TURKISH MUSIC DICTIONARY

This work, the broadest Dictionary of Turkish music thus far created, is the result of a multi-year project  by an expert team , which was funded and made available online by the Turkish Cultural Foundation. All terms within Turkish musical culture were regarded within the scope of this dictionary and each genre was examined by experts in that particular field.

In order to define the terms, concepts and expressions in Turkish musical terminology, 20,000 works on Turkish classical music and 7,000 works on Turkish folk music, the most notable books and dictionaries on Turkish music theory,  as well as articles on the subject were examined.  In addition, general dictionaries and encyclopedias were researched  and new terms were uncovered through personal conversations with experts on the subject and added to the dictionary.

Because many musical terms are very closely related, one may frequently encounter cross-references in the dictionary. Translations of Western music terms into Turkish were based on the most widely used versions. Rather than translating a Western music dictionary into Turkish, this dictionary is limited to Western music terms that have found usage in Turkish music terminology.

Care was taken to include terms and concepts no longer in use today. The researchers believe that such terms and concepts constitute important data in musicological history. From this standpoint, we hope that the dictionary will further prove useful, even if just to refresh memories,  to students of musicological studies.

Click here to explore the Turkish Music Dictionary.