Music at Turkish Shadow play

Turkish shadow play that constitutes the topic of our thesis, has great importance in terms of the Turkish Cultural History, and it eventuates an attractive topic that needs to be examined and researched especially with its performed musical properties.Because of its importance we examined "Music at Turkish Shadow Play? that we decided to work as our thesis topic, in two sections. In the first part, after investigating about the indispensable elements of the dream curtain in detail under the heading of the History of the Shadow Play, its Sections, Depicting people and Characters we gave the information about the Construction and Playback Technique. In the second part, we looked up the "Music" issue which is performed at Turkish Shadow Play, in detail.As a result of our research, we saw that the Turkish shadow play, incorporates a rich musical culture. This traditional art that has its meaning and unique sense of style created with music, while giving the opportunity to perform musical forms together like songs, folk songs, instrumental works. It also provides the fusion of foreign cultures as Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Kurdish, to each other.However, with such a unifying qualified Turkish shadow play, unfortunately today, has almost totally forgotten because of the socio-cultural and commercial concern, and so on. In order not to forget, it is necessary that this art should be performed, accepted and transferred to the future generations.The dream songs which has "labeling" function for each character needs different musical forms and instruments as Hoyrat, Divan, Kopuz, Sipsi, performance in different languages and dialects like Arabic, Azerbaijani, Laz, Tatar, new characters as Yunus Emre, Dede Korkut, Nasreddin Hodja and a new play fictions. It should be described for different age groups for educational and promotional purposes in the visual and written media. Especially in the music departments of conservatories, "Music at Turkish Shadow Play? should be given at least as one elective course and this course should be given by the experts. Moreover, performances should be done by conservatories and festivals, seminars, panel discussions and competitions should be organized on this subject. Finally it shouldn?t be forgotten that for continuously updating of intangible cultural heritage, "Music at Turkish Shadow Play ?should be loaded by cultural structure.Key Words: Turkish Shadow Play, Music, Karagoz, Sheikh Kuster, Fictitious.