A comparison of Turkish and Hungarian folk music education until the end of the 20th Century

Abstract

This study presents the role of folk music in Turky and Hungary in the context of music lessons in schools nowadays. As a background, the study examines the discovery of the importance of folk music, the time of its discovery, and the goals of increasing the role of folk music. It also compares the beginnings of folk song collection in the two countries studied, the incorporation of folk music into education and music curricula, and suggests ways of increasing its popularity. It shows parallels between the two nations’ folk music education and the antecedents described above, from the 17th century to the end of the 20th century, and also mentions Hungarian figures in the Turkish folk music education. It also looks at current trends in music education in schools in other European countries, with a special focus on folk music, thus putting forward the theory that folk music plays a similarly important role in music lessons in the countries under study as it does in singing lessons in Turkey and Hungary. In conclusion, it can be seen that folk songs (anonymous songs by the Turkish definition) form a significant part of singing lessons, together with folk songs of other peoples, called transfer songs, and folk-based school songs sung in the mother tongue, the latter two terms also referring to folk music and folk-based songs. The national goals set at the outset for folk music are still dominant in both countries, although research shows that pupils are less interested in it. To aid this problem, good practices have been developed and are presented in this study. In this study the use of music in different settings over the centuries in Hungarian, Turkish and English literature were examined, with a particular focus on the use of folk music.