Tahir Palalı

Traditional music is an umbrella term used in the mid–20th century by folklorists and ethnomusicologists to denote community-rooted, orally transmitted repertoires tied to social ritual, work, celebration, and storytelling. Unlike commercial pop or art-music traditions, traditional music is typically learned by ear, varies regionally, and evolves slowly through communal participation. It often features modal melodies, cyclic rhythms, heterophony or unison singing, and indigenous instruments whose timbres are integral to local identity. Lyrics tend to preserve language, history, and collective memory. While the musical practices themselves can be ancient, the phrase “traditional music” emerged to replace earlier, narrower or colonial framings like “folk” or “ethnic” music, foregrounding continuity, locality, and living practice rather than exoticism.

Baglama refers to the musical tradition centered on the bağlama (saz), the long‑necked lute that is the emblematic instrument of Turkish folk music. Its repertoire includes metered dance songs (kırık hava) and free‑rhythm laments (uzun hava), Alevi‑Bektaşi devotional forms (nefes, deyiş, semah), ashik (âşık) poet‑singer ballads, and countless regional türkü. Musically it blends folk modal practice (ayaklar) related to Ottoman/Turkish makam (e.g., Hüseynî, Uşşak, Rast) with asymmetrical “aksak” meters (9/8, 7/8, 5/8) and common simple meters (2/4, 4/4, 6/8). Signature regional grooves include zeybek (slow, dignified 9), halay (line dances), horon (brisk Black Sea patterns), and semah (Alevi ritual cycles). Technique ranges from plectrum playing (tezene) with ringing drones to virtuosic fingerstyle (şelpe) that turns the bağlama into a polyphonic rhythm‑melody engine. The instrument family spans cura (small, bright), standard bağlama/tambura, and divan saz (large, deep), enabling solo storytelling, duet counter‑lines, and layered ensemble textures.