The goal of the early republican elite was to form a new national identity supporting
westernization and the consciousness of secular Turkishness while excluding the Ottoman-
Islamic legacy as much as possible. Turkish History Thesis was, above all, an ideological
instrument for supporting and legitimizing these objectives. The influence of the Turkish
History Thesis on music debates of the early republican period is reflected by the arguments
on the Central Asian and archaic Anatolian origins of Turkish music, the alleged impact of
this archaic Turkish music on the other great music traditions of the world such as Western
music and the famous pentatonism thesis. In these debates, the Turkish History Thesis has
been employed as an ideological instrument rather than a scientific explanation. The
ideological background underlying the Turkish History Thesis and its various extensions in
the field of music has dominated not only the official view but also the oppositional discourse,
despite its weak scientific basis. This fact points to the extent of ideological hegemony
exercised by the dominant cultural discourse on the oppositional one and also presents a good
case of how the survival strategies of the oppositional culture against the attacks of an official
discourse pave the way for the internalization of this dominant discourse by it.
Turkish music reform Ottoman music Turkish folk music pentatonism sociology of music Turkish History Thesis Turkish modernization Turkish national identity
Primary Language | English |
---|---|
Journal Section | Original research |
Authors | |
Publication Date | April 15, 2016 |
Published in Issue | Year 2016 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 |
Yazarlarımızın editöryal süreçlerin aksamaması için editöryal emaillere 3 gün içinde yanıt vermeleri gerekmektedir.