The roots of traditional music in Turkey span across centuries to a time when the Seljuk Turks migrated to Anatolia and Persia in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkic and pre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for Westernization.
Romani music is the music of the Romani people who have their origins in northern India but today live mostly in Europe.
The bağlama or saz is a family of plucked string instruments and long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Turkish Arabesque music, Azerbaijani music, Bosnian music (Sevdalinka), Kurdish music, and Armenian music. It is played in several regions in the world such as Europe, Asia, Black Sea, Caucasus regions and many countries including Syria, Iraq, Iran and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is commonly used by the ashiks.
Hora, also known as horo and oro, is a type of circle dance traditionally performed in Southeast Europe. Circle dances called with similar names are found in Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, and culturally adopted by ethnic minorities such as the Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews and the Roma.
Zeibekiko is a Greek folk dance, similar to Turkish Zeybek dance.
The zurna is a double reed wind instrument played in Central Asia, West Asia, the Caucasus, Southeast Europe and parts of North Africa. It is also used in Sri Lanka. It is usually accompanied by a davul in Armenian, Anatolian and Assyrian folk music.
The music of Thrace, a region in Southeastern Europe spread over southern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and European Turkey, contains a written history that extends back to the antiquity, when Orpheus became a legendary musician and lived close to Olympus. Though the Thracian people were eventually assimilated by surrounding Balkan groups, elements of Thracian folk music continue.
Turkish folk music is the traditional music of Turkish people living in Turkey influenced by the cultures of Anatolia and former territories in Europe and Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under one umbrella. It includes popular music from the Ottoman Empire era. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ordered a wide-scale classification and archiving of samples of Turkish folk music from around the country, which, from 1924 to 1953 collected more than 10,000 folk songs. Traditional folk music was combined with Western harmony and musical notation to create a more modern style of popular Turkish music.
Zeybeks, sometimes spelled as Zeibeks, were irregular militia and guerrilla fighters living in West Anatolia from late 17th to early 20th centuries.
Kurdish dances are a group of traditional dances among Kurds. It is a form of a circle dance, with a single or a couple of figure dancers often added to the geometrical center of the dancing circle. At times musicians playing on a drum or a double reed wind instrument known as a zurna, accompany the dancers. Often there are dancers twirling handkerchiefs who lead the half-circled group of dancers. The dancers, generally the females, but also, on occasions, the males, wear traditional Kurdish clothes. The Kurds dance on several occasions such as Kurdish festivals, birthdays, New Years, Newroz, marriage and other ceremonies and the dances have several names which often relate to local names and traditions. Its noteworthy that these folkloric dances are mixed-gender which distinguishes the Kurds from other neighbouring Muslim populations. On March 3, 2023, Iranian police shut down a sports centre over mixed-gender Kurdish dances.
Horon is a group of traditional folk dances from the Eastern Black Sea Region in Turkey.
The zeybek is a form of Turkish folk dance particular to Western, Central and southern Anatolia in Turkey. It originates from two ancient Greek dances, the Dionysiac and the Pyrrhic, and it is named after the Zeybeks. In Greece, the dance is known as Zeibekiko.
Halay is the national dance of Turkey and a regional category of folk dance styles in central, southern, eastern, and southeastern regions of the country. It is mainly performed by Turks and Kurds in Turkey. Halay and similar dances are parts of multiple ancient folk dance traditions and cultures throughout the Middle East and regions in proximity.
Tamzara is a folk dance native to Armenian Highlands. In Armenia the dance originally had a ritual character, it was a wedding song and dance. Now "Tamzara" has lost its former ritual significance, when it was performed during almost all community events and parties. It is today performed by Armenians, Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, and Greeks. In post-Soviet Armenia, tamzara dance is gaining more and more popularity among all strata of the population.
It forms part of the broader musical tradition of mainland and of the southern Balkans. Compared to other regions of, the music of Macedonia is characterized by a high degree of diversity, due to the numerous influences it has received over the years from neighboring countries and particularly from refugees arriving in the early 20th century. In general terms, Macedonian music can be thought of as the connecting chain between the Western musical tradition of Epirus and Thessaly and the Eastern musical tradition of Thrace and Constantinople.
Bar is a folk dance from Armenian Highlands. The word bar is from the Armenian word "Պար" (bar) which means dance. With their structure and formation, they are the dances performed by groups in the open. They are spread, in general, all over the region of Eastern Anatolia, especially in Artvin, Ardahan, Erzurum, Bayburt, Ağrı, Kars, 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 bar dances are davul and zurna. The dominant measures in bars are 5
8 and 9
8. Occasionally measures of 6
8 and 12
8 are also used. Aksak 9
8 measures which are the most characteristic measures, in particular, of the Turkish folk music are applied with extremely different and interesting structures in this dance.
Kaşık Havası or Kaşık Oyunları are folk dances mostly spread over the Mediterranean region and have a varying structure of 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, baglama and clarinet, in general, they are accompanied by folk songs.
Teke zortlatmasi is a Turkish dance, with origins in Burdur, Isparta, Antalya, Denizli and Fethiye. The meter is 9/16.
Pontic Greek folk dances are a group of over ninety dances traditionally performed by Pontic Greeks. Dance has been an integral part of Pontian culture since ancient times. Dances vary based on region. Today, few Pontians remain in the Pontus region, but those living in the diaspora worldwide still perform folk dances to preserve their cultural heritage and group identity. Dances are accompanied by traditional music. Some traditional instruments include the lyra, daouli, zurna, dankiyo, tulum, and oud. The instrumental music may or may not be accompanied by singing.
