Analyzing the usûl and makam structures of Turkish folk songs collected in Kosovo between 1965 and 2020 using the ‘melodic nucleus’ approach

Abstract

The Kosovo region has inherited a significant amount of culture, art and architecture from the Ottoman Empire, under whose sovereignty it was under for many years. The communities living in this region are under the influence of makam music regardless of ethnic differences. In geographies under the influence of makam music, makam corridor, makam/sound regions and makam music sound pool are formed. This formation is a musical super identity above ethnic and religious identity. In this context, the Balkan Peninsula, and Kosovo, which is a sub-region of it, are likely to form a makam music corridor. For the last fifty years, local composers such as Aluş Nuş have been producing makam music work in Kosovo. In addition to this production, music collecting has been made and published by player such as Agim Fişar, Başkim Çabrat, İrfan Şekerci, Raif Vırmiça and many others. These collecting’s contain makam music features. However, some of them do not have makam and usûl definitions. The aim of this study is to analyze the makam and usûl of Turkish folk songs collected and transcribed in Kosovo over the last fifty years. There is no data on makam and usûl structures in the transcription of Turkish folk songs collected in this geography. In this context, the main problem of this study is what are the makam and usûl structures of these works. Literature review, document analysis and musical content analysis method will be applied in the study. Bayraktarkatal and Öztürk’s ‘melodic nucleus’ approach will be applied as a music analysis method. This study is limited to twenty-four notated Turkish folk songs. As a result, twelve different makams and five different usûls were defined in these works. These makams resemble the Turkish makam music definations. We can talk about the possibility of the Turkish makam corridor extending to the Kosovo region. However, in order to clarify this possibility, more collecting and work analysis studies are needed in the Balkan Peninsula.