TURKEY LIVE turkish

Turkey’s cultural fabric is made up of a rich combination of diverse cultures rooted deeply in history. By virtue of its geographical position, Turkey lies at the axis of the cultures of the East, the West, the Middle Eastern, the Mediterranean and Islam. Anatolia is one of the world’s oldest human habitats – hosts of civilizations have called it home – and it enjoys a unique cultural richness with its thousands of years of history. Anatolia’s cultural variety is so rich that we can see great cultural differences even in areas geographically quite close to each other. (more…)

These are forms of music created by people settled in one particular location, played or recited with great affection, which have become the joint creation of the people of the area in question, and which have been passed down and kept alive down to the present day. Such music bears the traces of local cultures, and the names of the composers are generally unknown. (more…)

The form of music today generally known as Türk Sanat Müzi?i, or Ottoman Classical Music, matured, developed in form and aesthetics and came to assume the identity of a form of classical music in parallel to the establishment, growth and increasing strength of the Ottoman state itself. This variety of music furnished products dealing with many subjects, such as religion, love and war. Each of these then came to develop its own varieties, styles and communities. Ottoman music was influenced by other musical cultures as new nations became absorbed into the empire, giving and receiving various elements. From the beginning of the 19th century, however, as the empire began to recede and collapse, increasing shallowness and laxness can be seen in Ottoman music. While rich modes and styles had been employed in the past, this concept gradually faded and turned into metropolitan entertainment music. That process has continued to the present day, and the ‘popular song’ has become increasingly popular and popularised, effectively taking the place of the other forms. (more…)

In the Turkish tradition, janissary music is a sign of majesty, splendour and might, rather than a vehicle for merriment. The majestic and sacred nature of the state are reflected in the banging of the drum. The unity of the people and the greatness of the state are particularly important concepts in the Turkish view of the nation. This belief and tradition was also to be found in the pre-Islamic Turkish states, and those of the Seljuks and the Ottomans, and very little has since changed. (more…)

In the framework of music, the forms of music that accompanied or assisted such Islamic obligations as circumcision, fasting and the call to prayer, and known as Mosque Music or Dervish Lodge Music depending on where it was played, can all be considered under the single heading of Religious Music. Forms such as ‘tilavet’ (reading the Kuran), the ‘ezan’ (the call to prayer), and the ‘temcid’ (a call praising Allah chanted by the muezzin immediately after the morning call to prayer during the months of Rajab, ?aban and Ramadan) all fall under the category of mosque music. During the religious dancing or ceremonies practiced by a number of religious sects, especially the dervishes (Mevevi) and Bekta?i, come under the general heading of Mystical Music. (more…)

Cordophones (stringed instruments)

The sound from these instruments is produced by the vibration of the strings. These may be classified into two groups: (more…)

Western influence had already begun to be felt in Ottoman music towards the middle of the 19th century. These increased towards the end of the century, and led to efforts to change Ottoman music from monodic to polyphonic. (more…)

Popular music is to a large extent produced by the consumer generation, or even if not later came on to take on many of those characteristics, and takes its form from the criteria of its own particular sectoral features, in such a way that the values that comprise those criteria are not based on the preferences of the culture of any one section of society, and thus is a form that to a large extent brings together different cultures. In the same way that Europe has seen an industrialised society, the increase in artistic products related to popular culture and their increasing spread in all sections of society, and the efforts towards industrialisation in Turkey and the concomittant rise in urbanisation, have all led to an independent popular cultural atmosphere in society. The basic values that the wide community in which popular culture is influential expects from artistic endeavours can be summed up as easy to understand and comprehend and requiring no great depth, thus calling for no great debate. In Turkey, the products of popular culture have lent colour to the last quarter of the 20th century in particular, and as objects, or from the visual point of view, have called to a wide constituency. (more…)

 ?stiklal Mar??
Composer: Zeki Üngör (more…)

23 Nisan
Recorded By: The Culture Ministry State Children’s Chorus
By: Hasan Toraganl?

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Folk architecture is the living environment people have created for themselves. We can define local architecture as an architecture formed in the process of anonymous design which later becomes traditional under the influence of various factors. (more…)

Folk architecture is the living environment people have created for themselves. We can define local architecture as an architecture formed in the process of anonymous design which later becomes traditional under the influence of various factors. (more…)

Balances in the world system have changed as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The process initially led through the economical and political changes, but then affected social-cultural fields, too. Turkey is one of the countries most influenced by the process. Kazakhistan, Kyrgizistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan declared independence, and have since developed relations, particularly in the cultural dimension, with the Turkish Republic due to the existence of a shared history. Turkey has provided a new direction for its cultural policy in that short process, and has expanded ties to economic and political dimensions. Bilateral agreements on education, culture, economic cooperation have been signed and joint projects regarding foundations, institutions and universities initiated. (more…)

In Turkey, folklore studies began at the beginning of the 20th century. Ziya Gökalp mentioned folklore (”halkiyat”) in the magazine “Towards the People” in 1913. Later Riza Tevfik Bölükbasi and Mehmet Fuat Köprülü wrote articles on the subject in various magazines. A Folklore Association was set up in 1927 and the “People’s Houses” (1932) both carried out important survey work in this field. Today these activities are continued in various university faculties. (more…)

Folkdances, Costumes and Musical Instruments of Izmir
Zeybek Dances (a dance of western Anatolia or its music) appear to our minds whenever Western Anatolian Folk Dances especially of Izmir, Aydin, Denizli, Balikesir and Mugla are told. (more…)

The origins of Anatolian folk dances go back far into the past, when they were part of divine festivities. This is evident in the sin-sin which is danced at night and takes its name from the moon goddess Sin. Other dances, too, such as the Düz Halay of Sivas, the Basbar of Erzurum, the Bengu of Bergama, the Türkmen kizi (Türkmen’s daughter) of Corum, the Topal Kosma of Kastamonu, the Güvende of Bursa, the Harmandali, Arpazli and Yalabik of Kozak and Kasikci, and the Horon and Siskara of Trabzon were all part of sacred rituals. (more…)

Karagöz & Hacivat is a Turkish shadow play taking its name from its main character Karagöz. The origin of the shadow plays is accepted as southeastern part of Asia around Java. Turkish traveler Evliya ?lebi says that the play was first performed at the Ottoman palaces in the late 14th century. Some others say that this play came into Anatolia after Yavuz Sultan Selim, who had conquered Egypt in 1517, had brought the shadow play artists to his court. (more…)

Nasreddin Hoca was born in 1208 in Hortu village near town Sivrihisar (near Afyon) in the west part of Central Anatolia. He moved in 1237 to Aksehir town to study under notably scholars of the time as Seyid Mahmud Hayrani and Seyid Haci Ibrahim. He served as Kadi, Muslim judge, from time to time till 1284 which is the date of his death. (more…)

Throughout the coastal region of Turkey You will come across groups of nomadic herders, the yörüks, who in the winter come down to the pastures by the coast and in the summer, when the sun shrivels the vegetation on the coast, travel up into the mountains to the yaylas, the high mountain plateaus and valleys where there is sufficient grass and fodder for the animals until the autumn rains again regenerate the pastures on the coast. In Lycia you will see a few of the traditional black goat-hair tents, usually covered in plastic sheets nowadays, of the truly nomadic yörüks, though many now have more permanent houses on the coast and in the mountains. In other parts of Turkey there are larger numbers of these nomads, who carry everything with them on donkeys and camels along with their flocks of sheep and goats. (more…)

Islamic Art varies substantially from Western Art due primarily to restrictions in the Koran on depicting the human form. Rather than being representational of the profane world, the perfection of Ottoman art lies in the pure balance of color, line and rhythm in geometric patterns and designs. (more…)