Mustafa CAKAR

TURKISH FOLK- DANCES AND FOLK MUSIC

Turkish folk-dances and folk- music create one of our traditions which, for centuries, as the most effective means of national feelings and culture. As a geographical, historical and cultural phenomena, our folk-dances and our music work emerging in a variety of forms and of very rich character in different regions are considered to be a cultural treasure. The number of our folk- dances performed and folk-songs sing reaches almost 10 thousand that are observed in weddings, gatherings, festivals, friendship meetings (yarenler) association meetings, seymenlik (performance of young men armed in national costume who take part in a wedding procession/festivals) ceremonies, various seasonal recreations, holidays and in many other traditional activities. It is necessary to regard the Turkish folk-music and folk-dances always as a whole completing each other.

Including a many small kinds, our main East-Anatolia), halay's (in Anatolia), zeybek's (on the Aegean coast), hora's (cyclic dance) and horon's (round dance), samah's (folk-dance) etc. Our folk- dances spread over all of these regions have very rich figures and melody structure and they are, in general, classified into a) woman dances b) man dances and c) woman -man dances. Another classification is a)one-person dances b)two-people dances and c) group dances. Following are the characteristics of some of our folk-dances:

1)Bar's: With their structure and formation, they are the dances performed by groups in the open. They are spread, in general, over the eastern part of Anatolia (Erzurum, Bayburt, Agri, Kars, Artvin and Erzincan provinces). The characteristic of their formation is that they are performed side-by-side, hand, shoulder and arm-in-arm. Woman and man bars are different from one another. The principal instruments of our bar dances are drum and zurna (shrill pipe). Later, clarinet has been added to the woman bars. The dominant measures in bars are 5/8 and 9/8. Occasionally measures of 6/8 and 12/8 are used. Aksak 9/8 measures which are also the most characteristic measures, in particular, of the Turkish folk music are applied with extremely different and interesting structures in this dance.

2) Halay: This folk-dance is performed to a large extent in the Eastern, South- Eastern and Central Anatolia and it is one of the most striking dance. It has a rich figure structure of simplicity is the symbol of creation and originality of the folk. The rhythmic elements of halay dances are very rich and are mostly performed with drum-zurna combination as well as with kaval (shepherd's pipe), sipsi (reed), cigirtma (fife) or baglama (an instrument with three double strings played whit a plectrum) or performed when folk songs are sung. You may experience all the measures of the Turkish folk music in the halay melodies.

3) Horon's: HORON or the round dance is a typical folk dance of the Black Sea coastal area and its interior parts. Horons appear very different from the folk dances in other parts of the country with their formation of tempo, rhythm and measure. Horons are performed, in general, by groups and their characteristic measure is 7/16 For their melodies are rendered very fast, it is very difficult to render them with every instrument. For this reason, rendering with a drum and zurna becomes practical. Melodies of horon are performed with the small type of zurna which is called 'cura'. In addition, in the interior parts blowing instruments such as bagpipe mey (again, a small zurna) etc. The other measures used are 2/4, 5/8 and 9/16.

4. Zeybek's: Zeybeks are, in general, the widespread folk dances of the Western Anatolia. It is rendered by one person or two or by a group of people and its name changes for example as 'seymen' in the central parts of Anatolia. Zeybek dances are formed, in general, of 9/8 measures and have a variety of tempos such as very slow, slow, fast and very fast. Very slow zeybek dances have the measure of 9/2, slow ones 9/4 and some others 9/8. Very fast dances, for instance, teke (goat) dance seen in Burdur - Fethiye region can be regarded as dances of zeybek character, they have the traditional measure of 9/16 There is another folk dance named as BENGI in the zeybek region. It is performed more differently than zeybek and has got a different musical feature and the most characteristic measure of bengi dance is 9/8. Particularly in slow zeybeks, the traditional instruments is drum- zurna combination. The use of 2 drums and 2 zurnas in combination is a tradition, function of one of the zurnas is accompaniment, in other words, it accompanies the melody with a second constant tune. Apart from drum-zurna, a three-double string instrument baglama, reed, marrow bow etc. are used for fast zeybek dances. In particular, the traditional instrument of the teke (goat) dance region is reed.

5. We have folk dances having different characteristics other than the main ones mentioned above: a. We have 'karsilama' (a kind of wedding music) and hora type folk dances with melodic and rhythmic structure and with a fast performance facing one another and different cultural structure of the region and the dominant measure is 9/8 but some other measures are used as well. Their traditional instrument are 2 drum - 2 zurna combination, the most characteristic use of this combination is seen in this region. b. Our wooden-spoon folk dances: these dances, in general, are mostly spread in our Mediterranean region and have a very different structure with their arrangement performance, rhythmic and melodic characteristics. They are always rendered with wooden- spoons and the characteristic measure is 2/4 or 4/4. The instruments used are beast bow (later violin), baglama and clarinet, in general, they are accompanied by folk songs. c. Samah's: Samah melodies have the measures of 5/8, 7/8 and 9/8. Their traditional instruments are baglama, bow etc. There is no rhythmic instrument. Performance by singing (without any instrument) is also widespread. The most developed samahs are of 3 parts, namely: a) agirlama (entertainment b) yeldirme (cloak wearing) c) kogdurma (dismissing).

There are many other types of such dances and melodies apart from the ones mentioned above in our country. What we have presented here are only the principal ones underlined with main titles.