Religious music practices of Protestant churches in Ankara

Many societies around the world use music in their rituals. Ritual is a tool to access the sacred and ritualistic music is one of the elements of this tool. Rituals form the beliefs and identity of a society and utilize the discursive power of music. Therefore, the lyrics in ritualistic music contain deep religious meanings. In order to understand the ritualistic music of a believing society, it is necessary to address the religious dimensions of its rituals. This is also true for the ritualistic music of the Protestant churches in Ankara. The Protestant Reformation that emerged in the XVI. century brought about changes in Christian beliefs and rituals. The approaches to the production of religious music used in the early Protestant Church are also seen in the religious music of today's Protestant churches in Ankara. When analyzing the ritualistic music of Protestant churches in Ankara, the concept of performance comes to the fore. Rituals are a form of performance during the display of the sacred. All abstract and concrete religious expressions in sacred performances are associated with ritual actors. Erving Goffman's concept of 'dramaturgy' frames the forms of expression in performances. The set, attitude and appearance in the performance create the frontstage. The created fronstage is related to concepts such as stage, role and team. The stage of Protestant church performances in Ankara is the apse. All ritualistic music is performed in the apse. The most determining factor for the musicians on stage and for the whole church space is the role of the faithful. All the faithful form a team. The spiritual leader of the team of faithful is the role of the head pastor, while the leader of the team of musicians is the role of the worship leader. When the structure of the hymns sung on the performance stage is analysed, it is possible to find various cultural interactions. It is seen that the melodies in the non-religious music genre are sanctified with poems suitable for Protestantism. The canon, as an element of ritual and in music, keeps Protestant Christian culture alive in social memory. The repertoire includes direct musical adaptations of verses from the Holy Bible. The lyrics of hymns that do not directly quote verses often make references to the Holy Bible. Thus, texts from the sacred canon are aestheticized. It is possible to find the themes of the biblical narrative in such compositions. The themes of birth, death and rebirth, which are also found in archaic cultures, are attributed to Jesus and are frequently depicted in hymns. The religious music of the Protestant churches in Ankara preserves the religious understanding of the XVI. century.