Sonological analysis of the violin as a meaning production medium in the styles of western and Turkish musics

Cultural identity is the demand to show and emphasize that a particular group is `different? from the other groups. Being different also requires the creation of similarities within the group. The creation of similarites and differences in order to reach the `we-feeling? is related to forming a common value and sharing that value.In this work, how the violin players who are related to Turkish and Western Musical pratics in İzmir differ from eachother by timbre preference and the attributions about this preference is examined. Also, it is dealed with how this difference about timbre preference is used as an indicator of the `cultural identity? and the boundary of belonging and as an `authenticity? marker of the above mentioned musical and cultural contexts.In the first chapter, one of the key concepts of the work, `cultural identity? is studied and examples are given concerning `instrument? as an element that helps understanding the structure of cutural identity. Second chapter focuses on timbre as the marker of cultural identity. Then, `authenticity? is examined as an other important key concept for the work. In the third chapter, the factors affecting the creation of violin timbre are studied. The fourth and the last chapter is structured to see the timbre preference of Western and Turkish Music violin players and how this preference affects performance. The work is ended by the evaluations which are done by means of the data obtained through field-work and the results of the experiments carried out in the studio.