The introduction provides an overview of the concepts and topics explored in this themed issue. It begins by reflecting on practices of commemoration and the significance of 1923 in modern Turkish history. It then discusses the concept of “modernities” in relation to the Ottoman Empire and post-Ottoman nation-states, both in terms of musical developments and broader political and cultural processes. It emphasizes continuities and interactions between Ottoman and post-Ottoman periods, as well as between Europe and Turkey, and highlights the global diversity of experiences of modernity as demonstrated by a range of scholarship in musicology and other fields. The final section summarizes the contributions to the themed issue.