Abstract
On the Concepts of Region, Wording, Tone in the Area of Turkish Folk Music
With the expression of Turkish folk music, we refer to the music based on the tradition of a great society living in a very wide range of areas and generating a civilization because the Turks have lived not only within the boundaries of Turkey but also in variety of areas as large groups. Even when only the Central Asia called as Uluğ Turkestan is considered, it points out a Turkish population of 250 million people. Besides, except for Uluğ Turkestan, The Turks have been living in regions like Balkans, Europe, America and Australia. This study is limited to Turkey. Therefore, with the expression of Turkish folk music, we refer to the folk music of the Turks from Turkey.
There has not been reached a consensus about the definitions of some basic concepts of Turkish folk music of Turkey. Some issues such as Region, Style, Attitude, Type, Authenticity, Anonymity, Local Plectrum and etc. are still being discussed. When the region is mentioned, today’s administrative division is taken as a basis and it is limited to regions, provinces and even counties. When it comes to the region of a folksong; it can be expressed with the names of some cities such as Denizli, Eskişehir, Erzurum or with some province names such as Silifke, Eğin and Safranbolu and on the other hand, it can also be expressed with some region names such as Central Anatolia, Aegean or Eastern Anatolia. Apart from the fact that whether these nomenclatures are scientific or not, this can also lead to some discussions between the districts for reasons like this folksong has been stolen from our region or that folksong was taken from us.
Of course, the folksongs have been born and composed in a certain vicinity (district, region, location). It should not be forgotten that the majority of today’s folksongs were born in the old times and they have reached as an hereditary for today. Also when the region characteristic is mentioned, the expression of ‘’attitude’’ is used, but it is ignored that the attitude can be both personal and social. And the style issue is never mentioned. The purpose of this study is to give some suggestions and analyze the concepts of Region, Style and Attitude in the Turkish Folk Music of Turkey through the ways based on our experience in the field and the literature review method.
Keywords
Folk Culture, Folk Music, Folk Song, Song, Music
