Facilitator
Evolution has constantly occurred in the Turkish culture with new things coming up all the time. In a culture with great diversity and heterogeneity, Turkish music faces the pressure to adjust and fit in the lifestyles of the people in the country (Khotani, 2010). Over the last century, the culture can boast of the profound changes and diversifications it has undergone to breed the current trend in the cultural industry. Music is the most relevant beneficiary of the diversifications and changes. The evolution of music traces its roots back to the Islamic influences on the folk music. Evolution took another level when the Ottoman music came to force before the current Prose music took control of the culture. This paper looks into the developments that the cultural music in Turkey underwent from the early times to the current trend of music with the aim of developing a strong cultural identity.
The background of music in turkey traces back to the folk music, influenced by the Nazi Muslims in the country. According to Khotani (2010), many musical tools became widely used although the mostly traditional music saw the development at that time. However, with time, the musical prowess in the Turkish republic took a turn due to the influence from the neighbouring countries like China, India, and Europe. In the last three decades, the Turkish people acclimatized their music with the rest of the world in a special way, in the ancient times, music was deemed non-influential in Turkey. Many people only listened to the cultural music, facilitated by old-fashioned tools. However, development and modernization characterize the Turkish music industry as diversity soon took over from the cultural set up. Presently, the Turkish people have so much liberalism as concerns the music to which they listen. Hip-hop music, dancehall, rid dim, and the pop music have all taken toll of the cultural people who enjoy every bit of the music that they play.
At early ages, then Turkish people mainly rely on the music that their relatives, caregivers, and close people play to them. In most of the cases, two decades ago, children got an introduction to the Muslim lullabies. Due to the age of the parents, folk music took the greater part of the music that children listened to two decades ago. Most of the cultural songs borrowed and combined a mix of songs from different cultural set ups. The Arabic lullabies borrowed a leaf from the Arab world, with the musical tools and the theatre setup totally Arabic. The byzantine music and the Greek music had some European influence due to colonization and trade. The tools used for the byzantine music were modernized than those used in the Arabic music did (Khotani, 2010). Dancing ceremonies and the instrumentals played major roles in the growth of the current generation. Major events like weddings played important roles in the music evolution in Turkey. In the early ages, the music tools used mainly reflected the traditional tools in Turkey. A Turkish classical music included the tanbur long necked plucked lute, the kemence bowed fiddle, kanun plucked zither, kudum drum sets, the violin, and the oud lute accompanied by sweet mevlevi music and a harp.
During the early cultural events, various practices accompanied the cultural music prevalent at the time. In the period of Ottoman music, belly dancing accompanied the music in most circumstances. In Turkey, women performed the belly dance for fellow women. The pre -school music and dances, the lullabies and the cultural music seized. The children possessed a strong cultural identity due to the music of their childhood. This gave them liberty to choose the music because of influence of peers and friends. During the grade school, the musical influence on the children never took a big turn (Stoughton, 2012). Memories of the great cultural music still lingered in their minds thus traces of the cultural music were still identifiable. However, because most of the Turkish schools consist of people with different cultural roots, musical culture became intermixed. When I was in grade school, I remember the teachers introducing the fact that our cultural music and events did not conform to what was happening on other cultures. Other types of music were silent in our lives, and we needed to explore them.
With time, games and sports came in and became part of the culture. They complimented the musical aspects, which modelled the cultural life in the grade school. We sang cultural songs during the free times and leisure time. Diversity loomed as the teachers tried to bring the culture aspect and the sports together. Weekend programmes made the host of musical events better as we went out for the stage performances that simply made the music ado stronger in our minds. The children simply enjoyed the concerts; however, sports and cultural activities characterized the major change at the grade school. Although different songs learnt when they were young from their caretakers and parents, the teachers insisted on learning some new cultural songs. The harem music got into the Turkish system to the grade level because it provided the easiest genre to learn at the grade. However, the best activities that came at the grade were the games and dances. Cultural music slowly became a cliché to most people as we prepared to get to the next level. Middle ages of the youth drew near and the songs we listened to slowly intermixed. Few people listened purely to the cultural music at this level. According to Stoughton (2012), oriental dancing styles slowly encrypted into the dancing styles of the Turkish people making the theatre industry diversified. Festivals and cultural events came underway and surely, the grade class started swaying off as the middle class trickled in.
As we got into the middle school, music, dance and cultural activities became more complicated. The media took a toll on the middle school youth and adolescence strolled in. Music evolution intensified at this level. Champagne artists and celebs started to appear real to the youth. Desire to identify with the great local musicians took the better of us. The teachers took more control as they became the source of inspiration. The cultural activities deemed more mixed due to stronger adoption of the multicultural setup of the middle school. The Romani influences started to strengthen, and new instruments came into existence (Stoughton, 2012). The clarinet, the darbuka, the violin, and the kanun intersected well with the traditional Turkish instruments. However, at the middle school level, the greatest effect came from the military music. Brass music and military matching music attracted my attention most and I started listening to them pretty much. The orhun encryptions and the military festivals took a toll on my darling ceremonies. The percussion instrumentation presented one of the best types of the Turkish musicals. Architectural activities came into force due to the influence of the teachers. They soon became the basis of composition of the Turkish music.
Classes and castes emerged as the greatest determinant of the cultural and social activities that the people participated. Members of the upper urban class had more sophisticated cultural life due to the influence of the European foreigners on their music. However, the cultural life in our middle school deemed a little moderate with little influence from the outside world. The American culture, in most cases, took a toll of our lives in later ages than the urban class because contact institution became slower and later. Symbols of the social stratification became more vivid as we neared the high school level. Dress code during the cultural events and festivals marked the ultimate definition of the Turkish culture. For example, most men in the society dressed in shirts, trousers, and jackets during the cultural activities in order to avoid provocation and ‘shame’. The western music, the European music, and the American music marked the ultimate end to the middle school. At the time when graduation from the middle school drew near, all the people grew addicted to the music from the urban classes, mostly influenced by the outside world. However, even as the western music took its part in the Turkish culture, the cultural music never seized. However, cultural leaders could not regulate the musical base of the youth anymore.
At the high school level, theatre and arts diversified totally. Music no longer controlled everything. Lifestyle decisions started on more independent grounds and different activities showed up. At the theatre, we got an introduction to the visual arts, people performing plays, narratives, and poetry. According to Rawsthorn (1997), the Turkish poems moved the emotional sense that they attracted many people from the high school level. Relatives involved in poetry influenced my move towards the theatre department and my likes to the same intensified. Many people argued that turkey had diversified faster than expected because the western poetry rivalled the local poems favourably. Roles division in the society occurred mostly based on the gender of the people. Ladies cooked while the men performed the out-house chores in order to learn family provision roles. The national ceremonies played the most important role in the culture of the people at the high school level. Creativity grew among young people and some of us went into music and dance. Admirable musicians mimicked the heroes that most of the students wanted to identify with. However, the most memorable events at the high school level were the encryptions of the foreign music into the Turkish culture. Hip-hop became real among the Turkish middle-aged people, with the American music hitting the ground in the country.
Currently, the college population listens to diversified music from all races and origins. The American music, the African folks, the European music, and the native Turkish music all compete for the market among the college occupants. However, modern music takes the best of the students because of the appeal and identity that the music commands among the young people (Rawsthorn, 1997). Love songs take the best of the young minds as best acted through the magic flute, a play that clearly shows the Turkish lavish music life. The cultural music in turkey allows the college students to adopt other music types like the pop music, the classical music, brass music and traditional music. Interrelations between the different genres of music get the mix at the college level as the students venture into engaging the different genres in their practice. After the queen’s women saving him from the serpent, Tamino gets the image of Pamina and falls in love with what he saw. He sings a love song for the portrait just before the news cane in that a sorcerer had captured the woman. In swearing to rescue Pamina, Tamimo remembers the romantic song again.
In words full of poetry, the queen appeared to Tamimo and told him that Pamina would become his wife if he managed to rescue her from the sorcerer. Poetic composition and a mix of the American waves show up when Papageno and Tamino leave to rescue the little woman, with Papageno carrying charms to protect Tamino. Love and rage songs surround the whole time of rescue of pamina. The night after rescuing pamina, Monostatos tries to kiss Pamina while she sleeps but the queen appears and asks him to leave. The queen gives a dagger to Pamina, asks her to kill Sarastro, singing her favourite song entitled “Der Holle Rache” which signifies the instruction to kill. The magic flute thus depicts the Turkish way of theatre and songs by introducing the writer to the romantic, revenge and rage songs alike. The magic flute symbolises the musical instruments that drove the whole race of people in turkey at the time (Rawsthorn, 1997). Songs of jubilation show up towards the end when Tamino sings to the gods after successfully completing the trials. Musical instruments come vivid in the play through Papageno who wanted to hang himself. However, the spirits caught up with him and suggested that he plays the magic bells instead.
The Turkish music culture ranks among the world’s strongest and modest cultures in theatre and visual arts. The culture attempts to model the people so that the foreign music does not dilute the local music totally. The Turkish people listen to different categories of music from the most ancient to the world’s current trending music. Instrumentation and cultural identity mark the ultimate symbol of success in the Turkish music culture. The Turkish music evolves through many stages depending on the social class of people. Some people face shorter times in the ancient lullabies and more time in the current European music because they live in town. However, the Turkish people evolve in terms of cultural music and benevolence, with the young people facing stage-managed evolution from lullabies to the middle level music until they mature to the modern music.
References
Rawsthorn, A. (1997, Jan 08). PolyGram takes Turkish music stake. Financial Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/248389363?accountid=45049
Khotani, S. A. (2010, Apr 25). Khoja to patronize Turkish cultural day. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/458181413?accountid=45049
Stoughton, I. (2012, Jan 30). Nev-eda: An evening of Turkish classical music in beirut. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/918642950?accountid=45049
