Folk/Local Music

These are forms of music created by people settled in one particular location, played or recited with great affection, which have become the joint creation of the people of the area in question, and which have been passed down and kept alive down to the present day. Such music bears the traces of local cultures, and the names of the composers are generally unknown.

Turkish folk music has combined the distinct cultural values of all those civilisations which have lived in Anatolia and the Ottoman territories in Europe. It is a unique structure which includes regional differences under one umbrella, giving rise to a wealth and variety the like of which can seldom be seen anywhere else in the world. Despite that wide variety from the point of view of regional characteristics, Turkish folk music can broadly be classified into the following seven regional categories:

One must nevertheless bear in mind, of course, that there may well be important differences between cities or areas within the same region.