An Evaluation of Educational Music in Turkey Based on Composers’ Opinions | Celiktas | Journal of Education and Learning | CCSE

There are various studies concerning the present situation of the phenomenon of educational music, which dates back to the early years of the Republic i.e. which emerged 90 years ago, the problems in the area, and solutions to these problems as well as the concept of “educational music” which is used to define the songs that are part of music education. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the area of educational music based on composers’ opinions, in other words, on the opinions of the creators of the subject music, and to determine the present situation of the area in the light of these evaluations. For these purposes, 7 composers, all of whom had contributed to educational music, were interviewed. The resultant data were analyzed under three themes by means of content analysis. The themes were the concept of educational music, educational music compositions and educational music composing. As a result, composers indicated that songs composed as educational music pieces should have a content that children can relate to. They also said that music teachers and prospective music teachers who had the ability to compose should engage in the composition of educational music. According to composers, in order for songs to be of good musical quality; easy and catchy melodies and lyrics, prosody, melodic sequence, harmonic structure and form components were important. Composers also expressed their opinions regarding “the points to be considered and the method to be followed in the process of composition”, “essential skills and knowledge in addition to the ability to compose”, and “types of music preferred in compositions”. In addition to this research, further studies, which take opinions of music teachers, who are the appliers of educational music, and those of students, who are the receivers and consumers of educational music, into account, can be undertaken so as to be able to evaluate the area of educational music from different perspectives.