Praise in the Context of the Perception of Beauty in Turkish Culture and Folk Songs

The use of the word 'beautiful' and descriptions of beauty are quite common in folk songs, which are an important cultural transmitter/carrier in Turkish culture. It is possible to see traces of the Turkish people's perception of beauty in folk songs that combine folk literature and folk music with their lyrics and melodies. Within the scope of this study, folk songs in the TRT Turkish folk music repertoire were analysed in which praise and beautification of elements such as lover, city, nature, etc. were included in the lyrics. Due to the large number of works, some examples were selected; seven works, three of which are human/love songs, two of which are city songs, and one of which is an animal and instrument song, were analysed. Folk songs bear traces of our cultural identity as they are distilled from the experiences of Anatolian people. What makes them impressive is that they present a specific maqam, rhythmic and musical message together with strong word arts. Especially in the cultural sense, folk songs have a structure that contains all the subtleties of Turkish culture in its essence. As the folk songs are analysed in the context of aesthetic, philosophical, sociological and folkloric aspects of Turkish people's perception of beauty, the richness and diversity of our cultural heritage, the longing for the beautiful, the tendency to turn from physical love to spiritual love while searching for beauty, the desire to think beautifully and live in beautiful places will be seen.

Journal

FOLKLOR/EDEBIYAT-FOLKLORE/LITERATURE

Year

2025

Volume

31

Issue

3

Pages

839-868

ISSN

1300-7491

eISSN

2791-6057

DOI

10.22559/folklor.2766

WoS UID

WOS:001644080000013