Investigating the Turkish folk music after thedeclaration of the Republic

Turkish music, which has been continuing for 5000 years, has undergone a series of "musical reforms" and has been tried to be developed with the aim of contemporize the music after the declaration of the Turkish Republic. Music, which is being accepted as culture's one of the most valued elements, was seen as a valuable device for reaching the Turkish Republic's ideal of gaining a seat in the level of contemporary civilizations. Rooting from this ideal, palpable steps in the field of music have been taken. For our national music intellection to reach the level of contemporary civilizations, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk approached sensitively on the subjects of; it being researched on, be developed without changing its unique traditional patterns and processed diligently as well as reserve itself a seat on the global dimension all actualized by the specialists. He started the necessary studies for compiling the folk tunes which reflects the true culture of Anatolian people, be researched, recorded to form a repertoire and be transferred to the next generations. The aim was to move the Turkish music to the international sphere by the national music policies that has been implemented in the nation state era of the republic, the policies which has been built by the ideas of Turkism and nationalism. The policies on creating national music have been formed within the framework of the idea that has been brought forward by one of the intellectuals of that era Ziya Gökalp, the idea of composing new music that takes folk music as a base. This thesis study aims to investigate the reflections of the music studies, starting with the westernization efforts of music in the last period of the Ottoman Empire and after the declaration of republic, on Turkish folk music and the contributions on the folk music culture.