Research of Hatay Altınözü Christians' musical cultures

This research was carried out to examine the music culture of Hatay-Altınözü Christians. The music culture, which is still in existence today, has been described with all its characteristics. In addition, a literature review was conducted on the cultural identity and musical characteristics of the region and the Christians living in the region. In the research, data from observations and interviews were collected and recorded, and the audio and video recordings were then analyzed, and the findings were reported by the researcher. Ten resource people who live in the region and have influence in the congregation were interviewed.In addition to the interviews, the wedding ceremonies, religious holidays, funerals, and worship services of the community were observed on site and described by the researcher. In the research, the darbuka, which is made out of soil, the Zamr and the Mosul instruments that have faded into oblivion were examined, as well as 16 musical pieces were compiled and transferred to notation. As a result of the research, it was understood that one of the religious melodies was an Orthodox Church hymn, five of them were the songs sung in the Altınözü Jesus Christ Church community, two of the traditional melodies were wedding reception songs, three of them were the traditional wedding ceremony songs and three were the songs sung in the Easter holiday halay. It has been determined that all the musical pieces were written in simple meters, and the asymmetric meters were never used. In addition, it has been seen that hicaz, uşşak, saba makams are used the most, and songs are performed in kurdi, segah, beyati and buselik makams. There are western and Turkish music forms in the pieces. It has been observed that Orthodox Church music has a similar structure to Turkish Classical music makams. There are pieces from both western and Turkish music in the music performed in the Altınözü Jesus Christ Church.Through the research, it was found that the Christian community living in Sarılar District performed special music in churches for Christmas and Easter holidays, Mor Circos days, funeral ceremonies, traditional wedding ceremonies, the evening wedding receptions, the celebration of baby baptisms, family dinners and friend gatherings. It has been discovered that they used oud, cümbüş, violin, guitar, bass guitar, baglama, keyboard, darbuka, drums, zamr and mosul instruments. It has been found that they generally learn music by ear and the Easter holiday halay songs have a special place in the society.