Expectations of Religious Officials Related to Voice and Music Training: The ？enpazar Example

In Islam, it is very important to use appropriate and melodic vocalization for recitation of the Koran mainly, but also during the call to prayer, sala, tekbir and mevlit forms. Especially the call to prayer has a modal structure and the social importance of effective vocalization is accepted by everyone. Within different conditions, the demand and expectations of religious officials such as imams and muezzins within this scope are becoming clearer. It appears that primarily for religious officials, a lack of technical difficulty during melodic execution of the call to prayer and modally appropriate vocalization has become an occupational and religious obligation. At the same time, in situations requiring recitation of the Koran and and other religious musical execution, muezzins frequently mention difficulties encountered with voice-breath use and during modal execution. In this study, as a result of interviews with religious officials employed in ？enpazar county town and villages in Kastamonu province, the expectations of imams and muezzins related to basic voice-breath-diction and modal music training were identified. Difficulties encountered during vocalization of religious musical forms were determined and an attempt was made to develop solutions to these problems. With this aim, focus group studies were performed with religious officials working in the region and data obtained with the interview method were analyzed with qualitative analysis techniques. At the end of the research, recommendations developed in line with the obtained data are considered to fulfill an important requirement in this field and will contribute to future studies