Music of Turkey
General topics
Byzantine music Military bands Whirling Dervishes Arabesque music Turkish music style
Genres
Folk Rock Pop Classical Alternative Hip hop Jazz Military
Specific forms
Ethnic music	Armenian Azeri Bosnian Greek Jewish Kurdish Zaza Other immigrants and minorities
Turkish marches	Tenth year March Ottoman marches
Media and performance
Music awards	Kral MV MÜ-YAP MGD
Music charts	Billboard charts
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Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Independence March
Regional music
Cypriot Turkish music
v t e

Zurna

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Türkü. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2012.

Turkish folk music (Türk Halk Müziği) combines the distinct cultural values of all civilisations that have lived in Anatolia and the past territories in Europe and Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under one umbrella. It was the most popular music genre in the Ottoman Empire era. After the foundation of Turkish Republic, Atatürk made a wide-scale classification and archiving of samples of Turkish folk music from around Anatolia was launched in 1924 and continued until 1953 to collect around 10,000 folk songs. In the 60's, Turkish folk music met with radio and folk musicians like Aşık Veysel, Neşet Ertaş, Bedia Akartürk became the most popular names of the Turkish folk music. In the 1970's and 80's, with the rising popularity of arabesque and Turkish light western, Turkish folk music has lost its old prestige, but singers like Belkıs Akkale, İzzet Altınmeşe, Selda Bağcan and Arif Sağ made successful hit songs and became important representatives of the genre.

Varieties of style, scales, and rhythm[edit]

Music accompanied by words can be classified under the following headings: Türkü (folksongs), Koşma (free-form folk songs about love or nature), Semai (folk song in Semai poetic form), Mani (a traditional Turkish quatrain form), Destan (epic), Deyiş (speech), Uzun Hava (long melody), Bozlak (a folk song form), Ağıt (a lament), Hoyrat, Maya (a variety of Turkish folksong), Boğaz Havası (throat tune), Teke Zorlatması, Ninni (lullaby), Tekerleme (a playful form in folk narrative), etc. These are divided into free-forms or improvisations with no obligatory metrical or rhythmic form, known as "Uzun Hava", and those that have a set metrical or rhythmic structure, known as "Kırık Havalar" (broken melodies). Both can also be employed at the same time.

Music generally played without words, and dance tunes, go by the names Halay, Bengi, Karsilamas, Zeybek, Horon, Bar, etc. Each region in Turkey has its own special folk dances and costumes.

Here are some of the most popular:

• Hora - A type of circle dance, also known as Syrtos, originating from the ancient Greek art form of χορεία (Chorea).

• Horon - This Pontic Greek dance from Black Sea, was performed by men only living in Trabzon, dressed in black with silver trimmings. Today, the dancers link arms and quiver to the vibrations of the kemenche (an instrument similar to violin).

• Kasap Havası/Hasapiko - A Greek folk dance. The dance originated from the Greek butchers guild, living in Constantinople, during the Byzantine Empire.

• Kaşık Oyunu - The Spoon Dance is performed from Konya to Silifke and consists of gaily dressed male and female dancers 'clicking' out the dance rhythm with a pair of wooden spoons in each hand.

• Kılıç Kalkan - The Sword and Shield Dance of Bursa represents the Ottoman conquest of the city. It is performed by men only, in Ottoman battle-dress, who dance to the sound of clashing swords and shields, without music.

• Zeybek - In this Aegean dance, dancers, called "efe", symbolize courage and heroism.

Scales[edit]

Although some of the scales ('ayak' - foot) employed in Turkish folk music melodies are similar to the some of the 'makam' scales of traditional Ottoman/Turkish Classical Music, not all of the folk music scales have Classical music counterparts, and there are important differences between the two concepts. The 'makam' of Turkish Classical Music is not just a scale, but has certain rules of progression, which in some cases are quite detailed, and in the course of the development the whole scale of the makam is used. Though sometimes referred to as makams by exponents of Turkish Classical Music, the scales of Turkish Folk Music are more properly called 'ayak' (foot) and are simply scales, with no rules of progression, thus bearing closer comparison with the concept of medieval church modes than do makams. Furthermore in many Turkish folk songs only part of the scale is used. Both forms of music are diatonic, but use notes that are additional to the 12 semitones of western music. In Turkish folk music, for example, some scales include the note B, others B flat, and still others a note roughly halfway between B and B flat.

The scales of Turkish folk music are associated with different regions, and can be known by different names depending on the region, such as: Beşiri, Garip, Kerem, Misket, and Müstezad.

Time signatures[edit]

A wide variety of time signatures are used in Turkish folk music. In addition to simple ones such as 2/4, 4/4 and 3/4, others such as 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 7/4, and 5/4 are common. Combinations of several basic rhythms often results in longer, complex rhythms that fit into time signatures such as 8/8, 10/8, and 12/8.

Instruments[edit]

Stringed instruments[edit]

Plucked stringed instruments include the lute-like saz, bağlama, tar and Cümbüş, and the dulcimer-like Qanún (also sometimes hammered). Bowed stringed instruments include the kabak kemane and the kemenche or Pontian Lyra.

Wind instruments[edit]

Woodwind instruments include the double-reed, shawm-like zurna, Mey(Duduk), the single reed, clarinet-like sipsi, the single-reed twin-piped çifte, the end-blown flutes kaval and ney, and the droneless bagpipe, the tulum. An old shepherd's instrument, made from an eagle's wing bone, was the çığırtma.

Percussion instruments[edit]

Percussion instruments include drums – davul and nağara – the tambourine-like tef, a mini drum darbuka and the spoons-like kaşık.

Uses of music[edit]

Melodies of differing types and styles have been created by the people in various spheres and stages of life, joyful or sad, from birth to death. Minstrels, accompanying themselves on the saz, played the most important role in the development and spread of Turkish folk music.

Samples[edit]

	"Çiftetelli" An example of Istanbul folk music
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	"The song of the Sema" An example of Mevlevi music
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Turkish folk musicians (in alphabetic order)[edit]

Complete list: List of Turkish folk musicians.

• Abdurrahman Tarikci
• Ali Ekber Cicek
• Ali Fuat Aydın
• Ali Özütemiz
• Arif Sağ
• Baba Zula
• Bedia Akartürk
• Belkis Akkale
• Brenna MacCrimmon
• Edip Akbayram
• Engin Nurşani
• Cem Duruöz
• Cengiz Özkan
• Edip Akbayram
• Efkan Şeşen
• Emre Saltık
• Erdal Erzincan
• Erkan Oğur
• Erol Parlak
• Feyzullah Çınar
• Gülay
• Gülcan Kaya
• Hacı Taşan
• Hale Gür
• Hasret Gültekin
• Hüseyin Turan
• Hüseyin Yaltırık
• İhsan Öztürk
• İsmail Özden
• İzzet Altınmeşe
• Kubilay Dökmetaş
• Lalezar Ensemble
• Mazlum Çimen
• Mehmet Demirtaş
• Mehmet Erenler
• Mehmet Özbek
• Melda Duygulu
• Meryem Şenocak
• Muharrem Temiz
• Musa Eroğlu
• Mustafa Özarslan
• Muzaffer Sarısözen
• Neşet Ertaş
• Orhan Hakalmaz
• Özay Gönlüm
• Pınar Sağ
• Kubat
• Sabahat Akkiraz
• Selda Bağcan
• Sevcan Orhan
• Sümer Ezgü
• Tolga Çandar
• Udi Hrant
• Yavuz Bingöl
• Zeynep Başkan
• Zara

Sources and external links[edit]

• Folk/Local Music at the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism website
• Musical instruments of Turkey — AllAboutTurkey.com
• TIKA music
• TURKISH FOLK MUSIC played by Hungarian musicians
• Listen to Turkish Folk Music