Minstrelsy tradition in kars: Minstrel Bilal Ersari

Though the minstrelsy tradition of Kars has similar characteristics in terms of minstrelsy tradition of Anatolia, with its some different practices it has a distinctive structure than those of other regions. Boiling newly derived sayings into the melodies of the melody pool of the tradition is a creative frequent destination for the minstrelsy tradition of Kars. In other words, by combining the lines which they sings extemporally into the model melodies inherited from the tradition itself, the minstrels of Kars make "how the tradition has been continuously reproduced so far and is still being reproduced" visible. The model melodies used by the minstrels of Kars are sometimes called as "tune" and "mode" sometimes by their practitioners. This study aims to understand the minstrelsy tradition of Kars from a historical perspective, and tries to shed light on the continuity and change of the tradition through a case study over Minstrel Bilal Ersarı. The study comprises of three parts. In the first part, by focusing on learning process we aimed to make the basic elements of the minstrels tradition apparent. In addition, information about general minstrelsy tradition was given, and the profile of "minstrel" which is in the centre of the study was tried to be drawn. In the second part, the tradition of minstrelsy was studied specific to province of Kars, and by presenting information about model melodies and their usage, performance areas of the practices were identified. In the third part, specific to Minstrel Bilal Ersarı, by focusing on the basic elements of the minstrelsy tradition of Kars, the poems of the minstrel were studied, and new notations of the tune and mode they use were analyzed.