REPUBLIC, TURKISH MUSIC AND THE TURKISH FIVE

“Our national music will be born from the harmony of folk music and western music..” With these words, just like Ziya G？kalp, Atatürk thought that the new musical culture of Republic of Turkey needed to be based on folk music; and supported the studies about this topic. With this goal, a competition was held and the winning five talented young musicians was sent to various countries to get musical education. In the early years of Republic of Turkey, these five composers were remarkable for their important works in Classical Western Music style and this group was called “The Turkish Five”. These names that tried to make what intellectuals in Tanzimat Era made, just like them, aimed for making the society near to the West; made Contemporary Turkish Music international; while doing these, they used melodic, modal and rhythmic elements of Turkish Folk Music and Classical Turkish Music (Turkish Art Music) first. Without a doubt, Atatürk’s aim of getting to the level of contemporary civilization takes an important role in this