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The music of Turkey includes mainly Turkic and
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
elements as well as partial influences ranging from
Ottoman music Ottoman music ( tr, Osmanlı müziği) or Turkish classical music ( tr, Türk sanat müziği) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally ...
,
Middle Eastern music The various nations of the region include the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East, the Iranian traditions of Persia, the Jewish music of Israel and the diaspora, Armenian music, Kurdish music, Azeri Music, the varied traditions of Cypr ...
and
Music of Southeastern Europe Balkan music is a type of music found in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. The music is characterised by complex rhythm. Famous bands in Balkan music include Taraf de Haïdouks, Fanfare Ciocărlia, and No Smoking Orchestra. Historica ...
, as well as references to more modern European and American
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Funk ...
.
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
is a country on the northeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroad of cultures from across Europe,
North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, the
Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europea ...
, the Caucasus and
South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
and Central Asia. The roots of traditional music in Turkey span across centuries to a time when the
Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...
migrated to Anatolia and
Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkic and pre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for
Westernization Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, econo ...
., pp 396-410. With the assimilation of immigrants from various regions the diversity of musical genres and musical instrumentation also expanded. Turkey has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, Albanian,
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin scree ...
,
Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most nume ...
and
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
communities, among others. Many Turkish cities and towns have vibrant local music scenes which, in turn, support a number of regional musical styles. Despite this, however, western-style pop music lost popularity to arabesque in the late 1970s and 1980s, with even its greatest proponents,
Ajda Pekkan Ayşe Ajda Pekkan (; born 12 February 1946) is a Turkish singer. She is known by the title "superstar" in the Turkish media. Pekkan became a prominent figure of Turkish pop music with her songs, in which she tried to create a strong female figure ...
and
Sezen Aksu Sezen Aksu (; born Fatma Sezen Yıldırım; 13 July 1954) is a Turkish pop music singer, songwriter and producer who has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her nicknames include the "Queen of Turkish Pop" and "''Minik Serçe''" ("Little Spar ...
, falling in status. It became popular again by the beginning of the 1990s, as a result of an opening economy and society. With the support of Aksu, the resurging popularity of pop music gave rise to several international Turkish pop stars such as Tarkan and
Sertab Erener Sertab Erener (born 4 December 1964) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and composer. With her coloratura soprano voice, she started working as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu, and with Aksu's help she released her first studio album in the 1990s ...
. The late 1990s also saw an emergence of underground music producing alternative
Turkish rock Anatolian rock ( tr, Anadolu rock), or known as Turkish psychedelic rock, is a fusion of Turkish folk music and rock. It emerged during the mid-1960s, soon after rock groups became popular in Turkey. Most known members of this genre includes Tur ...
,
electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...
, hip-hop,
rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
and
dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance ...
in opposition to the mainstream corporate pop and
arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...
genres, which many believe have become too commercial.


Classical music

Ottoman court music has a large and varied system of modes or scales known as
makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam spe ...
s, and other rules of composition. A number of notation systems were used for transcribing classical music, the most dominant being the Hamparsum notation in use until the gradual introduction of western notation. Turkish classical music is taught in conservatories and social clubs, the most respected of which is Istanbul's ''Üsküdar Musiki Cemiyeti''. A specific sequence of classical Turkish musical forms becomes a ''fasıl'', a suite consisting of an instrumental prelude (''peṣrev''), an instrumental postlude (''saz semaisi''), and in between, the main section of vocal compositions which begins with and is punctuated by instrumental improvisations taksim. Tanrıkorur argues that the perceived differences between the traditional music genres stemmed from the cultural clash between the East and the West that emerged during the Tanzîmat Era (1839-1908). A full fasıl concert would include four different instrumental forms and three vocal forms, including a light classical song, ''şarkı''. A strictly classical fasıl remains is the same
makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam spe ...
throughout, from the introductory taksim and usually ending in a dance tune or ''oyun havası''. However shorter ''şarkı'' compositions, precursors to modern day songs, are a part of this tradition, many of them extremely old, dating back to the 14th century; many are newer, with late 19th century songwriter Haci Arif Bey being especially popular. ;Composers and Performers Other famous proponents of this genre include Sufi Dede Efendi, Prince Cantemir, Baba Hamparsum, Kemani Tatyos Efendi, Sultan
Selim III Selim III ( ota, سليم ثالث, Selim-i sâlis; tr, III. Selim; was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, the Janissaries eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa ...
and Sultan
Suleyman the Magnificent Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
. The most popular modern Turkish classical singer is
Münir Nurettin Selçuk Münir Nurettin Selçuk (1900 or 1901 – April 27, 1981) was a Turkish classical musician and tenor singer. Biography He was born in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire in 1900 or 1901. His uncle was Grand Vizier o ...
, who was the first to establish a lead singer position. Other performers include Bülent Ersoy, Zeki Müren, Müzeyyen Senar and Zekai Tunca.


Musical instruments

Traditional instruments in Turkish classical music today include
tambur The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four ...
-generally use as ''tanbur'' - long-necked plucked lute,
ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continual ...
end-blown flute,
kemençe Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black ...
bowed fiddle,
oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= *String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , d ...
plucked short-necked unfretted lute, kanun plucked zither, violin, and in
Mevlevi The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya ( tr, Mevlevilik or Mevleviyye; fa, طریقت مولویه) is a Sufi order that originated in Konya (a city now in Turkey; formerly capital of the Seljuk Sultanate) and which was founded by the followers of Jala ...
music, küdüm drum and a harp.


Ottoman harem music: Belly dance

From the makams of the royal courts to the melodies of the royal
harem Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...
s, a type of dance music emerged that was different from the ''oyun havası'' of fasıl music. In the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, the harem was that part of a house set apart for the women of the family. It was a place in which non-family males were not allowed.
Eunuchs A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both te ...
guarded the sultan's harems, which were quite large, including several hundred women who were wives and concubines. There, female dancers and musicians entertained the women living in the harem. Belly dance was performed by women for women. This female dancer, known as a ''rakkase'', which is the Arabic word for "female dancer", hardly ever appeared in public. This type of harem music was taken out of the sultan's private living quarters and to the public by male street entertainers and hired dancers of the Ottoman Empire, the male ''rakkas''. These dancers performed publicly for wedding celebrations, feasts, festivals, and in the presence of the sultans. Modern oriental dance in Turkey is derived from this tradition of the Ottoman rakkas. Some mistakenly believe that Turkish oriental dancing is known as Çiftetelli due to the fact that this style of music has been incorporated into oriental dancing by
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
, illustrated by the fact that the Greek belly dance is sometimes mistakenly called Tsifteteli. However, Çiftetelli is now a form of folk music, with names of songs that describe their local origins, whereas rakkas, as the name suggests, is from Arabic which means "male dancer". Dancers are also known for their adept use of finger cymbals as instruments, also known as zils.


Romani influences

Romani are known throughout Turkey for their musicianship. Their urban music brought echoes of classical Turkish music to the public via the ''meyhane'' or taverna. This type of ''fasıl'' music (a style, not to be confused with the fasıl form of classical Turkish music) with food and alcoholic beverages is often associated with the
underclass The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. The general idea that a class system includes a population ''under'' the working class has ...
of Turkish society, though it also can be found in more respectable establishments in modern times. Roma have also influenced the fasıl itself. Played in music halls, the dance music (''oyun havası'') required at the end of each fasıl has been incorporated with Ottoman ''rakkas'' or belly dancing motifs. The rhythmic ostinato accompanying the instrumental improvisation (''ritimli taksim'') for the bellydance parallels that of the classical ''gazel'', a vocal improvisation in free rhythm with rhythmic accompaniment. Popular musical instruments in this kind of fasıl are the clarinet,
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, kanun, and
darbuka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet-s ...
. Clarinetist Mustafa Kandıralı is a well-known fasil musician.


Military music

The Janissary bands or '' Mehter Takımı'' are considered to be the oldest type of military marching band in the world. Individual instrumentalists were mentioned in the Orhun inscriptions, which are believed to be the oldest written sources of Turkish history, dating from the 8th century. However, they were not definitively mentioned as bands until the 13th century. The rest of Europe borrowed the notion of military marching bands from Turkey from the 16th century onwards.


Turkish influence on Western classical music

Musical relations between the Turks and the rest of Europe can be traced back many centuries, and the first type of musical Orientalism was the Turkish Style. European classical composers in the 18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the
brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
and
percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
s in
Janissary A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...
bands.
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...
wrote his ''Military Symphony'' to include Turkish instruments, as well as some of his operas. Turkish instruments were included in
Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's '' Symphony Number 9'', and he composed a "Turkish March" for his '' Incidental Music to The Ruins of Athens, Op. 113''.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
wrote the "Ronda alla turca" in his '' Sonata in A major'' and also used Turkish themes in his operas, such as the ''Chorus of Janissaries'' from his
Die Entführung aus dem Serail ' () ( K. 384; ''The Abduction from the Seraglio''; also known as ') is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's ''Belmont und Constanze, oder Di ...
(1782). This Turkish influence introduced the
cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...
s,
bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The ...
, and bells into the symphony orchestra, where they remain.
Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...
musician
Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...
wrote his "Blue Rondo á la Turk" as a tribute to Mozart and Turkish music.


Western Influence on Turkish classical music

While the European military bands of the 18th century introduced the percussion instruments of the Ottoman janissary bands, a reciprocal influence emerged in the 19th century in the form of the Europeanisation of the Ottoman army band. In 1827, Giuseppe Donizetti, the elder brother of the renowned Italian opera composer
Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera style duri ...
, was invited to become Master of Music to Sultan
Mahmud II Mahmud II ( ota, محمود ثانى, Maḥmûd-u s̠ânî, tr, II. Mahmud; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, ...
. A successor of Donizetti was the German musician Paul Lange, formerly music lecturer at the American College for Girls and at the German High School, who took over the position of Master of the Sultan's Music after the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 and kept it until his death in 1920. A son of Paul Lange was the Istanbul-born American conductor
Hans Lange Hans Lange (February 17, 1884 in Istanbul – August 13, 1960 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) was a German-American conductor and musician. He was a son of Paul Lange, who had been a lecturer for music at the American College for Girls and Ge ...
. The Ottoman composer
Leyla Saz Leyla Saz, also called Leyla Hanimefendi (1850–1936) was a Turkish composer, poet and writer. Biography Born in 1850, she was the daughter of İsmail Hakkı Pasha, (often called Hekim İsmail Pasha (İsmail Pasha the Doctor). She spent her ...
(1850–1936) provides an account of musical training in the Imperial Palace in her memoirs. As the daughter of the Palace surgeon, she grew up in the Imperial harem where girls were also given music lessons in both Turkish and Western styles. After the
decline of the Ottoman Empire In the late eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire ( Ottoman Old Regime) faced numerous enemies. In response to these threats, the empire initiated a period of internal reform which came to be known as the Tanzimat, which succeeded in significan ...
and the creation of a Turkish republic, the transfer of the former Imperial Orchestra or ''Mızıka-ı Hümayun'' from Istanbul to the new capital of the state
Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...
, and renaming it as the Orchestra of the Presidency of the Republic, ''Riyaset-i Cumhur Orkestrası'', signaled a Westernization of Turkish music. The name would later be changed to the Presidential Symphony Orchestra or ''Cumhurbaşkanlığı Senfoni Orkestrası''. Further inroads came with the founding of a new school for the training of Western-style music instructors in 1924, renaming the Istanbul Oriental Music School as the Istanbul Conservatory in 1926, and sending talented young musicians abroad for further music education. These students include well-known Turkish composers such as Cemal Reşit Rey,
Ulvi Cemal Erkin Ulvi Cemal Erkin () (March 14, 1906 – September 15, 1972) was a member of the pioneer group of symphonic composers in Turkey, born in the period 1904–1910, who later came to be called The Turkish Five. These composers set out the direction of ...
, Ahmet Adnan Saygun, Necil Kazım Akses and Hasan Ferit Alnar, who became known as the Turkish Five. The founding of the Ankara State Conservatory with the aid of the German composer and music theorist
Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the '' ...
in 1936 showed that Turkey in terms of music wanted to be like the West. However, on the order of the founder of the republic, Atatürk, following his philosophy to take from the West but to remain Turkish in essence, 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. Hungarian composer
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hun ...
visited Ankara and south-eastern Turkey in 1936 within the context of these works. By 1976, Turkish classical music had undergone a renaissance and a state musical conservatory in Istanbul was founded to give classical musicians the same support as folk musicians. Modern-day advocates of Western classical music in Turkey include
Fazıl Say Fazıl Say (; born 14 January 1970 in Ankara) is a Turkish pianist and composer. Life and career Fazıl Say was born in 1970. His father, Ahmet Say was an author and musicologist. His mother, Gürgün Say was a pharmacist. His grandfather Fa ...
, İdil Biret,
Suna Kan Suna may refer to: People *Suuna I of Buganda, king of Buganda until 1609 * Suna II of Buganda, king of Buganda from 1836 until 1856 * Suna Kan (born 1936), Turkish violinist of classical music * Suna Kıraç (1941–2020), member of the Turkish K ...
and the Pekinel sisters.


Early Years of The Republic

After the
Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...
ended in 1923, and the borders were drawn, there was a social and political revolution under the leadership of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Repub ...
. This revolution opted to Westernize the way of living in Turkey. By 1929, all public and commercial communications were made in
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
, completely taking written
Ottoman Turkish language Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
out of circulation. A new constitution was written, one that was modeled after the French. This new constitution was designed to make the new
Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
into a secular, modern, nation-state. Every aspect of the revolution, from major policy changes to clothing reforms, was made in accordance with the
Kemalist Ideology Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Republic of Turkey.Eric J. Zurche ...
. All affairs were carried out followed by a chain of military command for the purpose of reaching the level of Western civilization. Both religious and Turkish classical music was impacted by this top to bottom revolution. On November 1, 1934 Atatürk made a speech in the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives ...
. Alaturca music was banned on radios, public places as well as private properties. Here is the excerpt from the speech, concerning Turkish music, "Folks, we all know how sensitive we, the Turkish, are towards the matters of our cultural legacy…. I am aware what kind of progress that my people want to see within fine arts delivered by the new generation of artists, and musicians. If you ask me, what would be most efficient and quick to tackle first within the fine arts is Turkish Music. The music we are made to listen to these days is far from being a point of pride for Turkish people. We must all know this. We must take our great nation's idioms, stories, experiences and compose them, but only complying to the general rules of music. I wish that the Ministry of Cultural Affairs take this matter seriously, and work alongside the law-makers of our country."TUNÇAY, Çağlar. "Musical Implementations of Atatürk's Term." 9 Eylül Üniversitesi, Atatürk İlkeleri Ve İnkılap, 2009, pp. 54–95. Right after this speech, on November 2, 1934, The Department of Publishing and Press banned Alaturca music, knowing what Mustafa Kemal meant when he said "… but only complying to the general rules of music…" was that the only acceptable type of music available to the public will be music following the principles of western tonal music. The Turkish composers, who were educated abroad in the beginning of the century and came back to Turkey, were assigned to teach classical Turkish musicians the western way of writing and playing music. The Presidential Symphony Orchestra, established back in 1924 started giving weekly free performances in schools specifying in Music Education. New instruments like pianos, trumpets, and saxophones were bought for cultural centers in villages, not just in Istanbul, but in many places like
Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...
,
Çorum Çorum () (Medieval Greek: Ευχάνεια, romanized: Euchaneia) is a northern Anatolian city that is the capital of the Çorum Province of Turkey. Çorum is located inland in the central Black Sea Region of Turkey, and is approximately from A ...
,
Gümüşhane Gümüşhane () is a city and the capital district of Gümüşhane Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The city lies along the Harşit River, at an elevation of , about southwest of Trabzon. According to the 2010 census, population of G ...
, and
Samsun Samsun, historically known as Sampsounta ( gr, Σαμψούντα) and Amisos ( Ancient Greek: Αμισός), is a city on the north coast of Turkey and is a major Black Sea port. In 2021, Samsun recorded a population of 710,000 people. The ci ...
. Along with the radical ideology change, and the sudden application of these new ideas came an obvious tear in the fabric of the society. People who couldn't listen to Turkish music on Turkish Radio sought out the next best thing and started listening to the Arabic Radio. There are records of Turkish people calling into
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
ian,
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a po ...
n, and
Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...
n radio stations requesting Turkish songs they were used to listening to, since The Middle East already consumed and re-created a lot of Turkish Music since the rise of the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in the middle of the millennium. Turkish people started listening to other nations' version of Turkish songs. This cleared the way for the Arabesque music to become hugely popular in the 70s. Today, there are still prolific and popular Arabesque musicians in Turkey. The ban in the early years of the Republic is exactly why Arabesque Music became a cultural phenomenon.


Folk music

Folk music or ''Türkü'' generally deals with subjects surrounding daily life in less grandiose terms than the love and emotion usually contained in its traditional counterpart, Ottoman court music. Most songs recount stories of real-life events and
Turkish folklore The tradition of folklore—folktales, jokes, legends, and the like—in the Turkish language is very rich, and is incorporated into everyday life and events. Turkish folklore Nasreddin Hoca Perhaps the most popular figure in the tradition i ...
, or have developed through song contests between troubadour poets., p 36 Corresponding to their origins, folk songs are usually played at weddings, funerals and special festivals. Regional folk music generally accompanies folk dances, which vary significantly across regions. For example, at marriage ceremonies in the Aegean guests will dance the Zeybek, while in other
Rumeli Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians from the Byzantine rite, was the name of a hist ...
regions the upbeat dance music Çiftetelli is usually played, and in the southeastern regions of Turkey the
Halay Halay is the national dance of Turkey and a regional category of folk dance styles in central, southern, eastern, and southeastern regions of the country. It is mainly performed by Turks, Arabs, and Kurds in Turkey. Halay and similar dances are ...
is the customary form of local wedding music and dance.
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
from
Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to th ...
and Cyprus that have adopted çiftetelli music sometimes use it synonymously to mean Oriental dance, which indicates a misunderstanding of its roots. Çiftetelli is a folk dance, differing from a solo performance dance of a hired entertainer. The regional mood also affects the subject of the folk songs, e.g. folk songs from the Black Sea are lively in general and express the customs of the region. Songs about betrayal have an air of defiance about them instead of sadness, whereas the further south travelled in Turkey the more the melodies resemble a
lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...
. As this genre is viewed as a music of the people, musicians in socialist movements began to adapt folk music with contemporary sounds and arrangements in the form of protest music. In the 70s and 80s, modern bards following the aşık tradition such as Aşik Veysel and Mahsuni Şerif moved away from spiritual invocations to socio-politically active lyrics. Other contemporary progenitors took their lead such as
Zülfü Livaneli Ömer Zülfü Livaneli (born 20 June 1946), is a Turkish musician, author, poet, and politician. Livaneli was imprisoned several times during the 1971 Turkish coup d'état because of his political views and had to leave Turkey in 1972 and went ...
, known for his mid-80s innovation of combining poet
Nazım Hikmet A nazim is the coordinator of a city or town in Pakistan. Nazim or variant spellings may also refer to: * Nazim (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Nazim (surname), including a list of people with the surname See also ...
's radical poems with folk music and rural melodies, and is well regarded by left-wing supporters in politics. In more recent times, saz orchestras, accompanied with many other traditional instruments and a merger with arabesque melodies have kept modern folk songs popular in Turkey.


Folk instruments

Folk instruments range from string groups as bağlama, bow instruments such as the
kemençe Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black ...
(a type of stave fiddle), and percussion and wind, including the
zurna The zurna ( Armenian: զուռնա zuṙna; Old Armenian: սուռնայ suṙnay; Albanian: surle/surla; Persian: karna/Kornay/surnay; Macedonian: зурла/сурла zurla/surla; Bulgarian: ''зурна/зурла''; Serbian: зурла/ ...
,
ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continual ...
and
davul The davul, dhol, tapan, atabal or tabl is a large double-headed drum that is played with mallets. It has many names depending on the country and region. These drums are commonly used in the music of the Middle East and the Balkans. These drums ...
. Regional variations place importance on different instruments, e.g. the
darbuka The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet-s ...
in
Rumeli Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians from the Byzantine rite, was the name of a hist ...
and the
kemençe Kemenche ( tr, kemençe) or Lyra is a name used for various types of stringed bowed musical instruments originating in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Armenia, Greece, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. and regions adjacent to the Black ...
around the Eastern Black Sea region. The folklore of Turkey is extremely diverse. Nevertheless, Turkish folk music is dominantly marked by a single musical instrument called saz or bağlama, a type of long-necked
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...
. Traditionally, saz is played solely by traveling musicians known as ''ozan'' or religious
Alevi Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, wh ...
troubadours called ''aşık''. The tradition of regional variations in the character of folk music prevails all around Anatolia and Thrace even today. The troubadour or minstrel (singer-poets) known as ''aşık'' contributed anonymously to this genre for ages. Due to the cultural crossbreeding prevalent during the Ottoman Empire, the bağlama has influenced various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, e.g. the Greek baglamas. In Turkish bağlamak means 'to tie' as a reference to the tied, movable frets of the instrument. Like many other plucked lutes, it can be played with a plectrum (i.e., pick), with a fingerpicking style, or strummed with the backs of fingernails. The
zurna The zurna ( Armenian: զուռնա zuṙna; Old Armenian: սուռնայ suṙnay; Albanian: surle/surla; Persian: karna/Kornay/surnay; Macedonian: зурла/сурла zurla/surla; Bulgarian: ''зурна/зурла''; Serbian: зурла/ ...
and
davul The davul, dhol, tapan, atabal or tabl is a large double-headed drum that is played with mallets. It has many names depending on the country and region. These drums are commonly used in the music of the Middle East and the Balkans. These drums ...
duo is also popular in rural areas, and played at
wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
s and other local celebrations.


Folk literature

A large body of folk songs are derived from minstrels or bard-poets called ''ozan'' in Turkish. They have been developing Turkish folk literature since the beginning of 11th century. The musical instrument used by these bard-poets is the saz or bağlama. They are often taught by other senior minstrels, learning expert idioms, procedures, and methods in the performance of the art. These lessons often take place at minstrel meetings and the
coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...
s they frequent. Those bard-poets who become experts or ''alaylı'' then take apprentices for themselves and continue the tradition. A minstrel's creative output usually takes two major forms. One, in musical rhyming contests with other bards, where the competition ends with the defeat of the minstrel who cannot find an appropriate quatrain to the rhyme and two, storytelling. These folk stories are extracted from real life, folklore, dreams and legends. One of the most well-known followings are those bards that put the title ''aşık'' in front of their names.


Arabesque

Arabic music had been banned in Turkey in 1948, but starting in the 1970s immigration from predominantly southeastern rural areas to big cities and particularly to Istanbul gave rise to a new cultural synthesis. This changed the musical makeup of Istanbul. The old tavernas and music halls of fasıl music were to shut down in place of a new type of music. These new urban residents brought their own taste of music, which due to their locality was largely middle eastern. Musicologists derogatively termed this genre as arabesque due to the high-pitched wailing that is synonymous with Arabic singing. Its mainstream popularity rose so much in the 1980s that it even threatened the existence of Turkish pop, with rising stars such as
Müslüm Gürses Müslüm Gürses (; 5 July 1953 – 3 March 2013), born Müslüm Akbaş and called Müslüm Baba (literally: ''Father'' ''Müslüm''), was a popular Turkish arabesque singer and actor. Personal life He was born on 7 May 1953 in an adobe hut in ...
and İbrahim Tatlıses. The genre has underbeat forms that include Ottoman forms of belly-dancing music known as ''fantazi'' from singers like Gülben Ergen and with performers like Serdar Ortaç who added Anglo-American
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
to arabesque music. It is not really accurate to group Arabesk with folk music. It owes little to folk music, and would be more accurately described as form of popular music based on the makam scales found in Ottoman and Turkish classical music. Though Arabesk was accused of having been derived from Arabic music, the scales (makam) used identify it as music, that, though influenced by both Arabic and Western music, is much more Turkish in origin.


Religious music


Islamic Recitation

"Islamic Recitation," a term associated with mainstream religion in Turkey, includes the ''azan'' (call-to-prayer), ''Kur'an-ı Kerim'' (Koran recitation), ''Mevlit'' (Ascension Poem), and ''ilahi'' (hymns usually sung in a group, often outside a mosque). On musical grounds, mosque music in large urban areas often resembles classical Turkish music in its learned use of makam and poetry, e.g., a Mevlit sung at Sultan Ahmet mosque in Istanbul. Dervish/Sufi music is rarely associated with a mosque. Kâni Karaca was a leading performer of mosque music in recent times.See the audio selection from Mevlit at External links below


Alevi influences: The Aşık (Ashik) traditions

It is suggested that about a fifth of the Turkish population are ''Alevis'', whose folk music is performed by a type of travelling bard or ''ozan'' called ''aşık'', who travels with the saz or baglama, an iconic image of Turkish folk music. These songs, which hail from the central northeastern area, are about mystical revelations, invocations to Alevi
saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
s and
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...
's son-in-law,
Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, whom they hold in high esteem. In Turkish aşık literally means 'in love'. Whoever follows this tradition has the ''Aşık'' assignation put before their names, because it is suggested that music becomes an essential facet of their being, for example as in Aşık Veysel. Middle Anatolia is home to the bozlak, a type of declamatory, partially improvised music by the bards. Neşet Ertaş has so far been the most prominent contemporary voice of Middle Anatolian music, singing songs of a large spectrum, including works of premodern Turkoman aşıks like Karacaoğlan and Dadaloğlu and the modern aşıks like his father, the late Muharrem Ertaş. Around the city of
Sivas Sivas (Latin and Greek: ''Sebastia'', ''Sebastea'', Σεβάστεια, Σεβαστή, ) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province. The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is a ...
, aşık music has a more spiritual bent, afeaturing ritualized song contests, although modern bards have brought it into the political arena.


Sufi influences: The Mevlevi traditions

Followers of the
Mevlevi The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya ( tr, Mevlevilik or Mevleviyye; fa, طریقت مولویه) is a Sufi order that originated in Konya (a city now in Turkey; formerly capital of the Seljuk Sultanate) and which was founded by the followers of Jala ...
Order or ''whirling dervishes'' are a religious ''sufi'' sect unique to Turkey but well known outside of its boundaries.
Dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage i ...
es of the Mevlevi sect simply dance a ''sema'' by turning continuously to music that consists of long, complex compositions called ''ayin''. These pieces are both preceded and followed by songs using lyrics by the founder and poet Mevlana Jelaleddin Rumi. With the musical instrument known as the
ney The ''ney'' ( fa, Ney/نی, ar, Al-Nāy/الناي), is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Persian music and Arabic music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. The ney has been played continual ...
at the forefront of this music, internationally well-known musicians include Necdet Yasar, Niyazi Sayin, Kudsi Ergüner and Ömer Faruk Tekbilek.


Regional folk styles

Minorities and indigenous peoples have added and enhanced Turkish folk styles, while they have adopted Turkish folk traditions and instruments. Folk songs are identifiable and distinguished by regions.


Aegean and Rumeli regions

Rumelia Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians from the Byzantine rite, was the name of a hist ...
(or '' Trakya'') refers to the region of Turkey which is part of
Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...
(the provinces of
Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...
,
Kırklareli Kırklareli () is a city within Kırklareli Province in the European part of Turkey. Name It is not clearly known when the city was founded, nor under what name. The Byzantine Greeks called it Sarànta Ekklisiès (''Σαράντα Εκκλησι ...
,
Tekirdağ Tekirdağ (; see also its other names) is a city in Turkey. It is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace. In 2019 the city's population was 204,001. Tekirdağ town is a commercial centre with a harbour ...
, the northern part of
Çanakkale Province Çanakkale Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northwestern part of the country. It takes its name from the city of Çanakkale. Like Istanbul, Çanakkale province has a European ( Thrace) and an Asian (Anatolia) part. The ...
and the western part of
Istanbul Province ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...
). Folk songs from this region share similarities with Balkan, Albanian and Greek folk musics, especially from the ethnic minorities and natives of
Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to th ...
. Cypriot folk music also shares folk tunes with this region, e.g. the Çiftetelli dance. These types of folk songs also share close similarities with Ottoman court music, suggesting that the distinction between court and folk music was not always so clear. However, folk songs from Istanbul may have been closely influenced by its locality, which would include Ottoman rakkas and court music. Cities like İzmir share similar motifs, such as the
zeybek dance The zeybek is a Turkish folk dance particular to much of Anatolia, named after the Zeybeks and related to the Greek dance zeibekiko. The dance is hierarchic, with a group of companions performing it while wearing a particular decorative costume a ...
.


Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions

Central Asian Turkic peoples from the
Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asi ...
and areas have had a huge influence in the purest forms of Turkish folk music, most notably from the Azeris and Turkmen.
Pontic Greeks The Pontic Greeks ( pnt, Ρωμαίοι, Ρωμίοι, tr, Pontus Rumları or , el, Πόντιοι, or , , ka, პონტოელი ბერძნები, ), also Pontian Greeks or simply Pontians, are an ethnically Greek group in ...
on the eastern shore of the Black Sea or ''Karadeniz'' regions have their own distinct
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
style of folk music, motifs from which were used with great success by
Helena Paparizou Helena Paparizou (; , ; born 31 January 1962) is a Swedish-born Greek singer, songwriter and television personality. Born and raised in Sweden to Greek parents, she enrolled in various arts schools before launching a career in Sweden in 1999 as ...
. The diaspora of Greek speaking Pontic people from that region introduced Pontic music to Greece after 1924 population exchange between Turkey and Greece. The region's dance style uses unique techniques like odd shoulder tremors and knee bends. Folk dances include the gerasari, trygona, kots, omal, serra,
kotsari Kochari (, , , , ) is a folk dance originating in the Armenian Highlands. It is performed today by Armenians, while variants are performed by Assyrians, Azerbaijanis (yalli, uchayag, and tello), Kurds (dilan, delîlo, and sêxanî), and Pontic ...
and tik.


Southeastern regions

Southeastern regions carry influences from Turkmen music, Zaza motifs and
Armenian music The music of Armenia ( hy, հայկական երաժշտություն ''haykakan yerazhshtut’yun'') has its origins in the Armenian highlands, dating back to the 3rd millennium BCE, and is a long-standing musical tradition that encompa ...
. These usually include epic laments.


Kanto (Cantare music)

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
theater and opera have had a profound effect on
Turkish culture The culture of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Kültürü) combines a heavily diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the various cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Caucasia, Middle East and Central Asia t ...
in the past century. Like the terminology of seamanship, the terminology of music and theater is derived from Italian. In the argot of the improvisational theater of Istanbul the stage was called " sahano", the backstage was referred to as " koyuntu", backdrops depicting countryside were "bosko", the applause was "furi" and the songs sung between the acts and plays were called "kanto". The improvised pieces were stage adaptations of the Karagöz (shadow puppet) and Ortaoyunu (traditional form of Turkish theatre performed in the open) traditions, although in a much more simplified form. The themes explored in these traditional theater arts as well as their stock characterizations and stereotypes were used as the framework for the new extemporaneous performances of the tuluat (improvised) theater. As with their Italian counterparts, the Turkish troupes employed songs and music before the show and between the acts to pique people's interest and draw in customers. Kanto: songs sung between the acts as solos or duets, based on traditional eastern makam (modes) but performed on western instruments. Kanto: "first the introduction, then the lyrics, shake your shoulders to a violin, solo, cock your head and shimmy in oriental dance style, leap around like a partridge, then slowly disappear behind the curtain." Kanto: the irreplaceable unifying feature of ali Turkish tuluat theater. We can divide kanto into two periods. The division, particularly in terms of musical structure, is very clear between the early kanto and the kanto of the Post-Republic period. It is further possible to identify two styles within the early period. Galata and Direklerarası (both neighbourhoods of Old Istanbul). Kanto first took root in the musical theaters of Galata, a part of town frequented by sailors, rowdies and roustabouts. Ahmed Rasim Bey paints a vivid picture of the Galata theaters in his 1922 memoir entitled ''Fuhş-i Atik'' (''Prostitution in the Old Days''): Direklerarası was a little off the beaten track and in comparison to Galata was a more refined center of entertainment. Direklerarası was said to be quite lively at night during the month of Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) and certainly once its attraction was its family atmosphere. It was here that the troupes of Kel Hasan and Abdi Efendi and later that of Neshid enjoyed a great popularity. It was under the influence of these masters that kanto experienced its golden years. The troupes orchestra would be made up of such instruments as the
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
,
trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...
,
violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
, trap drum and
cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...
s. The orchestra would start to play popular songs of the day and marches in front of the theatre about an hour before the show to drum up interest. This intermission or Antrak music ended up with the well-known Izmir March, a sign that the show time was approaching. The play began as the musicians went in and took their places at the side of the stage. The kanto singers of the period were also composers. Set to extraordinarily simple melodies which were the fashion of the day, the lyrics relied heavily of tensions between men and women as well as reflecting topical events. The compositions were in such fundamental
makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam spe ...
s as Rast, Hüzzam, Hicaz, Hüseyni and Nihavent. Kanto songs are remembered both by the names of their interpreters and by their creators, artists such as Peruz, Shamran, Kamelya, Eleni. Küçük and Büyük Amelya, Mari Ferha and Virjin. That kanto brought an erotic element to the stage performance was an important aspect and one that should not be overlooked or separated out. Art and cultural life gained new dimensions with the changes brought about by the 1923 formation of the Turkish Republic. It was a period of rapid transformation and its effects were widespread. Turkish women had finally won the freedom to appear on the stage, breaking the monopoly previously held by
Rûm Rūm ( ar, روم , collective; singulative: Rūmī ; plural: Arwām ; fa, روم Rum or Rumiyān, singular Rumi; tr, Rûm or , singular ), also romanized as ''Roum'', is a derivative of the Aramaic (''rhπmÈ'') and Parthian (''frwm'') ...
(Istanbul Greek) and
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
women who performed in musical and non-musical theatre. Institutions like Darulbedayi (Istanbul City Theatre) and Darulelhan (Istanbul Conservatory of Music) had long been turning out trained artists. Western lifestyles and Western-style art put pressure on the traditional Turkish formats and these were swept off to the side. The operetta, the tango, then later the Charleston and the
foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...
overshadowed kanto. Kanto's popularity began to fade, the city's centers of entertainment shifted, and the theaters of Galata and Direklerarası were closed down. Turkish female artists were unreceptive to kanto's inherent ribairy and chose to keep their distance from it. Around 1935, there was a revival of interest in the kanto form. Although rather far from its fundamental principles, a new type of kanto was once again popular. It is important to point out that kanto had now moved from the stage to the recording studio. While the subjects dealt with in the lyrics were still the same old quarrels between men and women, mixed in with satirical takes on fashion and current events, the songs were being written with the 78 rpm
phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
in mind. So much so that every record label hired their own kanto composers—and rather famous ones at that. With Columbia at the fore, record labels commissioned kanto from Kaptanzade Ali Rıza Bey, Refik Fersan, Dramalı Hasan, Sadettin Kaynak, Cümbüş Mehmet and Mildan Niyazi Bey. The makams were the same but the instrumentation had changed. Kanto were now accompanied by cümbüş (a fretlees banjo like instrument) the ud (a fretless) lute, and calpara (castenets).
Foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a tim ...
, Charleston and
rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba ...
rhythms dominated. The tunes were being written and sung more tor listening than tor dancing. Female soloists include Makbule Enver, Mahmure, and Neriman; Beşiktaşlı Kemal Senman was the most sought after male singer for duets. Among the topics explored by the new kantocu (singer or composer of kanto) perhaps the most frequent subject of satire was the new role of women brought about by the formation of the Republic. Songs like Sarhoş Kızlar (Drunken Girls) or Şoför Kadınlar (Women Drivers) were sung seemingly in revenge for all the suffering they had endured at the hands of men in the past. Other topical songs include Daktilo (The Typewriter) which brought to mind the newly formed Secretaires 7 Society. Songs such as Bereli Kız (The Girl with the Beret) and Kadın Asker Olursa (If Women Were Soldiers) were full of mockery and ridicule. The early period kanto were largely nourished by Istanbul culture. It was much the same in the Post-Republican period. The city's large and diverse population provided both the characters and the events that were the mainstay of kanto. Kanto was heavily influenced by musical theatre. Roman (gypsy) music and culture, which was itself the subject of satire, left its mark on kanto form. Another major influence was Rum music. The importance of the Istanbul Rum, who were so fond of entertainment and of singing and playing, must not be underestimated. It is a natural and inevitable result of cultural exchange. As it was, almost all the kanto singers were either Rum or Armenian, artists like Pepron, Karakas,
Haim The name ''Haim'' can be a first name or surname originating in the Hebrew language, or deriving from the Old German name ''Haimo''. Hebrew etymology Chayyim ( he, חַיִּים ', Classical Hebrew: , Israeli Hebrew: ), also transcribed ''Haim ...
, Samran and Peruz who performed during the period following 1903. Eventually kanto became more of a definition, a generalized genre than a musical term. Any tune that was outside of the day's musical conventions, anything light that appealed to current trends and tastes, was labeled kanto. Any music played with different instruments that was free rhythmic or somehow novel was labeled kanto; it was the product of the middie-class, urban culture of Istanbul. Kanto has been viewed as a forerunner of today's pop culture.


Popular music

Popular music is distinguished from the traditional genres as those styles that entered the Turkish musicality after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, either due to attempts of national modernization from 1924 onwards, the opening of the republic to Western musical influences or modern fusions and innovations from artists themselves.


Mainstream pop

Turkish pop music had its humble beginnings in the late 1950s with Turkish cover versions of a wide range of imported popular styles, including
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
,
tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combinat ...
, and
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...
. As more styles emerged, they were also adopted, such as hip hop, heavy metal and reggae. The self-named "superstar" of the "arrangement" (aranjman) era of the 70s was
Ajda Pekkan Ayşe Ajda Pekkan (; born 12 February 1946) is a Turkish singer. She is known by the title "superstar" in the Turkish media. Pekkan became a prominent figure of Turkish pop music with her songs, in which she tried to create a strong female figure ...
who also debuted, along with
Enrico Macias Gaston Ghrenassia (born 11 December 1938), known by his stage name Enrico Macias, is an Algerian-French singer, songwriter and musician of Algerian Jewish descent. Early years Gaston Ghrenassia was born to a Sephardic Algerian Jewish family i ...
, at Olympia,
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, while MFÖ (Mazhar, Fuat, Özkan) was the celebrated group of the pop scene with an outstanding dexterity in their use of Turkish prosody and their success of amalgamating Western and Turkish cultural ingredients and perspectives. Also one of the most renowned Turkish pop stars of the last decades is probably
Sezen Aksu Sezen Aksu (; born Fatma Sezen Yıldırım; 13 July 1954) is a Turkish pop music singer, songwriter and producer who has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her nicknames include the "Queen of Turkish Pop" and "''Minik Serçe''" ("Little Spar ...
. She contributed considerably to the unique Turkish pop sound of this period, allowing it gain ground from its humble beginnings in the early 50s and 60s to the popular genre it is today. She was also one of the strongest advocates for Turkey to enter the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...
. Her one-time vocalist and later protégé
Sertab Erener Sertab Erener (born 4 December 1964) is a Turkish singer, songwriter and composer. With her coloratura soprano voice, she started working as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu, and with Aksu's help she released her first studio album in the 1990s ...
won the contest in 2003. The biggest male pop stars in Turkey are arguably Tarkan,
Mustafa Sandal Mustafa Sandal (born 11 January 1970) is a Turkish singer-songwriter. At the beginning of the 1990s, he wrote and composed a number of songs for other singers and made a reputation for himself in the music industry. In 1994, with the release of h ...
and
Kenan Doğulu Kenan Doğulu (; born 31 May 1974) is a Turkish pop musician. He represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, where he was placed fourth, with 163 points. In the summer of 2006, Doğulu released the album ''Festival'', c ...
. Tarkan achieved chart success in Europe and
Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
with his single " Şımarık", also composed by Sezen Aksu, which has been covered by numerous artists. Mustafa Sandal has also enjoyed chart success in Europe with his 2005 single " İsyankar", which peaked at number 4 and went
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile m ...
.


Turkish hip hop

Turkish hip hop or ''
oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
hip hop'' is a creation of the Turkish
migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers who work outsi ...
community in Germany, which some suggest was a suitable outlet for a young generation disillusioned with Germany's treatment of its migrant class. In 1995, the Turkish-German community produced a major hip hop crew named
Cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mo ...
which caused controversy in Turkey and Germany for its revolutionary lyrics. Hip hop now enjoys wide popularity among the younger generation in Turkey.
Ceza Bilgin Özçalkan (; born 31 December 1976), also known by his stage name Ceza (, Turkish for 'punishment'), is a Turkish rapper and songwriter. Early works In 1995, Özçalkan started a group called U.C.S and performed with this group until ...
, Dr.Fuchs (formerly "Nefret") and Sagopa Kajmer, Sansar Salvo, Pit10, Şehinşah, Hayki, Saian, Allâme are popular figures of contemporary rap music in Turkey.


Anatolian rock

The Turkish rock scene began in the mid- to late 1960s, when popular
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...
bands became well-known. Soon, a distinctively Turkish fusion of rock and folk emerged; this was called Anatolian rock, a term which nowadays may be generically ascribed to most of Turkish rock. Barış Manço, Cem Karaca and Erkin Koray are the best known performers; Moğollar and Kurtalan Ekspres are the best known groups of older classical Anatolian rock music.


Islamic anasheed

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
ic anasheed are also very popular among some of the Turkish people. The most popular artist in Turkey is the British Azeri,
Sami Yusuf Sami Yusuf (born 21 July 1980) is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He gained international attention with the release of his debut album, '' Al-Muʽallim'', in 2003. As of 2020, he has released eight studio al ...
, a concert in
Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...
drew an audience of over 200,000, his biggest concert so far around the world. He is one of the most notable singers of anasheed, and can speak in many different languages, which includes Turkish. To date he has performed at sell out concerts in over 30 countries across the world from Istanbul to Casablanca, United States to Germany. Some albums selling more than a million copies in comparison to western music. In Jan 2009 Sami travelled to Turkey where he was invited by Emine Erdoğan, wife of the Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to ...
, to attend a rally in support of peace in Gaza. Another popular Turkish singer is Feridun Özdemir, who mainly sings of God and true faith. His records are most successful in the anasheed genre.


Heavy metal and industrial

Heavy metal and industrial groups from Turkey include Pentagram (known as Mezarkabul outside Turkey) and Almora. Individual musicians in these genres include Ogün Sanlısoy and Hayko Cepkin.


Underground black metal and death metal

Underground black metal and death metal bands known from Turkey are Witchtrap, Ehrimen, Satanized, Godslaying Hellblast, Burial Invocation, Deggial, Decaying Purity.


Turkish Trance

Trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
is a rare musical genre in
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
but it also has specific listeners. This genre gained when the first Turkish trance music composed by Murtaza Khojami and the song named for ''Yalnızlık Düşünceler'' with mixed criticism.


Pop-rock and rock

As a singular phenomenon amidst popular currents since the mid-1970s, Bülent Ortaçgil appeared as an urban songwriter/musician with a distinct musical quality, and became a role model for aspiring young musicians. He was the only Turkish musician for whom a tribute album was compiled that included several prominent performers from a wide gamut of different genres. Other recent rock bands with a more Western sound who have enjoyed mainstream success include
maNga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...
, Duman and Mor ve Ötesi. Şebnem Ferah, Özlem Tekin and Teoman are examples of individual rock artists with substantial fan bases. Turkey also boasts numerous large-scale
rock festival A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having a campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at the venue. Some festivals are singular even ...
s and events. Annual rock festivals in Turkey include Barışarock, H2000 Music Festival, Rock'n Coke, and RockIstanbul.


Underground and club music

There are many clubs across Turkey, especially across its Aegean region. The alternative music scene however is derived mostly from Istanbul's thriving underground club scene that sees DJs merging the past with the present, using traditional motifs with new age sounds and electronic music.
Mercan Dede Mercan Dede (born Arkın Ilıcalı, 1966), also known as DJ Arkin Allen, is a Turkish-Canadian composer, ney and bendir player, DJ, and producer. He is a world music artist, playing a fusion of traditional acoustic Turkish and other oriental ...
is one of Turkey's most successful DJs, mixing trance with historical and mystic
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
songs. Another worldwide recognized name from the underground music scene of Turkey is
Mert Yücel Mert Yücel is a Turkish electronic music producer from Istanbul. At the age of 22, Yücel produced the first house music album released in Turkey. He his career singles have included; "Dreamer", released on US and UK labels including Baroque Re ...
. Yücel was responsible for the first
house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...
album to be released in Turkey. He also had worldwide acclaimed and respected releases on US and UK dance labels. He is one of the key names defining the underground house sound emerging from Istanbul.


Musical influence of Syrian refugees and other immigrants

The influx of immigrants and refugees from
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
,
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
,
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
, Central Asian, and African countries has affected the Turkish musical landscape, particularly in
Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...
. Bands such as Country for Syria, and Saktat explicitly blend the music of different refugee communities in Istanbul to create a mix of Turkish, Arab, Greek, Persian, and Western influences.
Busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...
has played an important role in the development of this style.


Music industry

The Turkish music industry includes a number of fields, ranging from record companies to radio stations and community and state orchestras. Most of the major record companies are based in Istanbul's region of ''Unkapanı'' and they are represented by the ''Turkish Phonographic Industry Society'' (MÜ-YAP). They are part of the IFPI National group. The first long-term punishment for piracy distribution had been handed out in 2006. The major record companies produce material by artists that have signed to one of their
record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produc ...
s, a
brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
often associated with a particular genre or
record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
. Record companies may also promote and market their artists, through advertising, public performances and concerts, and television appearances. In recent years, the music industry has been embroiled in turmoil over the rise of the Internet downloading of copyrighted music and general piracy; many musicians and MÜ-YAP have sought to punish fans who illegally download copyrighted music. On 13 June 2006 it was reported that MÜ-YAP and The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, had reached an agreement on digital global distribution, representing approximately 80% of the Turkish music market. There is not a substantial singles market in Turkey. It is album orientated, although popular singers such as Yonca Evcimik and Tarkan have released singles with success. Most music charts not related to album sales, measure popularity by music video feedback and radio airplay. Turkish radio stations often broadcast popular music. Each music station has a format, or a category of songs to be played; these are generally similar to but not the same as ordinary generic classification. With the introduction of commercial radio and television in the early 1990s ending the
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
of the
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio ...
(TRT), a multitude of radio and TV stations were opened by
newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports an ...
media moguls. These media chains sponsor award ceremonies such as the ''Kral TV'' awards for music, but most accredited music awards are based on sales given out by industry societies such as MÜ-YAP and the Magazine Journalists Society (MJS). Though major record companies dominate the Turkish industry, an independent music industry (''indie music'') does exist. Indie music is mostly based around local record labels with limited, if any, retail distribution outside a small region. Artists sometimes record for an indie label and gain enough acclaim to be signed to a major label; others choose to remain at an indie label for their entire careers. Indie music may be in styles generally similar to mainstream music, but is often inaccessible, unusual or otherwise unappealing to many people. Indie musicians often release some or all of their songs over the Internet for fans and others to download and listen to. Perhaps the most successful Turkish name associated with indie music outside of Turkey is Ahmet Ertegun of
Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most ...
. His promotion of some of the most famous R&B and soul artists in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...
and his contribution to the American
music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
has earned a place in
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...
, together with his brother Nesuhi.


Music education

Music has a place in
education in Turkey Education in Turkey is governed by a national system which was established in accordance with the Atatürk's Reforms. It is a state-supervised system designed to produce a skillful professional class for the social and economic institutes of the ...
, and is a part of most or all school systems in the country. High schools generally offer classes in singing, mostly choral, and instrumentation in the form of a large
school band A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. A concert band is usually under the direction of one or more conductors (band directors). A school band consists of woodwind instruments, bras ...
or social clubs and communities for Turkish classical or folk music, known as . Music may also be a part of theatrical productions put on by a school's drama department. Many public and private schools have sponsored music clubs and groups, most commonly including the
marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...
that performs ''Mehter'' marches at school festivals. However, class time given to music in schools is restricted, and a large proportion of Turkish children and adults seem to have limited musical ability, e.g. they are unable to join a melody singing at the same pitch. Higher education in the field of music in Turkey is mostly based around large
universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
, connected to state music
academies An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
and conservatories. A conservatory is usually a department of a university, not a separate institution. While many students join conservatories at the usual university entrance age, some conservatories also include a 'Lise' (Lycee), in effect a specialist music school for children aged 14 to 18 years. Conservatories often have a
musicology Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
department, and do research on many styles of music especially the Turkish traditional genres, while also keeping a database of sounds in their sound libraries.


Holidays and festivals

Music is an important part of several Turkish holidays and festivals, especially playing a major part in the springtime celebration of Newroz and religious festivities such as
Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. C ...
. New year is a traditional time for the belly dancer and weddings are celebrated with upbeat tunes, while funerals are mourned with musical laments. Patriotic songs like the national anthem, " The Independence March", are a major part of public holiday celebrations such as National Independence & International Children's Day celebrations on 23 April and 30 August Victory Day celebrations, a holiday that marks Turkish independence. Music also plays a role at many regional festivals that aren't celebrated nationwide, for example a music and dance parade and festival in
Zonguldak Zonguldak () is a city and the capital of Zonguldak Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It was established in 1849 as a port town for the nearby coal mines in Ereğli and the coal trade remains its main economic activity. According to the ...
. Istanbul,
Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...
and İzmir are also home to numerous
music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or hol ...
s which showcase styles ranging from the blues and jazz to indie rock and heavy metal. Some music festivals are strictly local in scope, including few or no performers with a national reputation, and are generally operated by local promoters. Recently large soft drink companies have operated their own music festivals, such as Rock'n Coke and
Fanta Fanta is an American-owned German brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as ...
parties, which draw huge crowds.


See also

* List of Turkish composers *
Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest Turkey has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 34 times since its debut in 1975. Since the introduction of the semi-finals in , Turkey has only failed to qualify for the final once, in . Turkey won the contest once in , and hosted the co ...
* Türkvizyon Song Contest 2013 * List of music festivals in Turkey *
List of Turkish musicians A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
* List of Turks in world culture *
Erkan Oğur Erkan Oğur (pronounced ) (born April 17, 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.Martinelli, op. cit.Unfretted, op. cit. A composer, he has influenced many musicians wit ...
* Cem Tuncer *
Mercan Dede Mercan Dede (born Arkın Ilıcalı, 1966), also known as DJ Arkin Allen, is a Turkish-Canadian composer, ney and bendir player, DJ, and producer. He is a world music artist, playing a fusion of traditional acoustic Turkish and other oriental ...
* Baba Zula * Wojciech Bobowski * Arif Mardin * Ahmet Ertegun *
Nesuhi Ertegun Nesuhi Ertegun ( Turkish spelling: Nesuhi Ertegün; November 26, 1917 – July 15, 1989) was a Turkish-American record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International. Early life Born in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, Nesuhi ...
* Emre Araci * Oruç Güvenç * Gülçin Yahya Kaçar


Notes and references


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


: Turkish music performed by Hungarian musicians, Budapest



Turkish music performed by Hungarian musicians, Budapest

''Turkish Music Quarterly'' print journal contents

BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Selim Sesler, troubadour songs and an Alevi ceremony.
Accessed November 25, 2010.
BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Aynur, Erkan Ogur, Kirike and Rembetiko.
Accessed November 25, 2010. *
Audio clips: Traditional music of Turkey.
Musée d'ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.
Turkish Music Portal
All about Turkish Music


Crossing The Bridge: Sounds from Istanbul

Turkish Music and Voice Library

Music
at the Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative
Ney Making House Web Site

Turkish Clarinet Music

Golden Horn Records

Turkish Musical Instruments Shop

Insomnia Radio: Turkiye (Turkish Indie Music Available in English & Turkish)

Turkey Music Listings


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080513024050/http://musicalconfrontations.com/MC5/wlc/mcb/cul/mim/mfl/mtm/foc/foc0000000001.htm Field music of the Ottoman Court and Europe
''Mevlit'' "''Merhaba bahrı''" excerpt sung by Kâni Karaca



Feza Neverd
Interesting instrumental music composed by Mehmet Gencler
Comprehensive Turkish Music Video Archive
*
Anthology of Turkish Piano Music, Vol. I
' on SheetMusicPlus.com *
Anthology of Turkish Piano Music, Vol. II
' on SheetMusicPlus.com *
Anthology of Turkish Piano Music, Vol. III
' on SheetMusicPlus.com
Rock Music Turkey

Turkish Top 20
{{Music of Europe Turkish