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Sinsch, SandraTo Mozart on a donkey's backWestern music in Turkeycategory: Essay published in: das Orchester 02/2008, Page 33 |
Western classical music has been present in Turkey for nearly 200 years; but it was the reforms of Kemal Atatürk in the 1920s and '30s, which strongly pushed western standards in musical education leading to the foundation of a number of symphony orchestras, conservatoires and opera houses. Today, classical music in Turkey still feeds on this legacy, which has provided the country with a fairly vivid musical scene. Yet as many structures have remained unchanged for decades, the author argues that modernisation is necessary to minimise the urban-rural divide and broaden the rather narrow musical repertoire.