Vocal performance characteristics in arabesque music

This study aims to examine the technical expressive elements of vocal performance in arabesque music and to evaluate the formation of these elements with support from existing literature addressing sociocultural, political, and socioeconomic dynamics. Studies on arabesque music have generally been shaped within the framework of social structures, cultural transformations, and the political atmosphere; however, technical analyses in the context of vocal performance have been largely neglected. This study, therefore, aims not only to fill the existing gap but also to contribute to grounding the concept of "arabesqueness," which is frequently used in the literature and often vaguely circulated, on a more scientific basis. The analysis topics created within this scope have been structured by utilizing studies that foreground vocal performance, interpretation styles, and voice training in the context of Turkish music. In addition, some characteristic vocal practices that cannot be defined by traditional categories are also included. The research is designed with a qualitative method, based on musical analysis and, within this scope, style analysis methods. The selected audio recordings were transcribed into musical notation to provide visual support, and sections that stood out in terms of variety of expression and technical application were supported by spectrogram images. The study is limited to artists who defined the interpretative identity of arabesque music in the 1980s. In this context, with reference to Muhammed Berdibek's work titled "Belki de Dilimden Bu Şarkı Düşmez"; performance analyses of Orhan Gencebay, Müslüm Gürses, Ferdi Tayfur, İbrahim Tatlıses, Bergen, Kibariye, Neşe Karaböcek, Gülden Karaböcek, Kamuran Akkor, Mine Koşan and Hakkı Bulut were included in the process. In the context of the reflections of the arabesque style in Turkish classical music, Zeki Müren's performances from different periods were evaluated and reflected in the text. The study also addresses vocal strategies specific to female artists, in line with gender roles and the effects of the patriarchal structure. Individual image creation, powerful voice use, masculine timbres, or fragile modes of expression, as well as rarely eroticized vocal attitudes evoking a female image, were included in the analysis process. In addition, the dramatic timbres and emotional intensity observed in arabesque performances were evaluated in the dimension of the analysis process that focuses on the emotional infrastructure, through interpretive features reflected in different forms of expression. Furthermore, theoretical approaches developed in the context of the sociology of music were also used to support the general framework of the study. In this context, the Cantometrics Project, which grounds musical performance styles in cultural structures, and improvisation practices, which enable the artist's original and spontaneous interventions on the performance, were evaluated under the relevant headings. The findings reveal that arabesque vocal performance is not only technical in structure but also presents a multidimensional field of expression carrying socio-cultural and identity-related layers.