A cultural analysis of the musical practices of the Mor Petruspavlus church of "The syriac ancient metropolitanate of Adıyaman and its environs"

In this study, the musical practices of the nearly 5500 years old church of the Syriacs, one of the communities who first embraced the Christian faith, are being handled for cultural analysis. Syriacs are a society that has been living in the geography of Mesopotamia for centuries, having built a common model of life regarding religion, language, lifestyle, descent, historical consciousness and community name. This society has based its common lineage consciousness on Christianity, its common religion. They have called themselves "kadim", the Turkish word for "ancient", in order to reflect the depth of their particular genealogical and religious background. Due to social and political reasons this society has become a diaspora in the geographical region of Middle East where it lives. The Syriac Ancient Orthodox Church continues to exist in many parts of the world. In Turkey, it operates in four Metropolitanates, "Mardin", "Midyat", "Adiyaman" and "Istanbul", because of the relative density of the Syriac population in these regions. In this study, the musical practices, a dimension of the rituals of the Syriac Ancient Orthodox Church, are being handled in the context of "The Petruspavlus Church of the Adiyaman and Peripheral Provinces Syriac Ancient Metropolitanate". The meaning of "Syriac Religious Music" has been analyzed in the ethnomusicological framework with a structural and musical analysis of this music together with the cultural context. Every year the seasonal rituals of the Syriac Orthodox Church are conducted in eight musical modes according to the meaning expressed in the theology of the church; and, through interviews with experts, the Syriac musical notes corresponding to each musical note in the Turkish musical system have been determined through observation, sensory analysis and interviews with the authorities. The sources of Syriac religious music are the Old Testament (Torah and Psalms), the New Testament (Bible), and the texts written by Syriac Church Saints. Religious musical pieces of the church are performed in "Aramaic" and "Turkish" in "metric", "free-metric" and "tajweed" musical forms by using eight Syriac Church musical modes corresponding to the Turkish musical modes. It has also been determined and shown in detail in this study, that the meanings attributed to these musical modes are based on a deep-rooted cultural heritage of the Middle East, and that these musical modes are performed rhythmically and according to rules dominated by a numerical mysticism. Keywords: Syriacs, Adiyaman, Mor Petruspavlus Church, Christian Orthodox, Syriac Religious Music, Religious Music Ethnology.