TURKEY: MUSIC AND DANCE

Turkish music should get an Instagram since it was such an influencer. But like every influencer, they borrowed styles from a lot of other people around them. They have their own styles of course, but with bits and pieces they picked off of Greek music, Arabic music, Balkan music, Persian music, and other styles from Central Asia. But there has also been a ton of people influenced by Turkish music as well: from classical composers like Beethoven and Mozart to modern groups like Beats Antique (which draws from a broader “Middle Eastern” sound).

Early Turkish music had strong roots in the music from the Seljuk Turks. Much of their folk music is based on this but with parts of the larger Turkic style that included variations of Armenian, Azeri, Greek, Polish, Jewish, and Albanian music. Folk music thrived in smaller towns as well as larger cities, even leading to different regional variations. And the Ottomans certainly had their own influences on it music and created a few standards on which other genres grew out of.

The backwards flat means the notes been lowered by a quarter tone.

Ottoman court music is based on a traditional form of Turkish classical music using modes and scales called makams. And they actually used several different types of methods of musical notation, eventually adopting the Western style of notation. The main form comprises a prelude, an improvisation section called a taksim (or taqsim), followed by a postlude (seems kind of like a sonata form but on a larger scale like a concerto perhaps.

kemençe

Traditional instruments are somewhat ubiquitous to what’s also used in Balkan and Middle Eastern music. Some of the instruments you’ll hear in Turkish folk traditions include the ney (an end-blown flute), the tambur (a plucked lute with a long neck), the oud (a plucked lute with a short neck and without frets), a kemençe (a bowed fiddle), the kanun (a type of plucked zither), and a variety of drums. Of course, today modern Western instruments are also played along with traditional ones.

In the royal courts, the women of the family would all live in a separate house, called the harem. And using melodies based on the traditional makams, they developed a type of dance music out of this. I’d say that most people are aware of belly dancing, but probably aren’t aware that belly dancing is a style of dancing that was created by women for women. The dancer, known as a rakkase, is hardly ever seen performing in public. Very different from today’s standard of seeing belly dancers performing in restaurants and festivals (unless it’s part of another’s culture, perhaps).

I was able to find quite a few Turkish musicians on Spotify. The first one I listened to was Müslüm Gürses, famous for singing in the arabesque style of music but was also an actor as well. The key parts I took from this were the traditional styles drums and strings accompanying a melodic line. At times it reminded me of Indian music. He was pretty active in the music scene from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. Arabesque music tends to be about sadness, sorrow, and pain, so much so that scientists have studied the fact that apparently some of his fans would cut themselves with razor blades during his concerts. I mean, that’s pretty extreme. They do know it’s just a song, right?

Sezen Aksu has been dubbed Queen of Turkish Pop for a reason. Even NPR included her in the 50 Great Voices of the World in 2011. Her career spans many decades, and her vocal style has a very melodic quality to it. She’s been a voice for activism, outwardly opposing many of the policies of the current administration and serving as a gay icon in Turkey.

If you’re looking for a more modern style of pop/dance, that brings us to Tarkan. He was actually born in West Germany (back when that was a thing) and moved with his family back to Turkey when he was 14 years old. He began taking an interest in music as a child and it grew to what it is now, eventually performing with many internationally known musicians. Another world pop musician that falls in this category more or less is Mustafa Sandal, although some of his music may be a little softer.

Ok, so I came across several rap/hip-hop musicians. The first one I listened to was Ceza. He incorporates some traditional drumming and other instrumental elements into his music. I have to give him props because I’ve actually never heard Turkish rap, but I think it sounds great (and he can rap kind of fast at times). I’d also recommend listening to Sagopa Kajmer; it’s a little more chill from what I listened to the Ahmak Islatan album. Sansar Salvo livens things up with a kind of electronica/hip-hop sound but some of these rhythms seem overly syncopated and doesn’t seem to match the beat at times. Another hip-hop artist I listened to is Şehinşah, who tends to have faster melodic music behind the music and collaborates with others on his music.

There were actually a few older musicians I listened to and included because I’m a big fan of rock of the 1960s and 1970s, and their sound fit right in. The first was Cem Karaca, and the album I listened to a bit of seems all instrumental and definitely fits in nicely with other psychedelic bands. Both Bariş Manço and Moǧollar have more of a folk rock feel to their music.

And finally I landed on a couple of metal bands from Turkey, both of which I look forward to listening to a little more in-depth. Pentagram has quite a bit of melodic elements to them. (They actually go by the name Mezarkabul outside of Turkey.) They’re probably not as “metal” as some people might expect from metal. Although I do like that they sing in both English and Turkish. Another metal band that uses classical styles mixed with their music is Almôra. This symphonic gothic metal band has been around since the early 2000s, and I just have to appreciate that they’re a metal band utilizing women as main vocalists.

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