Typically Dismissed as the Remnants of Ottoman Nostalgia, the diverse melancholies intentionally cultivated by contemporary Turkish classical musicians is a central aspect of their socialization. Melancholic Modalities is the first in-depth study of the affective and sonic practices developed and sustained by professional musicians who teach and perform a present-day genre substantially rooted in the musics of the elite Ottoman court and Mevlevi Sufi lodges. Through extensive archival and ethnographic research, author Denise Gill analyzes how melancholic music-making emerges as pleasurable, spiritually redeeming, and reparative. Focusing on the diverse practices of musicians who deploy and circulate melancholy in sound, Gill interrogates the constitutive elements of these musicians' affective modalities in the context of neoliberalism, secularism, political Islamism, public manifestations of Sunni Islamic piety in Istanbul, diverse Sufi devotionals, and the politics of psychological health in Turkey today. In an essential contribution to the study of ethnomusicology and to theories on sound and affect, Gill develops rhizomatic analyses to allow for musicians' multiple interpretations and experiences to be heard. With her innovative concept of "bi-aurality," Melancholic Modalities forges new possibilities for the historical and ethnographic analyses of musics, affective practices, and ideologies of listening for music scholars. Book jacket.