–C–D); kerem and derbeder use
non-tempered diatonic intervals indicated with an asterisk A–B*–C–D and
A–B*–C–D* respectively), and garip has an augmented 2nd (A–B–C
–D). (Non-tempered intervals are discussed
below, §IV, 2.)Republic of (Turk. Türkiye Çumhuriyeti). Country in the Middle East. With a total area of 779,452 km2, 95% of the republic is located in Asia Minor (Asia), while 5% is in eastern Thrace (Europe). The population of 65·73 million (2000 estimate) is 99% Muslim, the majority being Sunnis.
Emigrants turn first to songs, instrumental pieces and dances learnt in Turkey, playing bağlama lute, frame drum with jingles (def or daire) and goblet drum (deblek or darabuka). In the course of time, they add European instruments: violin, guitar and side-blown flute. Other traditional Turkish instruments are increasingly popular, perhaps through nostalgia: the shepherd's pipe (kaval), the short oboe (mey) with a dark sound, originally played only in north-eastern Turkey, and the end-blown bamboo flute (ney) once typical of religious and art music.
The addition of a double bass or cello and the almost inevitable keyboard (or more rarely an accordion) entails crucial steps towards polyphony (çok sesli müzik). Microtones are gradually omitted and the use of modal scales and traditional makam pieces becomes less common. Major and minor keys begin to predominate, asymmetrical rhythms are simplified or converted to regular metres, texts are revised, and old forms such as the uzun hava (see §II, 1 above) are simplified. However, native Turkish melodies remain to the fore.
This phase is followed by a mingling of musical styles without any predominant element. The musicians have learnt European notation and theory, but still regard their music as traditional. A male or female singer takes the leading role, and ensembles include traditional instruments, as well as the flamenco guitar or Arab goblet drum (dombak). Melodies may contain Turkish, Central European, Spanish and even Indian or Chinese elements. At rehearsals, performers skilfully create original new pieces that transcend regional boundaries.
This tradition (see §II above) flourishes more among emigrants than in Turkey itself. This is possibly because emigrants need to express stronger social criticisms than would be possible at home. Textual content is adapted to new circumstances: poets compose many songs of sorrowful exile (gurbet), and political songs about minorities such as the Kurds are also seen as very relevant.
Aşık poets almost all belong to the Alevi/Bektaşi religious sect. Their music is essentially unchanged. They sing in private circles and public performances, and their religious ceremonies (cem) are always lavish with musical accompaniment. Outside Turkey the cem is celebrated publicly and on a large scale, aiming to spread knowledge of an originally secret religious sect.
This ensemble (fig.3) is strongly linked to its traditional function, playing at weddings, circumcisions and social gatherings in hired halls. The large drum is often replaced by the softer-sounding, smaller koltuk davulu (‘hand drum’) held in the lap and beaten with the hands on one side only. The clarinet often replaces the zurna, which is difficult to play.
Since about 1980 Turks in Germany have attempted to revive the old, élite Turco-Ottoman art music with concerts of songs by well-known composers. They strive to reproduce the music as faithfully as possible, but as amateurs they lack profound knowledge of the makams, metrical cycles and performing practice, not following the cyclical fasıl form or adhering to the prescribed unity of a particular makam.
Inspired by the efforts of Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar to reconcile very different musical traditions, Turkish emigrants have attempted to create links between Turkish and Western music. A good example is Carlo Domeniconi's double concerto in classical sonata form for bağlama, guitar and orchestra, Concerto di Berlinbul (1990). The Turco-European art music popular in Turkey itself occupies a subordinate place in emigrant cultures.
Arabesk music (see §V, 3 above) is still very popular with young emigrants. Groups perform rock and pop musics at weddings and ceremonies for circumcision, betrothal and prenuptial henna parties. A male or female singer is accompanied by guitar, electric guitar, percussion, drums, keyboard and bağlama. Underlying Western harmonies are adapted to Turkish style. New texts are composed by the musicians themselves or by older or contemporary aşık poets. Rap and hip hop are popular among various right-wing or left-wing political groups. This music is suitable for expressing discrimination against first- and second-generation emigrants and their identity problems. Messages are hammered home in short repetitive phrases in Turkish, German or English, to varied music styles, Turkish, Western or a mixture of the two.
(For a theoretical survey of diaspora music see Diaspora.)
KURT REINHARD/MARTIN STOKES (1–4), MARTIN STOKES (5), URSULA REINHARD (6).
The music practised in what is now Turkey has manifold roots. For the pre-Islamic period see Anatolia. Following the Arab conquests of the region in the 8th century, Near Eastern music history became closely intertwined with that of the Arabs and Persians (see Arab music. In the 11th century, groups of Turks made their way westwards from Central Asia, occupying virtually all of Anatolia and founding the Seljuk dynasty. The Turks’ adoption of Islam contributed to a cultural metamorphosis. The development of Turkish art music was further affected by impulses from Persian and, above all, Byzantine culture. Over the centuries, urban and rural Turkish music forms disseminated through the Near East and Balkans; this is especially evident in the present-day musical practice of rural Greece.
Through the frequent association of Near Eastern music with the Arabs and Persians, the Turks have often been considered not to have an independent style. This is partly because theoretical treatises on music (as on all subjects) were generally written either in Arabic or Persian, even if their authors were Turkish. The Arabic form of personal names has also served to obscure contributions by non-Arabs, e.g. the composer, performer and theorist ‘Abd al-Qādir [ibn Ghaybī al-marāghī] (Turkish spelling: Abdülkadir Meragi), one of the most influential theorists of the Systematist school (see Arab music, §I, 2(iii)(a)). Turkish was his mother tongue, and he is traditionally considered a founding father of Turkish music.
Anatolian Turks played a leading role in the musical life of the Ottoman empire (see Ottoman music), which dominated most of the Near East and the Balkans from 1453 until the mid-19th century. This important epoch of musical activity culminated in the ‘Tulip period’ (‘Lale Devri’: 1718–30), with its elaborate artistic harem culture. In Ottoman society trained slave-girls (odalık or odalisk) were significant as instrumentalists, singers and dancers.
The numerous reciprocal influences that developed over several centuries make it impossible to give a precise date for the beginning of an independent, indigenous Turkish musical life in Anatolia, particularly with regard to Turkish art music. The Mevlevi order of Sufis (‘Whirling Dervishes’) was founded in the 13th century in Konya, in Central Anatolia, by the mystic Celaleddin Rumi (Arabic spelling: Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī). This order began cultivating art music no later than the circumscription of their ritual by Celaleddin’s son, Sultān Veled (1226–1312). Two especially old pieces, a peşrev and a saz semaisi, which have survived until the present, are ascribed to Sultān Veled. Should this ascription prove to be correct, the two most important contemporary instrumental forms in Turkish art music already existed by about 1300.
However, the overall form of contemporary Turkish art music, with its characteristic melodic and rhythmic modes, formal and modulatory schemes, and succession of instrumental pieces, taksim improvisations and song forms, began to emerge in the mid-17th century. During this period Ottoman song and instrumental collections began to reflect the musical life of Istanbul, the Ottoman capital, and not that of Arab and Persian poets, composers and theorists known to have been active elsewhere. The history of contemporary Turkish art music properly begins only in that period (see §IV below).
Given the centuries of cultural interchange, it is impossible to assess the impact of interaction with Arab and Balkan peoples. It is also difficult to identify the origin of any specific features within Turkish music today. Inner Asian elements can be recognized within Turkish folk music, as can influences of other peoples with whom the Turks came into contact in the course of their early migrations. Generally speaking, it is apparent that the Turks never fully adopted the melodic and vocally conceived music of their Arab neighbours. The evidence lies in the abstract forms of melodic development found in Turkish urban art music songs, the prevalence of pentatonicism, use of drones, occasional uses of polyphony and the importance of purely instrumental forms in some rural folk music.
For many Turkish musicologists, the distinction between rural ‘folk’ (halk) and urban ‘art’ (sanat) music is axiomatic: the former is considered to reflect the culture of the Turks’ Central Asian homeland, while the latter is considered to reflect the cosmopolitan culture of the urban Near East. Under the impetus of nationalist modernism, from the establishment of the republic in 1923, rural music was systematically privileged as the basis for a contemporary Westernized national musical culture, and urban music was condemned for its association with the hybrid and ‘Islamic’ cosmopolitanism of the Ottomans. (For a broad discussion of these issues see Central asia, §II, 1.)
The systematic elevation of rural folk music (halk) was initiated with archival collection. This was undertaken by scholars connected with the Istanbul Conservatory in a series of trips between 1924 and 1932, with the aid of a phonograph. The Ankara State Conservatory subsequently initiated its own programme of collection and archival documentation under Muzaffer Sarısözen. Béla Bartók was invited to conduct field research by the Ankara Halkevi (‘People’s House’) in 1936. These rather varied approaches to collection and archival documentation began to find a powerful institutional focus in the Turkish Radio station from 1937, and later the Turkish Radio and Television. Media reproduction of rural folk music was shaped by Muzaffer Sarısözen’s Yurttan Sesler (‘Voices from the Homeland’) choir at the Turkish Radio, which reformulated this collected material for performance by large choirs and orchestras. Sarısözen’s choir had a major impact on musical life in the country.
In large and provincial cities, folk music clubs (dernek or cemiyet) teach the reformulated folk music style to newly arrived rural migrants as well as young urbanites, both male and female. A class of specialist professionals has emerged, most notably the bağlama player, Arif Sağ. They draw on rural musical culture and mediate this style through cassettes and live performances at concerts and weddings across the country. Their mass-media omnipresence has been profoundly significant in rural regions. These factors make it impossible to talk about contemporary Turkish folk music as though it existed in isolated pockets of countryside. Rather, it is the product of movement between village and city.
The folk genres described below is performed by a variety of people. Rural professionals are often but not exclusively Gypsies, known to non-Gypsies as çingene or, in cities (especially Istanbul), as Roma. Both these terms are derogatory and, as elsewhere, Gypsies are treated as low-status outsiders. In south-western Turkey their women are also professional musicians (fig.1).
Semi-professional folk poets are an important class of performer, wandering through the countryside and performing at festivities. The aşık poets (Arab. and Per. ‘āshiq: ‘lover’) improvise new songs drawn from traditional material, accompanying themselves on the Bağlama (long-necked lute). Many belong to the Shi‘a Alevi sect, as did the famous 17th-century aşık Pir Sultan Abdal, and the religious essence of many of their songs is veiled in mystical language. The last important exponent was the blind singer Aşık Veysel (d 1973). Epic singers (ozan) recite legendary stories (halk hikayeleri), inserting songs with their own lute accompaniment. Many of their stories are of considerable age; others were written as recently as the 19th century. The best-known epic is that of the noble bandit Köroğlu (‘son of the blind man’), who supposedly lived in the 16th century and rose up against his lord to help the poor. (For ‘aşık or āshiq folk poets see also Iran, 4(ii); Azerbaijan.)
Amateur men, women and children perform music at social gatherings throughout the country. Rural festivities, especially weddings and circumcisions, provide the most significant opportunity for music-making, and traditional tea and coffee houses are another context. In rural areas women seldom sing in public places. They sing chiefly indoors, even on festive occasions, and most readily allow themselves to be heard while performing laments (ağıt).
Many musical characteristics of the rural genre are shared by the substantial Kurdish population in Turkey. As a result of persistent efforts on the part of the Turkish state to assimilate this population, information on Kurdish music in Turkey is sparse (see Kurdish music). Rural Kurdish musical expression has been heavily influenced by the Turkish Radio and Television and the popular market, both of which have done a great deal to popularize songs originally collected in Kurdish from south-eastern Turkey.
Generally speaking, in Turkish folk music several people sing or play instruments together, performing heterophonically. Instrumental preludes and interludes are often improvised. The folk styles of almost all Turkish provinces are very similar. Striking peculiarities are found only on the eastern Black Sea coast, chiefly in the repertory of the kemençe (spike fiddle) and tulum (bagpipe) and in the region’s lively dance tempos.
Turkish
folk music is predominantly heptatonic, but often concentrated around a
tetrachord. Four specific tetrachords are identified within modal structures
referred to as ayak (‘foot’ or ‘step’). Ayak (or ayağı)
is used to distinguish folk modes from art music modes known as makam
(with an overlapping meaning of ‘place’, ‘rank’). These ayak modal
structures have technical names known to some rural musicians and to
musicologists associated with the state-reformed folk music tradition. They are
called bozlak, kerem, derbeder and garip. Bozlak
involves diatonic intervals (A–B–C–D); kerem and derbeder use
non-tempered diatonic intervals indicated with an asterisk A–B*–C–D and
A–B*–C–D* respectively), and garip has an augmented 2nd (A–B–C–D). (Non-tempered intervals are discussed
below, §IV, 2.)
Many folksongs have been known for generations, and some are sung throughout Turkey. Talented singers also continue to create new songs, especially love songs and laments to suit particular situations. They use traditional, but ever-varied melodic patterns and draw on the innumerable and characteristic textual formulae of their picturesque folk poetry.
Songs are often sung unaccompanied, but singers also accompany themselves on a type of lute: bağlama or, among Black Sea communities, the Karadeniz kemençesi. Songs are divided into two contrasting styles: uzun hava (‘long melody’) and kırık hava (‘shattered melody’). Uzun hava are rhythmically free songs with broad, descending melodic lines, rich in ornaments. Long, pulsated notes are often inserted, notably at the beginning and end of the melody. The songs of the semi-professional and epic singers are performed in similar fashion. The bozlak, usually love songs, and ağıt, songs of complaint, particularly laments for the dead, belong to this group (fig.2). Both types are constructed of lines with gradually descending tessituras (ex.1). In the bozlak and uzun hava the text syllables are often concentrated at the beginning, middle or end of the melodic lines, so remaining melodic sections can be more intensely ornamented with melismas. The kırık hava presumably derives its name from the idea that the melodic line does not possess the dignified, cohesive contour of the uzun hava, but rather is ‘shattered’ in that there is little ornamentation and melisma, the range is smaller than in uzun hava, the metre is always strict, and the text is set syllabically. Kırık hava are almost always dance-songs.
The song texts, which can be coupled with all types of melody, demonstrate the high development of Turkish folk poetry. Their fundamental principle of construction, in contrast with the poetical art forms adopted from the Persians and Arabs, is the number of syllables to a line: for the most part, lines have seven, eight or 11 syllables. Poems with seven-syllable lines are almost exclusively found in dance-songs. Eight-syllable lines are commonly found in laments (as in ex.1). Almost all uzun hava, the bozlak and narrative songs have 11-syllable lines. Certain internal line structures are maintained throughout single stanzas or entire songs, for example the grouping of eight-syllable lines into words with 3 + 3 + 2 syllables, with matching accent distribution. Stanzas often have four lines but can have more, and refrains can be added at the end or accommodated between lines. The number of stanzas is not fixed; songs with three or four stanzas predominate but there are cases, for example ballads (destan), where the text requires up to 50 stanzas. Rhyme schemes occur in various combinations. Although there are no strict rules, the sequence AABA is frequent among eight-syllable lines, and those with 11 syllables often close with the sequence AAAB.
The various folksong genres differ mainly in the structure and theme of their texts. The türkü, with seven-, eight- and 11-syllable lines, are selected for love songs and for narratives of everyday life. They frequently include meaningless syllables, thus stressing the dominant role of the music. Türkü also became the collective designation for all types of folksong. The koşma (Per. qoshma), with 11-syllable lines, include love songs and songs describing nature. They are in the rhyme scheme AAAB and all stanzas end with the same rhyme. Destan (Per. dāstān) are ballads with seven- or eight-syllable lines; their rhyme scheme, and the fact that the poet mentions his own name in the last stanza, are common to both destan and koşma. (For qoshma and dāstān, see Iran, §II, 4(i) and (ii) respectively.) Mani were once extremely popular folksongs and are often still found. They consist of quatrains with seven syllables to each line and the rhyme scheme AABA. The improvised texts are sung by two poets in a type of antiphony, each poet singing an alternate stanza.
The most important musical instruments of the folk tradition are the darbuka (also known as deblek and dümbelek), a single-headed goblet-shaped drum struck with both hands as an accompaniment to dancing; the def, a single-headed frame drum with metal discs, and the davul (fig.3), a bass drum whose two heads are stretched over hoops and laced to each other along the body. The kaval, an open end-blown shepherd’s flute formerly found primarily among nomads, is steadily being supplanted by the düdük, a shorter duct flute. The main type of aerophone is the zurna, which is lathed from one piece of wood, has one thumb-hole and up to eight finger-holes. The tiny double-reed mouthpiece is completely inserted into the mouth, and the player uses circular breathing so that the melody is continuous. In certain areas other wind instruments predominate: in the south, the argul or kaval kamış, sometimes also called zurna, is a single-reed double pipe with or without a drone pipe. A similar instrument, the çifte, is found chiefly on the west coast of the Black Sea. On the east coast the tulum (bagpipe) is common. The accordion is often found among Circassian communities in Turkish cities, and is common in Artvin and Kars, provinces adjoining Georgia and Armenia respectively.
The most important string instrument is the bağlama. It is played by the aşık (folk poets) and is very widely used in the cities, despite the current availability and growing popularity of acoustic guitars. The bağlama is a long-necked lute most commonly with three string courses and around 24 nylon frets over a range of an octave and a 4th, allowing for the particular characteristics of rural Turkish modal structure. Generally, one string is played, while the others are used as drones, except in the tuning associated with the aşık repertory. The instrument has a pear-shaped body and is played with a plectrum. Urban practice has considerably elaborated and selfconsciously systematized the procedure around distinct regional styles (tavır).
The bağlama is often referred to by the collective name saz, which is also the general term for musical instrument. The addition of a built-in pickup in the 1970s produced what is now known generically as the elektrosaz. This, together with a heavily amplified darbuka and voice, constitutes one of the most common sounds at rural weddings. The kabak kemençe, a spike fiddle with a gourd resonator, is now rare but the keman (European violin) remains a popular instrument among rural professionals. The kemençe (fig.4), an oblong bowed lute with three strings, is found only on the eastern coast of the Black Sea; this solo instrument is always played in two-part parallel polyphony, usually in 4ths.
The rhythms of Turkish folk music, most pronounced in the instrumental music, are of great diversity. Besides simple and compound metres with rhythmically enlivening syncopation, there are other metres consisting of, for example, five, seven or 11 pulses, and metres with irregular subdivisions, for example, an eight-beat bar divided into 3 + 3 + 2 beats. Such constructions are usually called aksak (although this refers in its specific sense only to the subdivision of nine into 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 beats). Aksak means ‘limping’ or ‘slumping’, a reference to the asymmetric ‘limping’ movement created by such rhythms. Although these metres occur in some folksongs (e.g. the kırık hava), they are found principally in dance-songs and instrumental dance melodies.
Foremost among the dances is the halay, a round dance that is choreographically rather than musically fixed, and almost exclusively performed by men. Other dance forms are the bar in eastern Turkey, the horon (Gk. choros) of the Black Sea and the zeybek in the west. There are numerous other dance forms, many specific to certain regions.
Most dances are accompanied by the davul (bass drum) and zurna (double-reed aerophone), an instrumental ensemble (fig.3) found in places as far apart as India, Morocco and the Balkans. The drummer leads the ensemble, which is called davul-zurna and can be enlarged to four players on special occasions. The drum is beaten on both heads, the main beats being executed with a heavy stick on the right side, the rhythmic subdivisions with a thin stick on the left. In the past the davul and zurna were also the main instruments of military music, which arose in the 14th century and later became known as mehter. In the West, as a result of the Turkish wars, this music was called Janissary music because it was mostly played by musicians of the élite yeni çeri (‘new troops’).
Following its proclamation as a republic (1923), Turkey became a secular state in 1928. Many types of religious music exist within the predominantly Muslim community (of which two-thirds are Sunni and one-third Shi‘a Alevi). Christian minority groups (including Armenian, Chaldean, Syrian and Greek sects) and a small Jewish community in Istanbul also have their religious musics.
Orthodox Islam allows only very few musical forms, which are not considered to be music as such. Foremost of these are Qur’anic recitation and the call to prayer (ezan), which is sounded from all mosques five times daily and has thus entered the general consciousness. The ezan has had a considerable influence upon the uzun hava folk genre, which gained prestige through this connection and remained relatively unaffected by the otherwise harsh condemnation of musical practices by strict Muslims.
Islamic devotional music falls within both folk and art music categories. Folk hymns are known as ilâhi (‘for God’), and certain instrumental pieces and songs have mystical overtones, e.g. those of the aşık semi-professional folk poets (see §II, 1 above). A notable form of that music which is accepted by the Turkish Islamic orthodoxy is mevlut (or mevlit). These are settings of the birth story of the Prophet Muhammad, although performance is not restricted to the date of his birthday. The mevlut has developed into a religious ceremony performed on official or private occasions in urban and rural settings.
The musical repertory of the Sunni sects, especially that of the Mevlevi order of Sufis, is purely art music. Indeed, that order is justifiably referred to as the music school of the Ottoman dynasty. Specific liturgical songs belong to their ceremony: for example, the naat (Arab. na‘t: hymn in praise of the Prophet), sung at the opening of every religious celebration, or the ayin hymn to which the whirling dance is performed (see fig.5). An instrumental ensemble accompanies the choral ayin and performs purely instrumental compositions, which are identical in form and name to the two main secular art genres, peşrev and saz semaisi. The core ensemble consists of one or several end-blown flutes (ney) and small pairs of kettledrums (kudüm), but this may be enlarged with other instruments: tanbur (long-necked lute), rebab (spike fiddle) and cymbals (halile).
(See also Islamic religious music for general discussion; a detailed description of the Mevlevi ritual and music and a further illustration are also provided in that article (§II, 5).)
Turkish art music is essentially melodic and linear in character, traditionally performed heterophonically by a mixed, but not fixed, group of solo instruments. Theoretical discussion revolves primarily around the melodic and rhythmic modal systems known respectively as makam (Arab. maqām) and usul (see §§2 and 3 below).
Turkish art music has undergone significant developments and has a complex history. In the early years of the Republic (1920s), hostility to the Ottoman empire precipitated attempts to ‘modernize’ Turkish art music by using large multi-part orchestras led by a conductor. Setting this within a concert hall lost the chamber intimacy of the music, and so this kind of experimentalism has little currency in Turkey today. From the 1970s onwards, the Turkish Radio and Television and state conservatories have cultivated a strict monophonic style played by large and highly disciplined orchestras. Mass-media dissemination of this style adds electric guitars and keyboards, often with a harmonic accompaniment. Most contemporary art music composition is orientated towards the popular market (see §5(i) below).
Various instruments are employed for art music, including the ney (end-blown flute; fig.6b), frame drum (def) and kudüm (small pair of kettledrums) used in the Mevlevi ceremony (see §III above). The tanbur or, more precisely, tanbur kebir türkî (‘great Turkish tanbur’) is a long-necked lute of characteristic Turkish form with a virtually hemispherical body. Its long neck has up to 48 gut frets, allowing performance of all scales possible in the tonal system with 24 subdivisions of the octave. It is occasionally bowed (yaylı tanbur). Two spike fiddles are used in Turkish art music: the rebab (see Rabāb; similar in form to the Persian kamānche) and fasıl kemençesi. The latter has a pear-shaped body leading directly to a short neck without a nut: of its three strings, the highest is stopped from the side with the fingernails and the lower two can be used as drones.
Many instruments have been adopted from neighbouring cultures, such as the ūt (Arab. ‘ūd), an unfretted short-necked lute of Arab origin. The santur (hammered dulcimer) comes from Persian music. It has up to four wire string courses, struck on both sides of their bridges with small felt-headed beaters. In Turkey the kanun (plucked zither; see also Qānūn; fig.6a) is now played more often than the santur. It has triple-course gut or nylon strings, plucked with metal plectrums attached to the index fingers. Recently, a series of adjustable nuts (mandal) has been added for raising the pitch of each course by a microtonal interval of one comma.
In addition, the Western violin (keman) and clarinet (klarinet) have been enduring components of 20th-century art music, popularized respectively by Haydar Tatlıyay (1890–1963) and Şükrü Tunar (1907–62). The reformer Hüseyin Sadettin Arel (1880–1955) attempted to create ‘families’ of Turkish instruments analogous to the violin or lute family, used in large orchestras. Mass-media dissemination of art music uses electric guitars and keyboards, and in the night-club art genre (known as fasıl) the darbuka (Arab goblet drum) provides rhythmic elaboration.
The Turkish modal system is based on the term makam, which might be usefully described as composition rules. Today makams consist of scales comprising defined tetrachords (dörtlü) and pentachords (beşli) governed by explicit rules concerning predominant melodic direction (seyir: ‘path’). The seyir indicates prescribed modulations and the general shape of phrases, understood as either predominantly upwards (inici), predominantly downwards (çıkıcı) or a combination of both (inici-çıkıcı). There are terms for the ‘opening note’ (giriş), ‘tonic note’ (karar), a significant tonal centre other than the tonic (güçlü: ‘dominant’), and a note lower than the tonic (yeden). Çesni refers to characteristic phrases and concluding figures, or a brief excursion into a related makam.
Turkish makam names are largely shared with the Arab and (to a lesser extent) Persian systems. They may designate an important note in the scale (e.g. çargah: ‘fourth position’), a city (e.g. esfahan), a landscape (hicaz), a people (kürdî) or a poetic abstraction (e.g. suzidil: ‘heart glimmer’). Today Turkish makams are classified into three categories: simple (basıt), combinatory (birleşik or mürekkep) and transposed (göçürülmüş or şedd). The basıt category contains 12 makams: six of these resemble diatonic modes (rast, çargah, hüseyni, neva, puselik and uşşak), and the others have one or two augmented 2nds (suzinak, hicaz, hümayun, uzzal, karçığar and zirgüle). The birleşik makams usually combine two seven-note makams. A commonly used, but complex, example is hüzzam; this combines at the first level a hüzzam pentachord and hicaz tetrachord on the note F sharp, with, at the second level, the scale of hümayun on the note D (ex.2).
Fixed compositions (e.g. ex.3) and improvised sections (taksim) effect designated modulations at specific points in performance (see §4 below). These are marked by a sequence of ‘hanging cadences’ (asma karar). Modes can be transposed from any category of makam. The makam acemaşıran is a common transposition of çargah (see ex.3). The modal characteristics of the transposed mode may or may not be incorporated in its transposed form.
The importance of the makam is so great that compositions are always named and initially classified by their makam. In each theory, all musical forms and rhythms are possible in each makam. Although makams are theoretically and notationally bound to certain absolute pitches, they can be performed at any pitch level, according to the range of the voice or instruments.
The number of existing makams depends on whether one counts actual examples or theoretical possibilities. The modern theorist Karadeniz considers 900 makams but acknowledges that only 150 examples can be found, of which only 110 have any contemporary currency. Beyond a core of about 30 well-known makams, many performers today would have to consult a textbook or listen to a recording before attempting to play any others. Today makams possess no specific symbolic value and are not bound to certain times of the day or year, as in the Indian modal system (rāga).
The makam system has a complex documented history. Until the mid-16th century, discussion drew heavily on the work of the Arab Systematist philosophers (see Arab music, §I, 4(i)). A distinctly new set of modal principles began to emerge from the song collection (c1550) of Hafız Post and theoretical texts and collections of the mid- to late 17th century (principally those of Cantemir and Ufki discussed below). In particular, the canonical division of modes into the 12 şudud and six subsidiary avaz was replaced by a new hierarchy defined by makam and terkib. Terkib consists of a modal area on which a precomposed piece or improvisation touches during the course of modulations ordained for the specific makam.
The new system appeared in its incipient form in the treatise by the Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723), known in Turkish as Kantemiroğlu. During two stays in Istanbul between 1687 and 1710, Cantemir wrote out some 350 instrumental compositions. In his work prescribed modulations (seyir) emerge as significant, and it is evident that compositional and improvisational skills were closely related to the performing musician’s ability to steer a knowledgeable and structured path through a wide range of makams and terkibs, both within individual items of repertory and across the whole architecture of an instrumental or vocal ‘suite’ (fasıl). Cantemir’s system is broadly recognizable in current Turkish art music practice, although the specific modal qualities of some makams have changed, some terkibs have disappeared and others have become makams in their own right.
Notation has been particularly significant in formalizing the makam system as practised today. Cantemir was one of a number of theorists in Turkey to use an alphabetic notation. Western staff notation was first used by the Polish slave ‘Alī Ufkī [Wojcieck Bobowski] (1610–c1675) in his compilation of court music. An Armenian church musician, Hamparsum Limonciyan (1768–1839), developed his own system of notation. Establishing both pitch and duration accurately, his work enabled a large proportion of the orally transmitted classical music to be written down within a few decades.
Efforts to modernize the art music genre in the 20th century resulted in the more selfconsciously rigorous application of Western staff notation to the makam system. Notation of the art music repertory is closely associated with the work of the Alaturka Musiki Tasnif ve Tespit Heyeti (Alaturka Music Committee for Repertory Classification and Establishment) at the Istanbul Conservatory from 1926 on, drawing on the expertise of a number of significant art music scholars: Rauf Yekta (1871–1935), İsmail Hakkı (1866–1927), Ali Rıfat Çagatay (1867–1935), Suphi Ezgi (1869–1962) and Mesut Cemil (1902–63). Outside this conservatory-based group, the work of Hüseyin Sadettin Arel was also particularly significant.
The
system of notation that remains in use is known as the Ezgi-Arel system
(devised by Suphi Ezgi and Hüseyin Sadettin Arel). It transcribes the rast
makamı on G, as opposed to C in the system devised by Muschāqa in
Egypt in the 19th century. Where the modern Egyptian system establishes 24
equal quarter-tones in the octave, the Ezgi-Arel system involves two different
kinds of semitones. These correspond to intervals derived from ancient Greece,
the Limma and Apotomē, at 90 and 114 cents respectively, or,
in Turkish terms, four and five Pythagorean Commas (koma sesleri) in a
whole tone consisting of nine commas. According to the notational conventions
of this system, a note may thus be flattened or raised by one, four, five or
eight commas (the flats respectively , b, and the sharps 
, , and ). This produces an octave consisting of 24
unequal intervals.
Practice and theory diverge. For example, the comma-flattened B in the first tetrachord of uşşak makamı (A–B–C–D) is considered in practice to be flattened by two if not three commas. There have, consequently, been no shortage of attempts by modern theorists to improve the Ezgi-Arel system. Oransay (1957) proposed a system with 29 intervals, and Karadeniz (1965) one with 41, with an alternative, although less widely used system of notating microtonal intervals. Today, in practice, notes may be known by their Turkish pre- or post-notation names (either according to modern conventions or Tonic Sol-fa). Thus ‘A’ may be referred to as ‘la’ or dügâh.
See also Mode, §V, 2 and Central asia, §II, 3.
Just as the makam system began to take on its current form in Turkey towards the end of the 17th century, the system of rhythmic modes (usul) has also changed substantially over time. Though it is not easy to document, this process has principally taken place as ornamentation and melodic elaboration lengthened phrases and entire pieces, retarding older usul patterns, and elaborating their internal structure. Theorists and song-text collections of the mid-15th century refer to about 30 usul patterns. By the 16th century conspicuous usuls such as ramal-qasir (24 time units) or ‘Amal (14) had disappeared from the texts. Cycles occurring frequently in the 16th century, such as se darb, are absent from 17th-century texts. Usuls established in the 17th century overlap with those still in use today, although most (such as devr-i kebir, evfer, frenkçin) are enormously long and mainly of antiquarian interest. They have been replaced by a new ‘generation’ of commonly used usuls of two to ten time units (respectively nim sofyan, semai, sofyan, türk aksağı, yürük semai, devr-i hindi, düyek, aksak, and curcuna).
Today, in self-consciously high-brow performances, such usuls are tapped out on kudüm or nakkare (two small kettledrums). At conservatories or music societies, students tap these rhythms on their knees while they sing the song text to Sol-fa. Lower-pitched main beats are sounded on the right drum (or right knee), and higher-pitched auxiliary beats on the left. As a memory aid for learning an usul, spoken syllables are used: düm (low), tek (high), düme (low-high), teke or teka (two high strokes, with alternate hands right-left) and tahek (high and then high-low simultaneously). The shortest pattern, semai, consists of three equally long strokes, düm-tek-tek; another, sofyan, contains one long and two short beats, düm-tek-ka. Other relatively short usul patterns have between five and 12 beats and may contain asymmetrical subdivisions, syncopation and unusual metres. Longer patterns can often be recognized as composites of simpler usuls, but may contain no repetition: they are, so to speak, ‘through-composed’. The longest usul, darb-i feth (‘beat-pattern of conquest’), is no longer in use; it consists of 80 strokes within 88 time-units and comprises rhythmic values that may be notated as minims, crotchets, quavers and semiquavers.
Like the makams, not all usul patterns are used with the same frequency: many, principally shorter ones, are used far more often than the longer ones. An important aspect of the usul is that it provides the framework of a composition. Lines of songs or movements of instrumental compositions have a certain number of usul repetitions. Sometimes an usul of greater length is chosen, for example muhammes (16/2) or remel (28/2), so that one usul covers half or an entire melodic line.
There are more than 40 usuls listed in sundry theoretical writings. They can all be varied; thus a new form, velvele (‘din’), is derived, which then remains unaltered through an entire piece. Fixed variants of a few usuls have become established and are subsequently used in place of the basic usul aslî darplar (‘original strokes’): this can be seen in the customary forms of the usul devri kebir in the peşrev of the Mevlevi ceremony.
The melodic rhythm, düzüm, may correspond to the usul used in a composition or may be entirely divergent. It often corresponds to the usul only sporadically, for the most part at the beginning of a piece, after which it becomes increasingly independent.
The terminology used by 15th-century theorists and compilers of mid-16th century song texts indicates a close relationship between early Ottoman forms and the more generally distributed Middle Eastern cyclical forms, the nawba. The formal categories employed referred to songs primarily defined by their poetic attributes, namely the qawl, ‘amal, firudast, gazal, tarana and mustezad. In the absence of notated music, only a certain amount can be inferred about the musical properties of these forms. By the mid-17th century, these formal categories had all but disappeared (save for the külliyat, nakış, kar, zecel and the savt), being replaced by a new set of musical and poetic formal terms, including şarkı, murabba, beste, and semai (later semaisi). Cantemir’s treatise and compilation of instrumental pieces indicated the completion of a shift from the old nawba-oriented suite form to the contemporary fasıl. In this, sections of the song, instrumental piece or taksim improvisation were structured around a sequence of contrasting yet related makams or their terkib subsections (possessing, in Cantemir’s terms, ünsiyet, ‘harmony’, that is, in a contiguous rather than simultaneous sense).
This principle is particularly clear in the şarkı song form, which owes its current outlines to the song form popularized by Hacı Arif Bey (1831–85) in the mid-19th century (see §5 below). This consists of two contrasted melodic lines, corresponding to two textual lines, referred to as zemin and zaman. This is followed by a contrasting meyan section, in which there is a modulation and often an upwards shift in tessitura. In ex.2 the E natural in the 2nd bar of the meyan indicates a brief modulation to ferahnak, followed by a modulation back to the upper register of hüzzam. The meyan is followed by a repeat of the first or second line (in this case, the second), or a freshly composed line that functions as a refrain. The whole is punctuated by instrumental sections known as aranağme.
Dominant among the instrumental forms are the peşrev and saz semaisi; since the early 19th century they have had four sections (hane: ‘house’). A teslim (also called mülazime) is added to each section in the manner of a ritornello. From the late 17th century, the peşrev began to conform to the more general principle of modal modulation, transforming Turkish art music practice. In the contemporary form, the second hane of the peşrev often modulates to a related makam. The final hane is often in a contrasting ternary rhythm (usul). The saz semaisi is always in a ternary usul, and usually concludes the fasıl performance.
Another important instrumental form is the taksim (Arab. taqsim: ‘division’), often simply translated as ‘improvisation’. In early Ottoman texts, the term referred to a vocal form, but since the late 17th century it has designated a form of solo instrumental composition in performance, without fixed usul. In this respect, taksim is akin to forms of Qur’anic recitation (notably a form known as tecvit or in Arabic as tajwîd) but distinguished from the secular free rhythm vocal form, gazal (Arab. ghazal). Its etymological meaning, ‘division’, indicates its function of demonstrating divisions between makams, effected through modulations to related modal sub-groups. In this respect, Turkish practice is quite distinct from Persian classical music (see Iran, §I, 3). Thus a taksim has the dual purpose of allowing a moment of individual instrumental virtuosity within a group performance and of demonstrating the characteristic makam structure of the pieces to follow. Taksims by celebrated performers such as Tanburî Cemil Bey were recorded and notated by commercial publishers during their own lifetime.
In current practice, then, the fasıl employs many elements. It often begins with a peşrev and proceeds with a sequence of şarkı, beginning with older pieces in longer usuls, interspersed with taksim improvisations. The fasıl usually follows with more contemporary pieces in shorter usuls, concluding with a saz semaisi. Often a fasıl will begin in one makam and modulate to another half-way through, by means of a taksim.
In Turkish urban musical circles, composition and performance remain closely connected and equally privileged activities.
Over the centuries compositions have been preserved by means of oral transmission through carefully maintained chains of authority (meşk). However, for the period before 1650 it is virtually impossible to establish authorship of any single piece of music, although we know from the song texts that a core of canonical composers existed. Even after 1650 authorship is problematic. The frequent attribution of pieces to significant religious figures such as Sultān Veled (1226–1312, of the Mevlevi order) or to theorists such as Abdülkadir Meraği (Arab. ‘Abd al-Qādir) should be treated with some caution. Ten compositions by Hafız Post (c1630–92) and 42 by Buhurizade Mustafa Itrî (c1630–74) are believed to have survived; indeed, Itrî’s na't (hymn) continues to be sung as the opening of the Mevlevi ritual. The existence of a huge repertory of art music compositions can be inferred from 17th-century song-lyric texts (including Hafız Post’s own).
The significant collections of ‘Alī Ufkī (some time after 1650) and of Cantemir (between 1687 and 1710) have already been discussed with reference to notation. Both texts provide valuable evidence concerning the emergence of a new style of music in the Ottoman court, reflecting, among other things, a more localized musical style in preference to the previously dominant music of Arab and Persian composers. However, until more systematic efforts to use notation in the 19th century, the identification of composers and the attribution of pieces is an uncertain business.
Music flourished during the Lale Devri (‘Tulip period’, 1718–30) through the work of court composers such as Eyyubî Bekir Ağa (1680–1730), Hafız Süleyman Ric’at Molla and İsmail Ağa (?1674–1724). Significant composers of the next century include Tanburî Isak (1745–1814), Sultan Selim III (1760–1808), Hacı Sadullah Ağa (1760–1825), Tanburî Mustafa Çavuş (1764–1854), Hamamîzade İsmail Dede Efendi (1778–1846) and Şakir Ağa (1779–1841).
The tanzimat reform movement began in 1839, introducing a judicial and administrative system based on Western models. This had an incalculable impact on Turkish cultural life. In 1828 Giuseppe Donizetti, brother of the opera composer, was made director of court music and reformed the Janissary band on Western lines. The tanzimat also marked the emergence of a non-Muslim bourgeoisie as significant patrons and cultural brokers. The music of Hacı Arif Bey responded to these transformed circumstances. He popularized the new şarkı song form known as nevzemin, characterized by shorter melodic lines and more direct lyrical style. (Its formal structure is analysed in §4 above; see ex.2.) Şevki Bey (1860–90) was one of his pupils. The tanzimat’s bourgeois musical traditions were taken into the 20th century by Lemi Atlı (1869–1945) and Tanburî Cemil Bey, the famous instrumentalist who also worked as a composer, theorist and teacher. Parallel to these innovations, a tradition of austere classicism was pursued in the late 19th century by Zekâi Dede (1824–97), whose works were carefully memorized and notated by his son Ahmet Irsoy (1869–1943), on the eve of the Turkish Republic.
The Republic (1923) brought new cultural institutions that affected composers and performance profoundly. Western-style music conservatories and symphony orchestras were established, and teacher-training colleges began to orientate the entire state education system towards teaching Western music. Principal of these was the Gazi Eğitim Enstitüsü (Gazi Education Institute) in Ankara, headed by Eduard Zuckmayer.
The reformist work of Hüseyin Sadettin Arel has already been mentioned: he promoted large orchestras with ‘families’ of instruments and helped devise the Ezgi-Arel system of music notation. As a composer, he attempted to modernize Turkish art music through systematic application of Western contrapuntal techniques.
Arel’s efforts were subsequently eclipsed by the more ideologically acceptable work of the Turkish ‘Five’, comprising Ahmet Adnan Saygun, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Cemil Reşit Rey, Hasan Ferit Alnar and Yalçın Tura. They achieved some distinction outside Turkey: Adnan Saygun’s oratorio Yunus Emre (1946) received performances in Paris (1947) and New York (1958), and Hasan Ferit’s Qānūn Concerto was first performed in Vienna (1946). The movement generally sought to find ‘international’ clothing for music of rural and Anatolian inspiration. Its austere contrapuntal style is more reminiscent of Western European neo-classicism than the work of the Russian ‘Five’. Some composition in this genre currently takes place in the state conservatories (which now have Turkish art music sections).
State institutions and the popular market have played important roles in recent years. Most contemporary composition occurs within the popular market, with numerous important influences from outside Turkey (see §V, 1 below).
The popular music domain is closely related to both Turkish folk and art music. It has also systematically appropriated non-Turkish popular genres. In the late 1920s tango (from Argentina) reached Turkey through travelling European and American orchestras: Necip Celal was its first Turkish imitator. In the 1960s there were imitators of chanson (from France), e.g. the arranger Fecri Eyüboğlu and singer Ajda Pekkan. Egyptian and Lebanese film music, first disseminated through Arab radio stations, has had an important impact.
The history of Turkish popular music is very much set in Istanbul. In the early 20th century the Muslim bourgeoisie frequented popular entertainment districts such as Şehzadebaşı Caddesi (also known as Direklerası: ‘Arcades’) and Beyoğlu, where theatres produced a popular song genre known as kanto. Its lyrics reflected many new aspects of the changing city. In the early 1950s mass migration from rural areas swelled Istanbul's population, transforming the popular culture revolving around the city's clubs (gazino) and bars. As elsewhere, the mass media have been particularly important. Commercial recording was initiated by the Gramophone and Typewriter Company in 1903, followed by numerous other firms, notably HMV; the first Turkish firm (Şençalar) began operating in 1962. The first Turkish cassettes were produced and distributed in 1976. This marked the proletarianization of popular musical culture, which responded quickly to shifts in the ethnic composition of Turkish cities, e.g. the influx of a large Kurdish community in Istanbul. The media were deregulated in the 1990s. Despite the incursions of private music television channels and of multinational cassette companies such as Polygram, people today mostly listen to music made in Turkey by Turkish and Kurdish musicians.
Popular music is performed by musicians drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from the socially privileged or conservatory-trained to marginal ‘outsiders’ such as Roma Gypsies. The latter often work in clubs and bars, especially in Istanbul, the women as dancers, the men as instrumentalists. Some Roma musicians have achieved considerable prestige, notably clarinettist Mustafa Kandıralı, who played for Turkish Radio and Television orchestras.
In the 20th century many key exponents of Turkish art music had one foot firmly in the popular market, despite connections with the cultural institutions of the republic. The singer Münir Nurettin Selçuk dominated the popular market from 1926 (his first recording) until the late 1960s. As leader of the Istanbul Conservatory Performance Group (İcra Heyeti), he gave a number of influential live radio concerts, but his enduring significance in Turkey rests on recordings and musical films, including early adaptations of Egyptian film musicals whose original versions were banned by the Turkish state. He is considered as the last master of the gazal singing genre, and as ‘the man who put Turkish music in European dress’. He introduced bel canto singing into Turkish popular art music and instituted the practice of the singer standing in front of the musicians rather than among them.
Zeki Müren received a classical education in music. He made his name with versions of Egyptian and Lebanese musicals, and with gazino club performances in the 1970s. His association with the conservatory-trained composer Muzaffer Özpınar (b 1941) exemplifies the close connection between the popular market and art music performance and composition.
In the late 1950s the films of Elvis Presley and Bill Haley initiated a wave of imitators in Istanbul. The first rock and roll orchestra was formed at Istanbul's Naval College, playing mainly for school and university proms. In the early 1960s Erol Büyükbürç was dubbed the ‘Turkish Elvis’.
The Anatolian rock movement (Anadolu rock) was conceived in opposition to Turkish imitations of American rock and French chanson. It combined a growing identification with the international labour movement, European counter-culture and Anatolian folk music. The careers of Cem Karaca, Erkin Koray and Cahit Berkay have been significant. Most musicians of this movement were middle-class graduates of Istanbul's prestigious foreign-language schools, some from non-Muslim minorities. They used electric keyboards, guitars and drum kits with the yaylı tanbur (long-necked bowed lute), bağlama and kabak kemençe (spike fiddle with gourd resonator, now rare), plus a variety of Turkish rhythm instruments. Performance was predominantly organized around the guitar-based rhythms and textures of Western rock and pop.
Initially musicians such as Cem Karaca argued for a contemporary Turkish response to Euro-American popular culture. Many Anatolian rock groups gained assisted trips to recording studios in Europe, sponsored through national newspaper music competitions. Soon their ‘Turkishness’ became politicized through songs that drew heavily on the radical urban aşık tradition (notable singers were Ali Ihsan and Mahsuni Şerif). Karaca's group Dervişan celebrated the life-struggles of Turkey's urban poor in the first Turkish rock opera, Safınaz. In 1978 I Mayis, their song honouring the international labour movement, led to legal action, a period of media exclusion and police harassment: the group collapsed and Karaca went into self-imposed exile in Germany.
The 1980 military coup d'état inhibited the flow of musical ideas, instruments and technology from Western Europe, but from the mid-1980s liberal government policies reversed that process. A genre known as özgün (‘independent’) emerged whose characteristic sound combined guitars with the bağlama. Singers such as Ahmet Kaya (a leftist Kurd) revived some of Anatolian rock's political radicalism.
‘Turkish pop’ (Türk popu) emerged more decisively from that period, promoted by the newly deregulated media. Onno Tunç (1949–95) was a key figure, originally an Armenian church musician who directed Turkey's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest throughout the 1980s. In collaboration with a number of musicians (notably Sezen Aksu), he defined a distinct style characterized by vocal techniques very similar to those of popular art music, coupled with Tunç's own application of keyboard-based jazz and soul influences.
Turkish pop emerged in a period when electric guitars were exotic and only the relatively wealthy had opportunities to hear Western popular music. By the mid-1990s this had changed: a wide audience heard Western popular genres through the deregulated media, guitars were readily available and there were cheaply priced ‘rock bars’ in Istanbul and Ankara. In sharp contrast to the radical stance of the 1960s, musicians such as Tarkan, Mirkelam, Mustafa Sandal and Rafet el Roman articulate bourgeois fantasies of new cars, summer holidays and foreign travel. However, their use of modal constructs, aksak rhythms and urban instruments such as the ut (Arab. ‘ud) and darbuka indicates a somewhat selfconscious nostalgia for ‘Turkish’ music.
Turkish national identity has long depended on the rejection of its ‘Arab’ history, but state intervention, censorship and nationalist reforms often had a reverse effect, promoting interest in things Arab. The 1948 ban on Arabic-language music and films prompted an indigenous film and music industry based on Egyptian and Lebanese hits. During the same period, state promotion of the reformed ‘folk-chorus’ radio style resulted in widespread listening to Arab radio stations. A complex reaction of fascination and repulsion with Arab culture underlies the emergence of the arabesk genre.
Egyptian influences have been important in Turkish popular music. The songs of Egyptian singers Umm kulthūm, Mohammad ‘Abd al-Wahhāb and farid al-Atrash had direct imitators in Münir Nürettin Selçuk and Zeki Müren (see §1 above). Large dance orchestras modelled on Egyptian film orchestras became popular in Turkey, introduced by Haydar Tatlıyay (1890–1963) on his return in 1947 from working as a musician in Egypt. In turn they helped to establish the enduring popularity of large Egyptian-style ‘belly-dancing’ (raks şarkı) orchestras (see also Egypt, §II).
Rural Turkish culture is the other important component of arabesk music. Village themes, implicitly or explicitly set in the south-east of the country, became popular in Turkish cinema in the late 1940s. They often focussed on graveside lament scenes, with music drawn simultaneously from the rural uzun hava and the urban gazal. The recording industry and gazino clubs also promoted rural music catering for the large migrant communities in Turkish cities.
The term arabesk was first used in connection with the singer and virtuosic bağlama player Orhan Gencebay, whose first best-selling single was released in 1969. His style is eclectic, combining elements such as baroque concerto form, Western rock techniques and Turkish art music (şarkı song form and makams) often adding a harmonized ‘sub-structure’ (altyapı) and passages of counterpoint.
In 1975 the introduction of stereo-recording technology facilitated a distinctive orchestral sound in the late 1970s arabesk music. This is typified in recordings by Orhan Gencebay, Ferdi Tayfur and Müslüm Gürses, using string orchestras (in Arab film style), large percussion sections and instruments associated with Western rock and Turkish folk and urban art music. An antiphonal structure prevails, with solo vocal or instrumental statements answered by string chorus.
While arabesk was rigorously excluded from state radio and television, its commercial presence was tolerated, and it thrived through cheap cassette production and live performance in clubs. Arabesk no longer operates as a focus for opposition to nationalist cultural policies, which have largely been discontinued. Despite the apparent dominance of Turkish pop in the 1990s, sales of arabesk cassettes exceed those of any other genre, and public performances draw capacity audiences.
Since the 1950s Turkish citizens have been driven by economic need to emigrate to European countries, especially Germany. Although they intended to return home, most of them stayed abroad indefinitely. Their isolated place in a foreign culture leads to a greater awareness of Turkish tradition. Many develop an interest in Turkish music, singing familiar songs and often learning to play the bağlama (long-necked lute). Young Turkish emigrants meet and make music at cultural reunions, youth clubs, folk music schools and workers' welfare centres. Some absorb new influences from the West and (to a lesser extent) other emigrant communities. This creates a musical synthesis; subsequent generations are often bi-musical, playing Turkish and non-Turkish music.
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K. Reinhard: ‘Musikalische Gestaltungsprinzipien der Ayin, dargestellt an der anonymen Komposition im Makam pençgâh’, Bildiriler: Mevlâna’nın 700. ülüm yıldönümü dolayısile uluslararası Mevlâna semineri, ed. M. Önder (Ankara, 1973), 315–33
H.P. Seidel: ‘Die Notenschrift des Hamparsum Limoncǐyan’, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musik des Orients, xii (1973–4), 72–119
K.L. Signell: Makam: Modal Practice in Turkish Art Music (Seattle, 1977)
İ.K. Özkan: Türk mûsikısi nazariyatı ve Usûlleri [Turkish music theory and rhythm modes] (Istanbul, 1984)
C. Behar: 18. yüzyılda Türk müziği [Turkish music in the 18th century] (Istanbul, 1987)
C. Behar: Klasik Türk musikisi üzerine denemeler [Essays on classical Turkish music] (Istanbul, 1987)
Y. Öztuna: Türk musikisi: teknik ve tarih [Turkish music: technique and history] (Istanbul, 1987)
O. Wright: ‘Aspects of Historical Change in the Turkish Classical Repertoire’, Musica Asiatica, v, ed. R. Widdess (1988), 1–108
O. Akdoğdu: Taksim nedir? nasıl yapılır? [What is Taksim? How is it played?] (İzmir, 1989)
C. Behar: Zaman, mekân, müzik: klâsik Türk musikisinde eğitim (meşk), icra ve aktarım [Time, place, music: education (meşk), performance and transmission in classical Turkish music] (Istanbul, 1992)
D. Cantemir: The Collection of Notations, ed. O. Wright (London, 1992)
O. Wright: Words without Songs: a Musicological Study of an Early Ottoman Anthology and its Precursors (London, 1992)
M. Bardakçi: Refik Bey ve hatıraları [Refik Bey and his memories] (Istanbul, 1995)
W. Feldman: Music of the Ottoman Court: Makam, Composition and the early Ottoman Instrumental Repertoire (Berlin, 1996)
A. Kulin: Bir tatlı huzur: fotograflarla Münir Nureddin Selçuk'un yaşin öyküsü [A sweet repose: Münir Nurettin Selçuk's life story with photographs] (Istanbul, 1996)
J.M. O'Connell: Alaturka Revisited: Style as History in Turkish Vocal Performance (diss., UCLA, 1996)
M. Baumann, ed.: Musik der Türken in Deutschland (Kassel, 1985)
U. Reinhard: ‘Türkische Musik: ihre Interpreten in West-Berlin und in der Heimat’, Jb für Volksliedforschung, xxxii (1987), 81–92
H. Brandeis and others: Klangbilder der Welt-Musik International Berlin (Berlin, 1990)
M. Özbek: Popüler kültür ve Orhan Gencebay arabeski [Popular culture and Orhan Gencebay's arabesk] (Istanbul, 1991, 2/1994)
M.P. Baumann, H. Brandeis and T. de Oliveira Pinto, eds.: Musik im Dialog: Projekte und ihre Planung am Internationalen Institut für Traditionelle Musik Berlin (Berlin, 1992)
M. Stokes: The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey (Oxford, 1992)
A. Ok: '68 Çıglıkları: Anadolu Rock, Anadolu Protest, Anadolu Pop [Cries of '68: Anatolian rock, Anatolian protest and Anatolian pop] (Istanbul, 1994)
A. Akay: Istanbul'da rock hayatı: sosyolojik bir bakış [The life of rock in Istanbul: a sociological view] (Istanbul, 1995)
M.P. Baumann: ‘Multi-Culturalism and Trans-Cultural Dialogue: the Project “Berlin Soundscapes of Traditional Music”’, Aspects on Music and Multiculturalism, Musiken år 2002, no.15 (Stockholm, 1995)
Turkish Village Music, coll. L.G. Tewari, Nonesuch H72050 (1972)
Turquie: chants sacrés d'Anatolie par Ashik Feyzullah Tchinar, Ocora OCR 65 (1973)
A Musical Anthology of the Orient: Turkey I and II, Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30 L 2019
Folk Music of Turkey, coll. W. Dietrich, Topic 12TS333 (1977)
Turquie: musique soufi, Ocora 558 522 and 558 543 (1977) [incl. notes by N. Uzel]
Derviches tourneur de Turquie: la cérémonie des Mevlevî, Arion ARN34603 (1981)
Turquie: musique Tzigane, perf. Les Frères Erköse, coll. K. Erguner, rec. 1980, Ocora 558 649 (1984)
Musik aus der Türkei, ed. A. Simon, Museum Coll. Berlin, Museum für Völkerkunde (1985)
Masters of Turkish Music, rec. mid-1920s, Rounder CD 1051 (1990)
Music of Turkey, perf. Necdet Yaşar Ensemble, Music of the World, CDT-128 (1992)
Song Creators in Eastern Turkey, International Institute for Traditional Music, Smithsonian (1993)
Cem Karaca: Cemaz-ûl-Evvel, Kalan KB94.34.U.852.059 (1994)
Istanbul 1925, various pfmrs, rec. 1925–50, Traditional Crossroads CD 4266 (1994) [incl. notes by H.G. Hagopian]
Turquie: musiques des Yayla, coll. J. Cler, Ocora C 560050 (1994) [incl. notes by J. Cler in Fr., Ger., Eng.]
Tanburî Cemil Bey, rec. 1910–14, Crossroads CD 4264 and 4274 (1995) [incl. notes by H. Hagopian]