Folk Music

Turku

Türkü, literally "of the Turk", is a name given to Turkish folk songs as opposed to
sarki. In contemporary usage, the meanings of the words türkü and sarki have
shifted: Türkü refers to folk songs originated from music traditions within Turkey
whereas sarki refers to all other songs, including foreign music. Classically, Türküs
can be grouped into two categories according to their melodies: Kirik havalar:
These have regular melodies. Following subtypes belong to this category: deyis,
kosma, semah, tatyan, barana, zeybek, horon, halay, bar, bengi, sallama, güvende,
oyun havasi, karsilama, agirlama, pesrev, teke zortlatmasi, gakgili havasi, dimidan,
zil havasi, fingil havasi. Uzun havalar: There have irregular melodies. The
following subtypes belong to this category: barak, bozlak, gurbet havasi, yas havasi,
tecnis, bogaz havasi, elagözlü, maya, hoyrat, divan, yol havasi, yayla havasi, mugam,
gazel, uzun hava (is used for the ones which don't fit into any other subtype)
The Turkish Turku tradition is called Halk Muzigi in modern terminology, and called
Sarki in the old days. It is something that almost every Turkish singer is immersed in.

turk sanat

Ottoman classical music (Klâsik Türk Mûsikîsi, Sanat Mûsikîsi) developed in Istanbul
and major Ottoman towns from Skopje to Cairo, from Tabriz to Morocco through the
palace, mosques, and sufi lodges of the Ottoman Empire.[1] Above all a vocal music,
Ottoman music traditionally accompanies a solo singer with a small instrumental
ensemble. In recent times instruments might include tanbur lute, ney flute, kemençe
fiddle, keman Western violin, kanun zither, or other instruments. Sometimes described
as monophonic music, the variety of ornamentation and variation in the ensemble
requires the more accurate term heterophonic.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

Turk pop

Turkish pop music is now everywhere, whether it's the latest from singer/songwriter or
the more radical sounds of the Turkish club underground, like Interestingly, the fusion
of sounds work so well that Turkish pop music does not sound as Westernised as Indian
or Indonesian pop even though it does include global influences such as technological
developments from the west, western harmonies grafted onto folk songs, influences from
Arabic music

Arabesk

Arabesque or Arabesk (Turkish: Arabesk) is a term created by Turkish musicologists for
an Arabic style of music created in Turkey. The genre was particularly popular in Turkey
in the decades from the 1960s through the 1990s. As with Arabic music itself, its aesthetics
have evolved over the decades. Although melodies and rhythms are predominantly byzantine
and Arabic influenced, it also draws ideas from other aspects of Middle Eastern music
including Baglama music and Ottoman forms of oriental music. It continues to be played
within Turkey in its purer form today, but its popularity has waned with younger people in
more recent times; and it has tended to merge into, and be subsumed by, other genres such as
latter-day Western dance music and Turkish pop music.A very small percentage of Arabesk is
exclusively instrumental. For the great majority of it, a singer lies at the center of the music.
Male singers dominated the genre in its early years, but female singers probably predominated
during its peak years of popularity. Simultaneously with the influx of female singers, the sound
grew more dancey and upbeat.[1] Orhan Gencebay is generally considered the founder of the
genre (though he disagrees with the usage of the term). Other well known older singers are
Müslüm Gürses and Ferdi Tayfur. One of the most prolific and commercially successful is
Ibrahim Tatlises, who broke all sales records in Turkey in 1978 and continues to turn out
popular music to this day. He has maintained popularity in the Arabesk scene in recent years
through remixing his tracks into dance friendly club tracks. The pure Arabesk album "
Acilarin Kadini" by the singer Bergen was the bestselling album in Turkey in 1986 and may be
fairly labelled one of the classic albums of the genre. Bergen had several other hit Arabesk
albums during the 1980s. Other singers include Ebru Gündes, Seda Sayan, Sibel Can. The
singers Muazzez Ersoy and Bülent Ersoy designate themselves as modern exponents of Ottoman
classical music but much of their work can be labelled as Arabesk with softer beats, since the s
trings and vocal melodies sound Arabic—or arabesque.

Mehter

Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching band in the
world. Though they are often known by the Persian-derived word mahtar mehter in Ottoman
Turkish in the West, that word, properly speaking, refers only to a single musician in the band.
In Ottoman, the band was generally known as mehterân from the Persian plural mahtaran,
though those bands used in the retinue of a vizier or prince were generally known as mehterhane
meaning roughly, "a gathering of mehters", from Persian "house of the mahtar").
In modern Turkish, the band as a whole is often termed mehter bölügü
("mehter company [troop]"), mehter takimi ("mehter platoon"). In the West, the band's music
is also often called Janissary music because the janissaries formed the core of the bands. It is
believed that individual instrumentalists may have been mentioned in the 8th century Orkhon
inscriptions.[citation needed] Such military bands as the mehters, however, were not definitively
mentioned until the 13th century[citation needed]. It is believed that the first "mehter" was sent
to Osman I by the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad III as a present along with a letter that
salutes the newly formed state. From then on every day after the afternoon prayer; "mehter"
played for the Ottoman ruler. The notion of a military marching band, such as those in use even
today, began to be borrowed from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The sound associated
with the mehterân also exercised an influence on European classical music, with composers such
as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven all writing compositions
inspired by or designed to imitate the music of the mehters. In 1826, the music of the mehters fell
into disfavor following Sultan Mahmud II's massacre of the Janissary corps, who had formed the
core of the bands. Subsequent to this, in the mid and late 19th century, the genre went into decline
along with the Ottoman Empire. In 1911, as the empire was beginning to collapse, the director of
Istanbul's military museum attempted a somewhat successful revival of the tradition, and by
1953—so as to celebrate the 500-year anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople to the forces of
Sultan Mehmed II—the tradition had been fully restored as a band of the Turkish Armed Forces.
Today, the music of the mehters is largely ceremonial and considered by many Turks as a stirring
example of heroism and a reminder of Turkey's historical past. Though the majority of the pieces
performed by them are newer compositions. Today, Mehter Troop (Mehter Bölügü) is the band of
the Turkish Armed Forces and it performs at the Military Museum (Askeri Müze) in Istanbul. See
also: The Ministry of Culture Istanbul Historical Music Ensemble

Ilahi

A islamic ilahi -hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of
praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent
figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek (hymnos), which means
a song of praise." Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymnbooks

Oyun havasi

Roma have also influenced the fasil itself. Played in music halls, the dance music (oyun havasi)
required at the end of each fasil has been incorporated with Ottoman rakkas or belly dancing
motifs. The rhythmic ostinato accompanying the instrumental improvisation 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 fasil are the clarinet, violin, kanun,
and darbuka. Clarinetist Mustafa Kandirali is a well known fasil musician. For a dancer, probably
the most useful part of understanding the naming convention of these songs is identifying the form 
if you are uncertain whether a song is traditionally considered "appropriate" for belly dance, the
form will give you a clue. Attempting to perform to a pechref or a mandra, for example, might
garner you some odd looks. Çiftetelli and oyun havasi, on the other hand, are pretty safe bets for
oryantal dance

Roman havasi

Romani musicians and dancers. Foreign visitors writing of the exotic dancing reported of 
suggestive contortions, a good deal of stomach play and twisting of the body, falling upon the
knees with the trunk held back to the extent that the spectators were encouraged to put a coin on
their forehead." Expressing passion and joy, this lively dance in a 9/8 rhythm is characterized by
playful hand gestures that often mimic events from daily life. A few notes from a National
Geographic book written forty years ago about European Rom: In Istanbul, the Sulukule colony
had long been famous for belly dancing. The women taught professional artists for a few lira a
lesson. Gypsies greatly influenced the belly dance, and also the arts of conjuring and the jigging
of puppets. The area had a reputation with the police as the place where the honest musicians
lived. However, much of Sulukele was torn down by municiple authorities in 1966 because the
houses were crumbling.