriage in all Erzeroum. After our visit
to Mme. Gilbert, we went to George Effendi, where we were
received with effusive cordiality. As soon as we were seated on a low
divan, Turkish coffee without sugar, and different sorts of preserves
were served to us. Oriental politeness required us to take a very
small quantity of jam and to drink a whole glass of water after it.
When we got up to say good-bye, George Effendi threw upon my
shoulder a shawl of great price that I had just admired, and his
daughter undid her beautiful necklace of heavy coins and clasped it
round my neck. Of course I refused both presents outright, but I
was told afterwards that it was an Oriental custom to offer as a
present the object just praised. I will certainly abstain from admiring
anything in the future, because the natives say directly: “It is yours,
take it!” and that is very embarrassing.
When we got home we found an old Turk at our door who held a
paper in his hand. He was robbed the previous night and came to
complain to my husband. I had hardly time to take off my hat when
three French sisters of mercy were announced. After that came the
Persian Consul, accompanied by his interpreter. The Consul is a
honey-tongued personage, who made graceful speeches to me;
flattering phrases came so readily to his lips, and I did not
particularly like him.
March 20th.—My riding habit of dark-blue cloth and a jacket made
after the style of a Turkish uniform, have just been brought to me.
When I appeared for the first time in that costume, Hamid-Bey
saluted me in military fashion because the sleeves of my habit were
made with gold embroideries like those of a pasha.
I spend much of my time in the saddle, accompanied by my
husband and a large suite. Such freedom given to the young
“giaour,” is incomprehensible to the inhabitants of Erzeroum, who
find it very improper. I have stirred up a stormy discussion in many
Christian families; newly married women begin to protest against the
ancient order of things, and the old ones, on the contrary, faithful to
the ancient traditions, show themselves indignant against European,
liberal customs.
The Persian Consul has sent me this morning a large basket of
fresh oranges and lemons, which came from Trebizond, and
Erzeroum is still buried in snow. I had another present to-day, a
splendid roasted turkey-cock sent to me by the wife of the President
of the Turkish Municipal Council, who warned me of her visit, so as
to be quite certain of meeting no man in our house.
This evening about twenty doctors of Russian, English and Turkish
nationalities came to debate upon the indifferent sanitary conditions
of the town. During this winter about 1500 Russian soldiers have
been buried here; their graves were of such small depth that when
the melting of the snows had begun, many tombs were exposed to
view and it was necessary to fill them up once more. Doctor
Remmert, the chief physician of the army of the Caucasus, sent up
to Erzeroum in order to inspect the military hospitals, was agreeably
surprised to see the town so clean and so well arranged. The
innumerable canals have been cleaned out and the slaughter-houses
banished from the town. The heaps of snow, of more than three
metres in height, that encumbered the streets, are completely
cleared away. The inhabitants, seeing the Russian workmen
occupied with the improvements of the general state of health of
their own town say: “How funny these Russians are to spend so
much money for an affair that a month later nature would do for
nothing!”
In returning from our ride this morning we saw a group of mollahs
assembled before our house. They had come to complain against
the Russian police that had arrived to take an inventory of all their
goods, and had begun to make an account of their wives and cattle,
it proved to be the Sanitary Commission who were obtaining
necessary information. My husband took immediate measures to
calm the population.
The Armenian-Catholic Archbishop, Melchisedec, called before
dinner. Though he is suavity itself, there is something about him
which gives me a feeling of distrust. He pretends to be very happy
that the Russians still occupy Erzeroum, and dreads our departure,
fearing cruel treatment from the Turks towards the Christian
population.
March 21st.—My husband introduced an American clergyman to
me this morning, who is working as a missionary in Erzeroum. He
has come to ask Sergy to give him a large supply of bread and
money, but Sergy said that he could give him but a small sum. The
Russian government has, in fact, assigned a monthly subsidy for the
poor population of Erzeroum, not only for the Protestants, but for all
the indigent, independent of their religion or nationality.
Later on came Ibrahim Bey, one of the dignitaries of the town of
Khnyss, who had to proceed further on to Ernzindjane, the head-
quarters of Ismail Pasha. This Turk kissed the lappets of my
husband’s coat slavishly, and drew backwards towards the door,
putting his hand to his forehead and heart. As an example of Turkish
barbarism I shall note an exploit that he related to Sergy and of
which he boasted, a truly disgusting story. At Khnyss some Kurdes
dug up the corpse of a Russian soldier and stripped him of his
clothes and boots. As a punishment for their sacrilegious misdeed,
Ibrahim Pasha obliged the Kurdes to eat these boots, chopped up
into small bits.
March 25th.—On account of ill-health, General Loris-Melikoff, by
his own request, was released from the command of the main army,
which was given over to General Heimann.
The contents of the political telegrams received to-day are rather
alarming; England decidedly plots a war afresh, and a rumour of the
approaching breaking of peace has spread in the town. We must be
prepared that the Turks will assail us at any moment.
This morning a soldier of the light infantry, belonging to the
Malakani sect, desiring to embrace the Orthodox religion, came to
beg me to stand Godmother to him. This soldier made a vow to be
baptised if he escaped war safely; he has been in all the fights
without having received the slightest wound, and thinks it proper
now to fulfil his promise, I of course consented willingly.
March 26th.—The baptism of the Malakan soldier took place to-day
in the Armenian cathedral, which was so crowded that the
“cavasses” had to clear a way for us to pass. The Metropolitan
officiated in Greek and addressed himself continually to me in that
language. As I couldn’t understand a word, I didn’t know how to
answer and what to do, and was very comic, I am sure, in repeating
aloud the Greek phrases that he dictated to me. Mr. Popoff, an
officer of the light-infantry, acted as Godfather. Our Godson had to
be completely undressed, which took place behind a screen, and
then brought in to us covered only with a white sheet. I didn’t know
where to cast my eyes whilst he was being dipped in the font, which
was no other than the big soup-boiler of the brigade to which our
Godson belonged. I did not dare to glance at Sergy and pressed my
lips together, trying not to shake with laughter, and drew a breath of
profound relief, when I realised that the ceremony of baptism was
over.
From church we went to visit the bride of Egueshi, our Armenian
interpreter. The walls of her sitting-room were all hung up with her
drawings, amongst which we saw the portrait of our Emperor
painted by our hostess in the space of two days, during the time
when the Christian inhabitants of Erzeroum expected their town to
be invaded by the Russians. Dreading to see our soldiers enter their
homes by force, in order to plunder them, they put out big wooden
crosses before their houses in the hope of mollifying the hearts of
our soldiers, trusting to escape thus from the general fate. Our
hostess told us candidly that she concealed that picture when the
Turkish officials visited her house, but during our visit the portrait of
His Majesty occupied the place of honour.
To-day my husband has ordered Shefket Bey, one of the oldest
members of the Ottoman officers left in Erzeroum, to fire a cannon
from the citadel at twelve o’clock precisely, employing for that
purpose a Turkish gun and Turkish powder. Ten of our soldiers have
been appointed for that special service by Sergy. Shefket Bey was
obliged to submit, swallowing his wrath. He took it with outward
meekness, whilst his eyes gave a flash, and answered humbly, “Pek-
ei.” (I’ll obey you.)
Amongst the Turkish telegrams that my husband received this
morning there was one to Ismail Pasha with a complaint against
Sergy for having forbidden the Ottoman flag to be hoisted over the
tower of the principal citadel of Erzeroum. In answer to this telegram
Ismail Pasha gave orders that every command given by the Russian
authorities should be strictly executed.
Among the representatives of the different churches here it is only
the Mussulman “moufti” who has not presented himself to my
husband. Yesterday evening a group of Turkish inhabitants came to
ask permission to hoist their flag on Fridays, but Sergy told them
that they interfered with things that didn’t concern them, and that it
was their “moufti” who had to solicit this permission. The “moufti”
arrived to-day accompanied by a great number of white-bearded
and white-turbaned “imams” (Mahometan priests) dressed in long
furred robes. This time my husband has given them the permission
to hoist their standard on Fridays, and has been warmly thanked for
it.
We had two interesting guests at dinner to-day, a young Persian
prince, nephew of the Shah, who serves as dragoon officer in the
Russian army, and is attached to the policemaster of Erzeroum for
the present, and Daniel Effendi, a Turkish bureaucrat, who was sent
to Constantinople last year as member of the new Turkish
Parliament. After dinner, as we sipped our coffee on the roof-terrace,
Egueshi, with a rather scattered expression, came up to Sergy and
led him away, whispering something into his ear. Later on I was
informed that there had just been an earthquake, and as the second
shock is generally stronger than the first one, Egueshi came to
advise my husband to make us all come out into the street. Some
years before there had been such a terrible earthquake in Erzeroum
that the inhabitants were forced to camp out in the open air for a
whole month. After to-day’s earthquake one of the walls in the
citadel has partly fallen down, and a great number of houses have
cracked. It’s very strange that I haven’t felt anything at all, not the
slightest shock. In order to prevent accidents in Erzeroum, where
earthquakes are frequent, big beams are put into the masonries of
nearly all the buildings. Two great shocks and some slight ones have
succeeded each other during the night, and this time I felt them. It’s
my first experience of an earthquake, and my last one, I hope.
March 28th.—The weather being comparatively fine, we have
taken a long walk this afternoon in the direction of the Tap-Dagh, a
beautiful valley situated at the foot of a high mountain from whence
one discovers the source of the Euphrates, the famous Biblical river.
Behind the Tap-Dagh, according to Armenian traditions, Adam’s
Paradise was situated, with the two rivers mentioned in the
descriptions of Elysium. This is where fate has brought me. The
scenery is said to be exquisite, the vegetation luxurious.
The future is already brightened. The terms of the treaty of peace
have finally been signed at San-Sebastiano on the 1st of February.
This glorious piece of news has reached us only to-day in this out-of-
the-world place.
April 1st.—Mr. Kamsarakan, our Prefect of the Police, is a very jolly
fellow, fond of playing jokes on his friends. To-day, for instance, he
has invited to dinner all his acquaintances belonging to the Russian
colony whom he met in the street, promising them a splendid
Russian cabbage-pie. His guests rejoiced beforehand at the thought
of partaking of that famous national dish, but as they began to
arrive, there was no sign whatever of any preparations for dinner,
and Kamsarakan’s servant announced that his master was out and
would probably not dine at home to-day. The guests’ countenances
expressed the blankest dismay; being far from their fatherland no
one had remembered that the first of April was the day of traditional
mystifications. As for Kamsarakan, he went at the same time to Mr.
Eritzeff’s, one of his invited guests, and asked the servant to give
him something to eat. He devoured all the supper, and when poor
Eritzeff returned home dismissed from Kamsarakan’s house, he
found himself deprived both of his dinner and his supper.
April 2nd.—The Catholics celebrate to-day their Palm-Sunday. We
went to their cathedral where Capuchin monks, in brown garments,
wearing a cord instead of a girdle, officiated. After mass we visited
the school directed by the French Sisters of Mercy. The Turks had
shown themselves very uncivil to these Sisters when they arrived at
Erzeroum, but they got accustomed to them afterwards, and begin
now to esteem the good sisters for their attendance on the sick and
wounded.
April 4th.—Our Tartar servant Housnadine has arrived from Kars.
He has made that journey in sixteen days, being upset several times.
Housnadine has brought me different indispensable articles. Until
now my wardrobe was in a shocking condition; a small portmanteau
contained all my belongings.
We walked down to the ramparts this afternoon with the Gilberts,
and rambled over the old fort, surrounded by high massive walls
through the embrasures of which cannons are to be seen. During all
these eight years of their sojourn in Erzeroum the Gilberts are
entering this citadel for the first time, it had been terra prohibita to
all strangers up till now. Pushing forward we climbed up a high
tower by a narrow winding staircase; my long habit was dreadfully in
the way and I stumbled over it continually. The citadel is now
occupied by the Russian regiment of Bakou and three or four scores
of Turkish soldiers entrusted to watch over the warehouse, who
presented arms to my husband. There is a great bond of sympathy
between these Osmanlies and our soldiers; though not one of them
can speak a word of Turkish, they explained themselves quite easily
in a highly fantastic language of their own. Maksoud Effendi, the
chief of this small Turkish detachment bewitched us by his amiability
and led us to admire the edifice of Chifket-Minaret, a beautiful
Arabian building of the ninth century, with two formidable pillars of
the Byzantine style at the entrance. According to what the
Armenians say a saint of their nationality reposes in that minaret,
but the Mussulmans pretend that it is the burial place of one of their
most celebrated “imams.” For the moment this mausoleum, as well
as the innermost recesses of that edifice, are encumbered with
guns, bombs, shells and other objects of but little religious character.
April 6th.—The officers of the rifle battalion invited us to come and
take tea in their camp. At our approach a military band struck up a
march. The musicians were surrounded by a red-fezzed mob, and
the natives, generally lank and thin, looked contemptible little pieces
of humanity beside our tall portly soldiers. We were invited to
dismount and entered a great tent where we sat down at a long
table. Our hosts who were awfully nice to us, proposed a little
refreshment and drank our health.
April 7th.—Our landlord, an Italian chemist named Ricci, has
transformed himself into a famous physician here, his daughters go
to the French school and wear “tchartchaffs,” when they start out of
doors. Eleonora, the eldest Signorina Ricci, came in this afternoon to
announce to me the visit of the wife of the President of the Town
Council; I ran to the window and saw an araba (a Turkish chariot,)
covered inside with red cloth approaching our house. The araba was
drawn by a pair of beautiful white bullocks, a red-fezzed boy of
about twelve was following behind mounted on a tiny pony, and two
male servants were running on each side of the vehicle. When the
carriage stopped at our door, three women, wrapped up in black
veils, stepped out of the chariot and entered our drawing-room. The
President’s wife, an outrageously painted young woman, was
followed by her little son and two female slaves, a white one and a
negress; Turkish ladies of fashion never go out without their
attendants. The negress in her scarlet vestment with large printed
black flowers reminded me of “Asucena” the Troubadour’s mother.
She has been brought over from Stamboul where her mother still
resides in the Sultan’s harem. This black Venus was bought by the
President’s wife for the sum of a thousand francs. Through Eleonora
as interpreter, I was able to carry on a conversation with my Turkish
guests, in which harem life was the only topic. The Mussulman
women are incapable of seeing anything beyond it, their souls are
asleep, they are dull and unimaginative, without any keen interests,
and deplorably ignorant; most of them never turn the leaves of a
book or trace a word upon paper. The President’s wife told me that
she was surnamed “Blue Hanum” on account of her blue eyes. She
paid me a lot of compliments and appeared very astonished that my
husband allowed me to associate with men and that he permitted
me to appear before them unveiled. She plagued me with childish
questions about my sentiments towards my husband, and in her turn
she related to me the sensations that she experienced at the time
when her husband had two wives; both consorts cried bitterly each
night when their Pasha gave his preference to the rival spouse. She
told me with a smile of satisfaction that her rival died a few years
ago, leaving her an undivided sovereignty over her husband. Harem
slavery begins at the age of twelve, till then Turkish girls are as free
as European children, but on her twelfth birthday the girl becomes a
woman, she adopts the “tchartchaff” and is condemned to see the
world darkly through a veil. Henceforth she is a prisoner in the
harem.
The negress slave proposed a nigger-boy to me, when suddenly
the idea struck her that I should wish to appropriate her little son,
and she hastened to warn me that he was a mulatto and not a
thoroughbred nigger; she told me that I could order one from
Diarbekir, and that he wouldn’t cost more than five hundred francs,
and added that I could also procure for myself from that same place
a splendid young negress who could speak several languages, but
she warned me charitably that these learned negresses were often
unprincipled, and dangerous to keep, on account of their propensity
to seduce the master of the house! I replied laughingly that in that
case I should certainly prefer to buy a nigger boy. When coffee was
brought in, the negress and the slave sat down on their heels upon
the floor to sip it, they daren’t do it otherwise in the presence of
their mistress. After a while the negress asked permission to go and
smoke in the corridor; it was only a pretext to have a peep at Sergy
and his aide-de-camp, who were just then in the next room. In
leaving our house the President’s wife, who had severely
remonstrated with the negress for her improper curiosity revealed to
her by her little son, could not resist the temptation of stealing a
glance at the imprisoned gentlemen through the chink of the door.
She invited me to come and see her soon, promising to show me the
best dancing girls (bayadères) in Erzeroum.
Now, to turn to the other side of the medal, I must say that during
our stay at Erzeroum our roses weren’t entirely without thorns. The
typhus-fever continued to rage, and mowed down whole ranks of
our soldiers. Every day there were new victims. The Russian
cemetery is quite full now, and we are obliged to bury our soldiers in
a common grave. Nearly every morning I see sinister waggons
carrying away the unfortunate victims of this dreadful epidemic to
their last dwelling-place. I shudder when I think of it!
We are warned that a fanatic society under the name of
“Avengers” (Christian haters) is newly organised, and that we run
great risks during our rides through the bazaars and Turkish
quarters.
April 8th.—To-day we revisited the camp of the light-infantry,
desiring to see my godson, the newly converted Melakani soldier,
who by the way, is several years older than his godmother. I was
horrified to hear that he had just been sent to the hospital.
Presently, amongst our soldiers, the comparatively healthy ones are
only those who have recovered already from the typhus-fever; it is
pitiful to see their pale and meagre faces. Mr. Popoff told me that
the sight of a Russian woman would help them to forget, for a
moment at least, that they find themselves in a strange and hostile
land, so far away from their native country.
April 12th.—To-day is Maundy-Thursday. The Catholic Archbishop
has invited us to assist at the ceremony of the washing of the feet of
twelve little boys belonging to the best Armenian families of
Erzeroum. These children dressed in long white garments and
wearing crowns of flowers on their heads, had taken their seats on a
long bench, covered with red cloth. After having each one bared the
right foot, one of the priests poured some water into a golden dish
and the Archbishop, in rich sacerdotal vestments, knelt before each
of them on one knee, took the bared foot, washed it and dried it
with a towel. After this he offered each child a lighted wax-taper and
a box of bonbons tied with a green ribbon.
In the evening a service was held in the dwelling of General
Heimann, who was in Kars at the present moment, dangerously ill.
The reading aloud of the twelve Evangelists by our Russian priest, in
this foreign land, to a mass of Russian officers each holding a wax-
light, produced a great impression upon me. After the second
Evangelist an officer came into the room, a telegram in his hand,
and gave it over to my husband who perused the despatch with an
air of consternation, and whilst it passed from hand to hand, I
noticed the troubled expression of the faces about me. This telegram
announced the decease of General Heimann, carried off in five days
by the typhus. Is then the prediction of one of our friends going to
be realised? He said that we should all die here, and that none of us
should see his native land again; the turn of each one is the only
thing unknown to us. After the reading of the twelve Evangelists, a
requiem was sung for the peace of the soul of General Heimann.
April 13th.—The Russian colony at Erzeroum decided to celebrate
the Easter-night ceremony with great pomp; a rather difficult thing
to do in this Mussulman country. An attempt was made to illuminate
the streets leading to the Greek cathedral, but the inhabitants hadn’t
the slightest idea how to do it, and it was our house only which was
lighted with lanterns taken from “mosques.” When my husband had
put on his uniform and red ribbon, we proceeded to church on
horseback, in complete obscurity, with a dozen Cossacks and
zaptiehs to protect us. It is very sad to feel oneself in a Mussulman
country on this great Christian feast. Nothing recalls to mind the
customary animation of that holy night; the streets are so dark and
silent! On approaching the cathedral we saw a detachment of
Russian soldiers standing under arms. The church was illuminated a
giorno and filled with officers, soldiers and Christian inhabitants, the
latter take off their fezzes now in church, which they didn’t dare to
do before the entry of the Russians into Erzeroum. In a corner of the
cathedral lay heaps of painted eggs and Easter-cakes brought by our
soldiers to be blessed. Cannons were fired; the first shot was at
midnight precisely. After mass, my husband invited all the Russian
colony to supper. Our guests left us only at five o’clock in the
morning.
April 14th.—On waking this morning I heard men’s voices singing
in chorus “Christ is risen!” It was a group of Cossacks who had come
to congratulate us with Easter-Sunday. Later on, from ten o’clock,
visitors of different nationalities continued to arrive until dinner-time.
It is reported that the Turks circulate exaggerated rumours about
the pitiful state of our troops and say that the moment for revenge
against the Christians has come. What troublesome times we are
living through, good God!
The Mussulmans had the custom of firing guns through the whole
night during the eclipses of the moon, but my husband has
forbidden this now, in order not to frighten the Christians.
April 17th.—It is the birthday of our Emperor to-day. After a Te
Deum in the Greek cathedral, there was a great review of our troops
on the square; four military bands executed our national hymn,
whilst our soldiers acclaimed their sovereign enthusiastically. The
square was crowded with lookers-on. Egueshi caught the drift of a
dialogue between an Armenian and a Turk; the Turk announced,
pointing to the citadel from whence discharges were heard: “The
Russians are unable,” said he, “to frighten us with their cannon-
shots, one sees directly that these cannons are not Turkish ones for
they make too little noise.”
“You are much mistaken,” broke in the Armenian. “They are
precisely Turkish cannons, and it is Maksoud Effendi who has
procured the gunpowder.”
“Ah! now I see the reason why we are able to hear these cannon-
shots, for if they were Russian guns, they would not be heard at all
from the citadel,” concluded the Osmanlie, not a bit disconcerted.
In the afternoon the members of the Town Council came in to
congratulate my husband on the occasion of to-day’s solemnity; their
President, Mehamet-Ali-Bey was accompanied by a group of white-
turbaned “mollahs.” Sergy made a long speech to them, translated
by Egueshi. He thanked them for their activity, for the order that
they maintained in the town, and promised them to express to
Ismail-Pasha his gratitude for having chosen such worthy members
for the municipal council; he ended his speech by telling them that
the Russians occupied Erzeroum by the will of God, and that it was
the duty of all the inhabitants to submit to their destiny and to
strictly obey our authorities. My husband made a rich present to Ali-
Effendi in the name of the Russian government; he gave him a
beautiful gold snuff-box, adorned with diamonds which cost 4000
francs.
I didn’t go out to-day, having to superintend the preparations for
the official dinner that Sergy gave to the Russian and Turkish
authorities. The table was richly decorated with flowers and fruits
brought from Tartoum, where they are admirably preserved; last
year’s pears are still quite fresh. At about six o’clock the musicians
mounted on to the roof of the opposite house by a ladder against
the wall one after the other; street-lads climbed up after them in
such numbers that one was obliged to turn them out for fear of the
roof falling in. Another band was placed in the street just under our
balcony. From my window I saw the Persian Consul approaching on
his beautiful white Arab; in a few moments our drawing-room was
full of guests. My husband placed himself at the centre of the table,
having on one side the Metropolitan and on the other the Armenian
Archbishop; I was sitting opposite. The dinner was very animated,
much champagne was drunk. Maksoud-Effendi consumed this
stimulating beverage more than anyone; he embraced his neighbour,
Prince Tchavtchavadze, and exclaimed in a transport of tenderness:
“If war had continued, I would have killed you, perhaps, but now I
kiss you with all my heart!” My husband gave the first toast and
drank to the health of our Emperor; everybody stood up crying out
“Hurra!” After that Sergy exclaimed: “I drink to the duration of peace
between Russia and the friendly powers, France, Turkey and Persia,
as well as to the health of their representatives here present!”
The Metropolitan pronounced a long discourse in Armenian that
Egueshi translated to us; he said that the Emperor of Russia had
always been regarded with deep love and respect by the whole
Christian population of Asia, and that he, consequently, proposed a
toast to the health of our Monarch in the name of all the Armenians.
Ali-Effendi, taking offence, proposed to drink the health of our
Emperor in the name of all the Asiatic nationalities, without
distinction of religion, as he could not admit any difference between
them. The Metropolitan, wishing to expiate his awkwardness, held
up his glass to Ali-Effendi, but the offended Osmanlie feigned not to
notice it, and removed his glass. Never will the Koran and the
Gospel, evidently, live in peace in Asia! Mons. Gilbert, in his turn,
after having spoken of the sympathy that existed between France
and Russia, exclaimed, “Long live Russia!” and my husband replied
immediately, “Long live France!” The Catholic Archbishop said
something very eloquent but rather incomprehensible. The last toast
was drunk by Sergy to the prosperity of Erzeroum, whatever fate
should befall it. After dinner we went out on the balcony and
listened to the different potpourris on Russian national airs executed
by our military bands. At our appearance hundreds of voices
exclaimed, “Long live the Emperor of Russia!” It was night when the
musicians returned to their camp, playing marches all the time. They
were followed by a throng of street boys who carried their cymbals
and their rolls of music.
April 18th.—On waking this morning I saw the street covered with
snow, which continued to fall in big flakes, and it is spring in Russia
now! Country, people, climate, everything is so gloomy out here!
In the afternoon I went on horseback to return my visit to the wife
of the President of the Town Council. Mme. Gilbert followed with
Helena in a cart procured by our ambulance people. Eleonora had
entreated her father to allow her to accompany us, but he refused
outright, saying that if the question was of visiting an Armenian or
Greek family, he would have willingly given his consent, but he
would certainly never allow his daughter to enter a Turkish harem.
The President’s wife met us at the entrance door and led us into
her private apartments, furnished in Turkish style with low sofas all
round the walls, on which sat, cross-legged, five Bayadères dressed
in green and pink robes; their faces were painted white and red, and
their nails dyed with henna juice. After a slight collation, which
consisted of coffee and different sorts of preserves served in silver
vases, the Bayadères began to dance, clinking castanettes. Four
music-girls sat on the floor and played the daira, a sort of cithern.
Brandy and champagne was offered to the Bayadères to put them
into still more depraved spirits, and they began to dance unlike
anything I had ever seen. The master of the house who sat in the
next room with a score of male friends left his door ajar, and the
sight of these men inflamed the dancing-girls still more, and they
took such liberties that I didn’t dare to raise my eyes from the
carpet. When the Bayadères approached Helena, making indecent
gestures, my poor old nurse pushed them back, her eyes flashing
indignantly. Her speechless horror amused me enormously, and it
was a mercy that from the place where I sat I hadn’t Mme. Gilbert to
exchange glances with, or I couldn’t have remained serious. Our
hostess seemed astonished at Helena’s repulse and asked why she
did it, and if it was contrary to her religion? Anyone who reads this
will suppose that I am describing a house of ill fame, but, on the
contrary, it is one of the most respectable houses in Erzeroum, and
all these enormities are of the exigencies of harem life. The little son
of our hostess, aged twelve, an awfully vicious brat, was incapable
of concealing the ardour with which he was gazing upon the
contortions of the Bayadères; he hardly heard when he was spoken
to.
Dinner was served à la franca, but there were knives and forks for
us only, our hosts did very well without them, helping themselves
with their fingers. The meal consisted of a score of meat and sweet
dishes intermingled. I did not know what I was eating, but was
compelled to taste everything, to refuse would be a great offence to
our hostess, and I resigned myself to swallow all sorts of nasty
things. Our hostess, according to the custom of the country, tasted
every dish before it was served to her guests, in order to prove that
it wasn’t poisoned. During the meal the son of our hostess behaved
abominably. He tyrannised over the poor little mulatto, the son of
the negress slave, and was awfully rude to his mother, daring to call
her in our presence kiopek, which means dog in Turkish. After dinner
a large copper basin was brought in to wash our hands, after which
the dances were renewed. The face of one of the Bayadères was
completely veiled. I was told that this woman had formerly been a
prostitute. She is married now, but all the same she is obliged to
cover her face in remembrance of her bad life. When the time came
to bid good-bye to our hostess, I wanted to give a bakshish (a tip)
to the dancing-girls, but she objected to this and told me that I had
far better invite them to come and dance in our house. I promised to
do it one of these days. I could not possibly imagine that our
hostess’s son, the perverse little despot, could show himself such a
gallant cavalier towards me. In parting he wanted absolutely to kiss
me, and declared that at first he had detested the Russians, but now
he had seen me, he liked me so much that his most ardent wish was
that the Russians would remain for ever in Erzeroum.
April 23rd.—To-day is the feast of the sapper battalion. Their chief,
Prince Toumanoff, begged me to assist at the Te Deum performed on
their camp, telling me that my presence would be a great treat to his
officers and soldiers. I couldn’t refuse his friendly invitation, and
proceeded on horseback to the camp. When prayers were over, the
officers invited me to partake of their repast served in a big tent.
After Prince Toumanoff had drunk my health, I took my courage in
both hands and gave a toast to the hospitality of our amiable hosts.
An awful uproar arose, the officers called for three cheers for me
and the soldiers cried “Hurra,” throwing their caps in the air. A small
bazaar was just opposite the tent, with nuts, plums, apples and
different sweetmeats; Sergy bought the whole contents and dealt
them out to the soldiers.
At seven o’clock the sappers gave a banquet in the apartments of
the deceased General Heimann. I begged for Mme. Gilbert to be
invited to that dinner, so as not to be the only woman at that
festival. Again numerous toasts were given. Doctor Reitlinger, a
thorough Dorpat student, stood on a chair and gave a long discourse
in praise of Erzeroum. When he had ended, Prince Toumanoff
exclaimed that he had forgotten to mention in his panegyrics the
most important point of all, namely, that Paradise happened to be
only a few miles off from here. Everybody laughed, for the
neighbourhood of Paradise was not perceptible in Erzeroum as we
dabbled in mud and snow close by this Paradise, whilst it was
already spring-time in Russia.
When we got home I went directly to bed, and was just falling
asleep when the sounds of a march playing under our windows
awakened me. It proved to be a group of sapper officers who had
come to serenade me for having taken part at their festival.
April 30th.—I have been unwell all these days and was obliged to
remain in bed. Yesterday I felt well enough to leave my room, and
Mme. Gilbert hastened to call on me. She threw her arms round my
neck and nearly strangled me with kisses, having been awfully
anxious about me, for when one falls ill in this blessed country, one
is sent beforehand ad patres.
April 31st.—I called to-day on Signora Lavini, a curious specimen
of a Turkified European woman. She is the wife of an Italian
druggist, who has lived here for many years. Their daughter was
born and educated in Erzeroum, of which one is easily aware by her
moral development. Nevertheless her parents seem very proud of
their offspring; they called her up to exhibit her musical
accomplishments before us. The young virtuose betook herself to
the piano, and first played some scales on the elderly instrument
shockingly out of tune, toiling up and down the piano, and giving her
wrist and arm a tremendous jerk every time it was her thumbs turn
to go under. She ended her musical performance by the traditional
Cloches du Monastère.
Profiting by the improvement of the roads, a great number of
Turkish officers hasten to Erzeroum to see their families.
As soon as the pasture grounds were covered with grass, bands of
brigands, belonging to the Kurdish tribe, began to appear. The
Ottoman administration has tolerated the exploits of these
highwaymen till now, especially the deeds of a well known bandit
named Mirza-Bek, who carried in his expeditions his favourite wife, a
young Circassian dressed in masculine clothes; but we cannot
maintain the same indifference to be sure! Last night there was a
robbery connected with murder in a village near Erzeroum; the
villains were immediately found and arrested. I saw them this
morning brought up to my husband, under a great escort. Oh, how
awful-looking they were! All in rags, with dark vicious faces and
rapacious glances resembling those of the hyena who dreads
daylight and human beings. We have been warned that a band of
Kurds are going to assault the cloister of “Kermirvank”; my husband
has sent a dozen Cossacks there and the would-be brave
highwaymen hastened to run away. It seems that the Kurds venture
upon robbery-expeditions only when they are sure of their grounds.
May 1st.—Our policemaster Kamsarakan organises all sorts of
amusements for me; to-day, for instance, in honour of the 1st of
May, he arranged a picnic out on the side of the Tap-Dagh. The
Cossacks made a great fire and we roasted potatoes and boiled
water for our tea, after which we sat down on carpets and did full
justice to the contents of our luncheon baskets. Crowds of people
from the surrounding villages had gathered around, and a mob of
Armenian peasants organised a village-dance. We followed their
example, trying our feet in a waltz on the uneven ground, the train
of my long habit being very much in my way. A functionary of the
intendance, an enormous giant, looked so comic waltzing with a tiny
officer, who was scarcely up to his shoulder; it seemed all the time
as if he wanted to swallow up his undersized partner, or to jump
over his head. A group of Armenian urchins, armed with sticks
instead of guns, appeared under the command of a little chief,
wearing a Russian cap on his head and paper epaulettes; they
looked like small lead-warriors taken out of a toy box. These boys
executed all sorts of military evolutions, mimicking the training of
our soldiers.
On our way home we visited a Turkish Coffee house. We entered a
paved courtyard with a fountain basin in the middle, surrounded by
big yellow flowers. The customers were sitting around the basin on
low cushions; some of them were sipping their coffee and others
smoked their narghile, passing it by turns from neighbour to
neighbour. Thus occupied, the Turkish smokers pondered
meditatively, whilst the Greeks and the Armenians argued about
their commercial affairs. This coffee-house consists of several lofty
rooms. In one of them the proprietor was sitting proudly behind his
bar; a quantity of narghiles of all dimensions, richly adorned with
gold and silver ornaments, lay in rows on the shelves fixed all
around the wall. In the next room a barber worked, shaving a
greater number of skulls than beards.
May 5th.—A Russian employer has been insulted this morning by
an individual serving in the Persian Consulate, who called him a lot
of bad names. The man came to complain to my husband just when
the Persian Consul was announced. The culpable Persian was
speedily sent for and brought in under the escort of a Russian
gendarme and a Turkish kavass. The interview was not pleasant.
Sergy told the Persian that it was only out of regard to his Consul
that a severe punishment was not imposed upon him by the Russian
authorities; he was handed over entirely to the discretion of his
Consul.
May 8th.—Yesterday we went to a ball given at the Casino, the
building of the ancient “seraglio,” where all the festivities were
organised before, being now transformed into a hospital for the
Turkish wounded soldiers. This ball was to be a grand affair, the
arrangements were splendid; the ball-room was fitted up as a big
Turkish tent, decorated with plants and flowers. I had to sign a large
packet of invitations for that ball, printed on gilt-edged paper, which
indicated a long sojourn in the shop by its yellowish colour. This ball
sowed discord in many Armenian families; the fair sex wanted to
assist at it but the unfair protested energetically. Bulerian, one of the
richest Armenians of Erzeroum, had proclaimed publicly that his
compatriots who dared to conduct their families to that ball would
have to pay dearly for it when Erzeroum was given back to the
Turks. Bulerian was responsible for his reckless speech; after having
been smartly lectured for it, he has undergone the most infamous
Asiatic punishment, which was, being forbidden to mount his horse
for a whole month.
The ball was a great success, and the whole entertainment went
off admirably. Many Christian inhabitants brought their families to
this ball; elderly Armenians and Greek matrons, gorgeously dressed,
sat against the wall, and watched our dancing. Supper was served
for two hundred persons, and continued till very late. We returned
home at dawn, escorted by a military band. We had two Turks at
dinner to-day, Ismael-Bey and Maksoud-Effendi. I could hardly keep
from laughing in looking at the desperate efforts that they made in
serving themselves with their knives and forks; how gladly they
would have thrown away these instruments of torture to be able to
tear their meat with their fingers!
May 30th.—This afternoon we made an excursion to the banks of
the Euphrates. After having made about five miles on horseback, we
arrived at a sort of paved dike, which seemed to have been built by
giants; the stones are so enormous that it is quite incomprehensible
how human beings could handle them. For many centuries whole
generations have gone over this ancient dike without its being
necessary to mend it. The Euphrates is very broad in this part, and
in full rise just now. Frogs were croaking around us, and whole
flocks of wild geese dived about ten steps from us; their tranquillity,
as it seems, is rarely troubled by musket-shots. On the middle of the
river a boatman was rowing his yawl, cut out of the trunk of an
enormous tree, with a long perch.
On our way home we stopped at “Kian,” a small village where we
created a great sensation, and were stared at as if we were beings
from another world. The women crowded around; one of them
determined to examine me closely grasped my arm exclaiming, “I
have touched her, she is alive!” (Did she suppose that I was a wax-
doll?)
May 11th.—This morning a Turkish woman, holding a small boy
dressed in the uniform of a pasha by the hand, has come with a
petition to my husband. She began to relate different exploits of her
ancestors, and concluded her long narrative by requesting Sergy to
procure her means to return to Constantinople, her native town.
Sergy tried to explain to her that the services rendered by her
forefathers had nothing to do with the Russian government, but she
continued to beg, and having received the sum that she requested,
she whispered something to her little son, who came up to our
interpreter and announced to him that he too, wanted a bakshish.
We went to visit the Christian schools in the afternoon. In the
Catholic school one directly sees the active intervention of the clergy.
The Archbishop Melchisedec takes a great part in the education of
the children; the director and the tutors are all priests. The best
scholars are sent to Rome and Venice to finish their studies. The
pupils repeated compliments of welcome to us in French, and
expressed their gratitude to our Emperor for the protection that His
Majesty accorded to the Christian inhabitants of Erzeroum. The
Greek school is also considered as a part of the church, but the
priests do not assist in the teaching. The director of this school
showed us his establishment in detail. It contains two hundred
scholars of both sexes. Till the age of twelve boys and girls study
together; they are taught both Greek and Turkish. This school being
of the Orthodox creed, received a monthly subsidy of fifteen francs
before the beginning of the war, now my husband has offered the
sum of four thousand francs yearly as a support to the school. In the
evening the Greek deputy came to thank Sergy for this rich offering;
they told him that the remembrance of his generosity would remain
for ever in their hearts as also in the hearts of their children.
May 14th.—My husband has received an important despatch from
Constantinople, a circular of orders from the “Grand Vizir” to the
high Turkish functionaries. Sergy thus acts the part of an Ottoman
Pasha, which amuses me greatly.
After dinner we rode over to Abdurakman-Kazi, an antique
mosque containing the mausoleum of a renowned Turkish saint and
also a score of rooms for pilgrims. This monastery, on the mountain
side looks splendid.
May 15th.—Yesterday on our way home from the cloister of
Abdurakman-Kazi, we saw on our way some bomb shells. This
morning, a little shepherd turned over one of these shells, which
exploded and tore the poor lad to pieces.
May 17th.—Striving to invent all sorts of distractions in order to
raise the drooping spirits of our Russian colony, horribly depressed
by the epidemic of typhus-fever, we have organised races on a track
of three miles. To-day a large crowd of inhabitants surrounded the
racing-place. There were seven concurrent events—five Cossack and
two native. When they started I followed them attentively, fearing to
see our Cossacks outridden by the Turks. To my great joy a young
Cossack gained the first prize, the sum of four hundred francs. He
mounted a tiny insignificant-looking horse that he had bought at
Khiva for forty francs. The Cossack was accompanied up to town in
triumph by a big crowd, and two military bands.
May 21st.—The benediction of the common tomb of the soldiers of
the regiment of Bakou, killed during the assault of the fort Azizie,
took place this morning. A year has glided away, the fate of
Erzeroum has changed, and this same regiment of Bakou holds
garrison now in this fort.
Egueshi related to us the cruelties committed by the Mussulmans
during that siege. He pointed out a Turkish woman who had cut the
throats of many wounded Russian soldiers, thus avenging herself for
the death of her husband on the battle field. The enormous tomb
has been done up with stones, and a big wooden cross is fixed in
the middle.
During the Requiem, at which I assisted on horseback, all the
soldiers knelt down and prayed fervently for their comrades, the
brave warriors who are sleeping their eternal sleep in this
Mussulman ground.
After dinner we arranged an expedition to the monastery of
Loussavoritch-Vank, situated about six miles outside the town. This
monastery, built on the top of a high mountain and surrounded by a
stone-wall, resembles a castle of the middle-ages. Three sides of this
cloister are perpendicular and the fourth one, by which one mounts,
is planted with a row of fine trees, an agreeable contrast to the
rocky scenery all around. Two monks composed the whole
establishment; one of them, at our approach, began to toll a bell,
whilst his companion came out to meet us, holding a big silver cross
in his hand. He led us into the church, where he performed a Te
Deum and made us descend afterwards into a dark dungeon where,
according to a legend, Saint-Gregory, the propagator of Christianity,
had taken refuge during the persecution of the Christians. We also
visited an antique underground church, making our way to it by
narrow dark passages. I drew a long breath when I found myself in
the open air once more. On our way home we were overtaken by a
terrible thunderstorm, which didn’t last long, but was followed by a
dreadful shower of rain. We put on mackintoshes with caps, which
made us look like highwaymen, but we all got a thorough drenching,
nevertheless.
May 27th.—The snow in the mountains transforms itself when
thawing into big clouds, and it pours with rain nearly every day. The
top of the “Palantek” is a capital weather-prophet; when there are
no clouds on the summit, even if the sky is heavy all around, it will
not rain that day, and vice versa. From our sitting-room one can
watch the mountains, and this barometer is of great use to us during
our rides.
There was an awful storm last night; the wind shook our house to
its very foundation, it seemed as though it must be caught up and
hurled headlong. I’ve never seen such dazzling flashes of lightning
before, nor heard such formidable thunderbolts reverberating loudly
with an echo in the mountains. I was in a terrible fright all the time
lest the flag-staff, put on the top of our roof, would be struck by
lightning. The rain came in through the ceilings; I can well imagine
what was taking place in the other houses in Erzeroum which had no
clay roofs like ours.
May 28th.—A very disagreeable incident occurred last night, a
musket-ball whizzed close past the sentry on duty near the guard-
house. Investigations were made and the inhabitants handed over a
Turkish solider this morning, who said that in jumping over a wall he
had awkwardly let fall his gun, which fired itself. The culprit is
arrested.
During our evening ride along the line of the fortifications, a bullet
flew past me and made my horse start. The misunderstanding
explained itself. The Cossacks of our escort were ready to retaliate,
when it proved to be simply a Russian officer who, shooting at a
target, did not perceive that his bullets passed over the ramparts. All
the same it is evident that I stood in imminent danger of being shot
through the body, and feel myself trained up in war now, having
experienced the baptism of fire, which is a very peculiar feeling,
indeed!
May 29th.—Troubles have arisen again. There has been a fresh
underhand musket-shot which took place in town this morning. This
time the ball lodged itself in the wall of a house inhabited by one of
our functionaries. A group of “imams” from different parts of
Erzeroum were gathered, and the order was given to them to find
out the culprit, under the threat of making the whole Mussulman
quarter responsible for his misdeed, and to deliver him immediately
into the hands of the Russian authorities, as also all the fire-arms
that the Turkish government had dealt out to the inhabitants during
the blockade of Erzeroum. The “imams” listened woefully to the
proclamation of that severe decree, and presented, a few hours later
as culprit, the single Christian inhabitant of their quarter; it is quite
evident that they accuse him wrongfully.
There came a telegram to-day which announced that a ratification
of peace was going to be opened in Berlin on the 12th of June.
That’s a new gleam of hope that we shall soon leave Erzeroum.
I have often heard military bands playing in the streets of
Erzeroum, but they generally executed funeral marches, whilst
platoons of soldiers accompanied their chiefs, victims of the terrible
epidemic, to their last dwelling-place, and one can easily conceive
my joy when I perceived from my window the first detachment
destined to reinforce our army, entering Erzeroum this morning,
preceded by a military band. The Mussulmans must be very much
annoyed to see our troops increasing, as up till now the number of
our soldiers diminished every day.
May 30th.—The Persian Consul presented Sergy with the portrait
of the Shah and a piece of poetry which states that this portrait is
given to the Russian governor of Erzeroum in token of gratitude for
his kindness to the Persian inhabitants.
Though the sky was perfectly clear this evening, Egueshi warned
us, pointing to the “Palantek,” that there would be a shower before
long, but we, all the same, started on our habitual ride, but had not
gone half a mile when there came the rumble of thunder from afar;
a flash of lightning shot across the sky and the rain came down in
torrents. We galloped at full speed towards the village of Shakk, not
far off, and took refuge under the roof of an old Armenian priest. On
the walls of his parlour hung a whole gallery of pictures cut from
French illustrated papers, representing chiefly heroes of the Russo-
Turkish war, a present left for our host by a Russian officer who had

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palgrave macmillan memory studies

More information about this series at

Music, Nostalgia and

Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019931332

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

Cover illustration: Claudio Tebaldi / EyeEm / Getty images

Part I Personal and Contextual Variables Influencing Music

2 Longing for the Past and Music Listening Preferences 29

3 Desire for Family Connections: Family History and

4 Personality, Gender, and Education 65

5 Setting the Mood: Throughout History and in the

6 Music Throughout the Life Span 99

Part II Historical and Psychological Variables Reflected in

9 Coming of Age and Birthdays173

10 Love and Heartbreak189

12 Funerals and Mourning Rituals241

13 Towards a New Contextual Psychology of Music and

Fig. 5.1 Bi-directional relationship between memories and emotions 80

Table 1.1 Documents reviewed in systematic narrative reviews 13

Music as a Soundtrack to Our Lives

© The Author(s) 2019 1

As digital technology advances, music is becoming ever more portable.

The Conceptual Framework of This Book

emotional response to music. This volume therefore aims to draw together

of a certain person, a certain place or a certain event. In fact, music is one

because of the similarities with features of speech prosody that express

movable type was invented resulting in the increased availability of printed

1. What is the role of cultural memory and historical nostalgia in shap-

These questions were examined in this research by examining both cul-

The Methodological Approach to This Research

historical and cross-cultural information along with empirical data from

1. Systematic narrative review of both primary and secondary documents

For some topic areas we also supplemented our understanding of how

Systematic Narrative Review of Historical and Cross-Cultural

Table 1.1 Documents reviewed in systematic narrative reviews

Birth 57 13 Medical, religious texts, 1098–2013

pre-Christian era to modern day ethnographic records or song texts from

Analysis of Musical Works: Texts and Musical Settings

It is all cheery, home-like and delightful out here after my lonely

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Part I Personal and Contextual Variables Influencing Music

2 Longing for the Past and Music Listening Preferences 29

3 Desire for Family Connections: Family History and

4 Personality, Gender, and Education 65

5 Setting the Mood: Throughout History and in the

6 Music Throughout the Life Span 99

Part II Historical and Psychological Variables Reflected in

9 Coming of Age and Birthdays173

10 Love and Heartbreak189

12 Funerals and Mourning Rituals241

13 Towards a New Contextual Psychology of Music and

Fig. 5.1 Bi-directional relationship between memories and emotions 80

Table 1.1 Documents reviewed in systematic narrative reviews 13