Ministry initiates project to preserve folk music

ERZURUM

Within the scope of the project initiated by the Culture and Tourism Ministry to preserve folk music for future generations, folklore researchers are recording folk songs sung by deceased bards and local artists in the eastern province of Erzurum.

Interviews are being conducted with local musicians and singers as part of the ministry's project as well as artists who carry on the folk tradition across generations.

As part of the study, Tanju Ozanoğlu, a folklore researcher from the General Directorate of Research and Education, visited the Oltu district’s Minstrels Association in Erzurum.

Ozanoğlu met with minstrels and local artists and recorded traditional unmetered folk songs, a special type of folk music commonly performed in Anatolia.

“We are trying to make compilations on behalf of folklore all over the country. We have comprehensive studies on unmetered folk songs performed in Anatolia. We have traveled to every region of Türkiye in this regard. These works will be taken to the archive of the general directorate. We want to present these works as a publication,” Ozanoğlu added.

Bards who are singing folk songs in the style of famous deceased artists such as Sümmani and Aşık Reyhani stated that they were pleased with the ministry's work.

Remarking that they perform folk songs from Oltu region, folk singer Sinan Öztürk expressed his satisfaction with the transfer of folk songs to the future.

The phrase "unmetered folk song" refers to a type of folk music where verbal compositions have free rhythm and also a specific scale, the flow of which depends on specific patterns.

Also known as “uzun hava” (long air in English), unmetered folk songs are widespread in the Southeastern Anatolia region; especially around Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman provinces.