Twentieth century classical western music education in state conservatories: The case of İstanbul

20th century music that we come across as a period in which moving away from tonality, multi-movements and experimental music studies are at the forefront, is placed predominantly in classical western music conservatory education in Turkey. A limited number of studies encountered in the relevant literature on 20th century music education given in conservatories, and lack of direct studies on perception and representation of 20th century music, constituted the main starting point of this research. Therefore, in this study, it was aimed to reveal the quality of 20th century music education in classical western music conservatory education through document analysis, lecturer and student views, and to determine the perception and representation levels of the lecturers and students about 20th century music in those conservatories. For this purpose, undergraduate curricula of İÜDK and MSGSÜDK included in the study were examined twice in the academic years of 2015-2016 and 2020-2021 in terms of giving place to 20th century music education. In the study, the questionnaires developed to determine the opinions and suggestions of lecturers and students regarding the 20th century music education given in conservatories were applied to a total of 221 participants, 174 students and 74 lecturers participating voluntarily to the research. In the analysis of quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire forms; descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and Chi-square analysis were performed. In the analysis of qualitative data content analysis were used. Finally, the content analysis of the qualitative data obtained from the semi-structured interview questions directed to the lecturers and students to determine the perception and representation states of 20th century music were carried out. As a result of the first document analysis, it was determined that 20th century music was covered more comprehensively in the undergraduate curricula of MSGSÜDK. However, the results of the second document analysis showed that the difference was closed, and 20th century music was given more place in the undergraduate curricula of İÜDK and MSGSÜDK. According to the results of the questionnaire applied in the first phase of the study, lecturers stated that the 20th century music education given in the conservatories was at "Moderate" level, while the students were at "Low" level. No significant difference was found between the views of the lecturers about the education of 20th century music movements given in their conservatories. On the other hand, there were significant differences found between the opinions of the students according to the university, high school and education level variables, and these differences were determined to be positive in favor of MSGSÜDK as a university, KL as a graduated high school type, and undergraduate 4th year students as an education level. Analysis of qualitative data obtained from questionnaire forms showed that more importance was given to Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods, and some movements within 20th century music education either were not given any place or were given place at a limited level. The qualitative analysis of the semi-structured interview questions showed that lecturers and students have common perceptions about the evaluation of 20th century music as; break off from tonality, many movements coexist and influenced by each other, more liberal in terms of composition and performance techniques, abstract, and a period open to experimentation and improvement. In addition, concerning lecturers and students to include 20th century music in their daily life or professional music life; it has been determined that they include it mostly as listener and performer, and leastly as composer. In the light of findings revealed in the research, various recommendations have been made for researchers and practitioners.