Music brings people together...

Music is an art and has the power to culturally, morally and emotionally influence our society. Thus, the more aware we become with music around the world the more powerful we will become in making deep positive impact on our students.

MUSIC IN ROMANIA

traditional music in romania

elena corina rogoveanu

Romania is situated in the southeastern part of Central Europe. Though the Romanian culture shares some similarities with other European countries, it has distinctive traditions as a result of its historical evolution: music, brightly colored ornaments and costumes, traditional dances, local traditions and customs.

Music is a true gateway to the country’s culture: From town to town, village to village different music instruments or different style of music define our country. 

Folk music is the oldest form of music in Romania with a rich and diverse history. Our traditional Doina is a free form lyrical song made up of sequence of melodic elements and lengthened by a performer in a manner typical of the area. Doina is only found in Romania, in vocal and instrumental versions. As the essence of Romanian folklore, until 1900 it was the only musical genre in many regions of the country. In 2009 Doina has been included in the Unesco list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Doina is poetic and often melancholic, sometimes compared to the blues because it’s played with a slow, free rhythm melody. 

Romanian Folk Dances

Romania has a very rich and complex folklore treasure. The Romanian popular dances, known for their beauty and large variety, constitute this treasure together with songs, fables, legends, and popular poetry. Although the Romanian popular dance appears in a large variety of regional aspects, it presents essential characters in common, uniting all forms of choreographic expression of the Romanian people.  Dance is never separated from music. Before being accompanied by instruments, dance was accompanied by songs and the rhythms of clapping hands or percussion. This kind of dancing is going on today in some ritual dances for men and women.

There is a great variety of regional styles with pronounced character, conferring personality on the different folklore regions of the country. The folklore regions cannot be strictly delimited by the specific character of the dancing and style because many aspects overlap, but the local regions can be grouped geographically in larger regions corresponding to the ancient historical provinces.

folklore and music of Romania

barbu nicoleta livia

Folk music is the oldest form of Romanian musical creation, characterized by great vitality. Folk music of Romania is the defining source of the cultured musical creation. Conservation of Romanian folk music has been aided by a large and enduring audience, and by numerous performers who helped propagate and further develop the folk sound. One of them, Gheorghe Zamfir is famous throughout the world today, and helped popularization of a traditional Romanian folk instrument, the panpipes.

The doina is a lyrical, solemn chant that is improvised and spontaneous. As the essence of Romanian folklore, until 1900 it was the only musical genre in many regions of the country. The peasant doinas are mostly vocal and monophonic and are sung with some vocal peculiarities that vary from place to place: interjections, glottal clucking sounds, choked sobbing effects, etc.

Instrumental doinas are played on simple instruments, usually various types of flutes, or even on rudimentary ones, such as a leaf. In 2009 the doina has been included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The earliest music was played on various pipes with rhythmical accompaniment later added by a cobza. This style can be still found in Moldavian Carphatian regions of Vrancea and Bucovina. Arcanul Batranesc is a slow Arcanul from Moldavia Region in Romania. Batran means " ancient" or "old" and it is a common "surname" to dances from all over Romania.

traditional

instruments

Florentina Ruxandra badescu

VIOARA (VIOLIN)

The modern violin arrived in Romania in the 18th century and is know by a variety of names: cetera-Transylvania, scripcar-Moldavia, lauta –Banat si Hunedoara. In Oltenia and Muntenia many different tuning systems were originally used for certain dance tunes, but these have mostly now been abandoned.

FLUIER (FLUTE)

  The common fluier is made out of wood with the lower aperture of reduced diameter.

  The fluier come in various sizes with the largest known as the fluier mare or caval and the smallest known as the fluieras or trisca.

CAVAL

In Romanian the caval most often refers to the long flute with five finger hols in groups of three with a simple block mounth piece.

It is found in Oltenia, Muntenia and south Moldavia. An old style of playing where the player growls whilst playing continues in remote areas and amongst the Hungarian Csango minorities in Moldavia.

NAI (PANPIPE)

  The nai can now be found widely in gypsy tarafs through Moldavia and Wallachia and most folk orchestras. 

Gheroghe Zamfir

ACCORDION

  The accordion is dominating as the harmony accompaniament in most regions’ village music, replacing the cobza, cimbalom and contra, being preferred due to its strong sound.

TULNIC

MUSIC IN JORDAN

TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN JORDAN

RIMA ALERKEAEBAT

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is located in the Arab part of the Asian continent.

It is considered one of the most important historical areas where many civilizations have been contested, as well as significant historical events happened on its territory.

Jordan is located to the south of the Syrian Arab Republic, to the east of the State of Palestine, to the north of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to the west of the Republic of Iraq, where Jordan overlooks its south and through the city of Aqaba on the waters of the Red Sea. 

Traditional folk singing is widespread in rural areas and cities and towns of Jordan, especially in the northern and central regions, and has even entered all Jordanian cities strongly. The songs of the countryside were more rapid, graceful and decorative than in the badia due to the active moving rhythm of life in its seasons and events. The majority of rural music is performed collectively, accompanied by popular dabkatdances scattered across Jordan and mastered by the vast majority of Jordanians. Among his templates are: Daluna, Zarif al-Taweel, Mahah, Attaba, Mejana, Al-Jafra, Ola and Ola, among others. It is accompanied by popular musical instruments, including youth, maggots, yergool, medicine, and kinship.

Bedouin Singing

It is a song that belongs to the human groups that inhabit the Jordanian badia, and bedouin singing has been characterized by a lack of hallelouts and melodic or rhythmic motifs, and the extension of some sounds for a long time, and most of the singers of the badia tend to the loud, sharp voice of the nose. In terms of director, quiet rhythm, and because of the isolation from the city and the countryside, the Bedouins were not (only recently) exposed to the new music, where they preserved the originality of the old Arabic singing through a valuable and important collection of Bedouin musical templates, the most important of which : Hadda, Al-Hybridi, Al-Shorouki, Al-Wassam.

As-Samer

As-Samer is a Levantine Arab folkloric art that mainly consists of dance and singing. In addition to performing it during traditional occasions nowadays, it is considered a joyous tradition that expresses parents’ joy of uniting one of their sons in wedlock, recovery of a patient, celebrating the return of a long-forgotten traveler, or circumcising a new born baby. As for performing As-Samer during marriage ceremonies, it is usually performed at the groom’s parents' house.

A day or more before the celebration; family members, kinsfolk and relatives announce their intention to perform As-Samer for one night or more as they sometimes perform it for a whole week, i.e seven nights. 

MUSIC IN TURKEY

MUSIC IN TURKEY



FERHAT ŞİMŞEK

Turkey has a rich musical tradition of varied and often contrasting styles. Turkish music forms great examples of such a mix of cultural influences. From Turkish folk, classical and pop music to military and

mystical sounds.

MUSIC FESTIVALS

There are a number of prominent music festivals in Turkey including the Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival which is held in June and July and the Istanbul Music and Jazz Festivals.

Also, popular music industry in Turkey boosted by the MTV style TV channels playing non-stop music videos.

MUSICAL TRADITION

Turkey has a rich musical tradition of varied and often contrasting styles. Turkey lies at the axis of the cultures of East, West, Mediterranean, Middle East and Islam. Anatolia's cultural variety is so rich that you can see great cultural differences even in areas geographically quite close to each other. This colorful portrait holds just as true for Turkey's music.

TURKISH FOLK MUSIC

Turkish folk music combines the distinct cultural values of all civilisations that have lived in Anatolia and the Ottoman territories.

TURKISH MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

There are a number of musical instruments in Turkey such as:

Stringed Instruments: Saz, Baglama, Ud, Tar

Bow Instruments: Kabak Kemane, Kemence, Kanun, Santur

Wind Instruments: Ney, Klarnet, Zurna, Kaval, Cigirtma, Tulum, Sipsi, Cifte

Percussion: Davul, Nagara, Tef, Kasik, Kudum, Nevbe, Zil

CLASSICAL TURKISH MUSIC

Classical Turkish music is monophonic, meaning all instruments essentially play the same tune. With the formation of the Turkish Republic, a form of modern polyphonic Turkish music began to develop and there are now numerous successful classical composers. In this music theTurks own a multitude of patterns composed of a series of committees were created.

music in turkey

Ibrahim yazgan

Turkey has a rich musical tradition of varied and often contrasting styles. Turkey lies at the axis of the cultures of East, West, Mediterranean, Middle East and Islam. Anatolia's cultural variety is so rich that you can see great cultural difference seven in areas geographically quite close to each other. This colorful portrait holds just as true for Turkey's music.

FOLK DANCE İN TURKEY

With colorful costumes and vibrant figures, folk dances in Turkey are not only the most important components of people’s entertainment culture, but also carry thousands years old cultural motifs to the future and assume an important role in preserving a heritage. Folk dance groups that take the stage in almost every occasion, festivals, folk dance courses all around the country exhibit the wide diversity of regions as displayed in their dances and help them survive. At the same time, folk dances are an integral part of all kinds of entertainment; halay, horon, zeybek, çiftetelli are essential dances of both marriage ceremonies and entertainment venues. If you join an entertainment in Turkey, you will certainly witness one of these dances and your friends will invite you to dance with them.

MOST POPULAR TYPES OF FOLK DANCES IN TURKEY

AEGEAN

 “Zeybek” Dance of the Western Anatolia region has slow zeybek, spoon zeybek, fast zeybek, Teke (kırık) zeybek, and ‘toplu güvende’ zeybek varieties.

CENTRAL ANATOLIA

HALAY:We mostly encounter “halay” in Eastern Anatolian Region. Halay has found itself an important place in the western region sand in the modern culture as well. A group of dancers form a lineor a semi circle, holding each other’s hands or arms and circle during the dance; it has very different forms from simple figures to the most sophisticated.

BLACK SEA

 “Horon”Dances Horon as a word means different things: it means black from colors. It was the name of the dance that was played in very old ages in religious ceremonies. It also means the bunch of reaped crops after harvest. Especially, it is the name of the dance played with small three-stringed violin called "kemence" and shrill pipe in the Black Sea region of Turkey.

TURKISH MUSIC

EVRIM KILIC

Cultural structure of Turkey, under the influence of geographical and historical features very rich and formed by blending of  different cultures; It is adorned with colors such as East, West, Middle East, Mediterranean and Islamic culture and has been affected by these cultures.

Anatolia hosts in different cultures for many years, history has created an infrastructure in the formation of  musical culture in Turkey.

The changes experienced in the Seljuks and the Ottomans with the acceptance of  Islam had an important effect on the music culture of Anatolia and the Near East. For this reason, the Ottoman Empire was one of  the important cultural centers of  the world until the mid-17th century.

Music Types in Turkey: living in a rich cultural and historical development of  Turkish music can be studied in a variety  of  main and sub-titles.

1. Turkish Folk Music

2. Turkish Art Music

3. Military Music

4. Popular Music

5. Classical Music

6. Religious Music

INSTRUMENTS USED IN TURKISH MUSIC

One of  the valuable treasures  of  Turkish culture is Turkish Music. The instruments used in more up-to-date music forms such as Turkish Folk Music, Turkish Art Music or Anadolu Rock, which are fed by local cultural richness, differ from those of other countries. 11 instruments identified with Turkish Music:drums, instruments, violins, fiddle, oud.

TURKISH FOLK DANCES

The local games, dance and costumes played in the villages and towns are all folk dances. Types of folk dances, also known as folklore, are over 4000. These games, which have cultural melodies according to their region, offer richness with their differences.

MUSIC IN TURKEY

SEVGİ ŞEYDA ÖZKAN

The music of Turkey includes mainly Turkic elements as well as partial influences ranging from Central Asian folk music, Arabicmusic, Greekmusic, Ottomanmusic, Persianmusic and Balkan music, as well as references to more modern Europeanand American popular music. Turkey is a country on the northeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroad of cultures from across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and South and Central Asia.

The roots of traditional music in Turkey span cross centuries to a time when the SeljukTurks migrated to Anatolia and Persia in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkicandpre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for Westernization. 

With the assimilation of immigrants from various regions the diversity of musical genres and musical instrumentation also expanded. Turkey has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnics tyles of Greek, Armenian, Albanian, Polish, Azeri and Jewish communities, among others any Turkish cities and towns have vibrant local music scenes which, in turn, support a number of regional musical styles.

 Despite this how ever, western-style pop music lost popularity to arabesque in the late 1970s and 1980s, with even its greatest proponents, Ajda Pekkan and Sezen Aksu, falling in status. It became popular again by the beginning of the 1990s, as a result of an opening economy and society. With the support of Aksu, there surging popularity of pop music gave rise to several international Turkish pop stars such as Tarkan and Sertab Erener. The late 1990s also saw an emergence of underground music producing alternative Turkishrock, electronica, hip-hop, rap and dance music in opposition to the main stream corporate pop and arabesque genres, which many believe have become too commercial.

MUSIC IN TURKEY



SERAP OZ AYDIN

TURKISH MUSIC

ESRA SIMSEK

Turkish music comes from various old music courses and has developed its own style combining the Central Asian folk music from the Seljuk period with the Byzantine, Persian, Ottoman, Arab, Balkan and gypsy musics until the present, as well as mixing the American and European popular music with these traditional ones. TheTurkish folk music developed through out the centuries by the local people of Anatolia, who also practiced religious and military music too, such as the Whirling Dervishes' Sufi music and the Jannissary band of the Ottoman army. Arabesque music came in to the Ottoman palaces with the influence from the Middle East, and belly dance music became popular in the Ottoman Harem. 

In the meantime intellectuals who lived in the cities developed the classical music. Generally speaking, the pop, rock and jazz were developed only after the Republic and lately they became an important music genre amongst young people in the country, especially in the big cities. During the late 1990's, the underground music, Turkish rock, hip-hop, rap, electronica, and dance music became popular too as a part of American influence from around the world.