Serap Mutlu Akbulut

Arabesk is a Turkish popular music style characterized by deeply emotive singing, melodramatic lyrics, and melodies grounded in the makam (modal) tradition. It blends elements of Turkish classical/urban art music, regional folk timbres (especially the bağlama/saz), and lush orchestral arrangements inspired by mid-20th-century Middle Eastern film music. Typical performances feature melisma, expressive vibrato, microtonal inflections, and frequent use of the Hijaz/Phrygian dominant flavor, often at slow-to-mid tempos with prominent strings and acoustic instruments. Lyrical themes revolve around longing (gurbet), fate, heartbreak, social displacement, and moral struggle—reflecting the rural-to-urban migration experience that shaped modern Turkey.

Türk Sanat Müziği (Turkish Art/Classical Music) is the urban, courtly art music tradition of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. It is built on the makam system (a finely nuanced modal practice with characteristic scales, microtonal intervals and prescribed melodic routes, or seyir) and the usûl system (cyclical rhythmic patterns ranging from simple 4/4 to very large, asymmetrical cycles). Typical instruments include tanbur (long‑necked lute), ud (oud), kanun (zither), ney (end‑blown reed flute), kemençe (spike fiddle), keman (violin), kudüm (small kettle drums) and various frame drums; voices are central and use ornate melisma and microtonal intonation. Core forms include instrumental peşrev and saz semâî, free‑rhythm improvisation (taksim), long vocal forms such as kâr and beste, and the popular şarkı (strophic song). Suites (fasil) modulate through related makams while maintaining a chosen usûl. Aesthetic values emphasize refined timbre, precise intonation (Arel–Ezgi–Uzdilek theory describes 24 unequal pitches per octave derived from small comma steps), graceful ornamentation, and expressive, often romantic or contemplative poetry.