Varieties of Style, Scale and Rhythm and Spheres of Use

Varieties of Folk Music

Music accompanied by words can be classified under the following headings: Türkü (folksongs), Koşma (free-form folk songs about love or nature), Semai (folk song ın Semai poetic form), Mani (a traditional Turkish quatrain form), Destan (epic), Deyiş (speech), Uzun Hava (long melody), Bozlak (a folk song form), Ağıt (a lament), Hoyrat, Maya (a variety of Turkish folksong), Boğaz Havası (throat tune), Teke Zorlatması, Ninni (lullaby), Tekerleme (a playful form in folk narrative), etc. These are divided into free-forms or improvisations with no obligatory metrical or rhythmic form, known as Uzun Hava, and those which no have a set metrical or rhythmic structure, known as ‘Kırık Havalar,’ (Broken Melodies). Both can also be employed at the same time.
Music generally played without words, and dance tunes, go by the names Halay, Bengi, Karşılama, Zeybek, Horon, Bar etc.

Folk Music Scales

Although Turkish folk music melodies possess the same note and scale modules as traditional Ottoman Classical Music, the melodies known as ‘Makam’ (similar to the medieval concept of mode) in Turkish folk music can be known by different names depending on the region, such as: Beşiri, Garip, Kerem, Misket, Müstezad etc.

Rhythm and Beat in Folk Music

Simple beats such as 2/4, 4/4 and 3/4, irregular beats such as 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, 7/4 and 5/4, and mixed beats such as 8/8, 10/8 and 12/8 are used in folk music.

Folk Music Spheres of Use

Melodies of differing types and styles have been created by the people in various spheres and stages of life, joyful or sad, from birth to death. Minstrel singers, accompanying themselves on the saz, played a most important role in the development and spread of Turkish folk music.