ABSTRACT

Music constitutes an important part in public education in the first years of republic. in line with the newly founded republic, to achieve national unity and solidarity and to improve in contemporary civilization aim, the necessary institutional foundations were being established and experts from abroad were brought in the country for the operation of these institutions. Bela Bartok, which has an important part in Hungarian National Music concept, was invited to Turkey by Community Centers (halkevleri) in 1936, which was the most important and common cultural institution of single party period. Bartok accepted this invitation and came to Turkey, and examined the compiled folk songs in İstanbul. After this examination, Bartok went to Ankara and gave 3 different lectures on "music folk and associated topics". In the first of these conferences, Bartok explained his studies in Hungary and and the basic benefits of these studies on Hungarian folk music. the second was about the effect of Hungarian folk music on classical western music in the last decade. Bartok's last conference focused on the aim of folk music and how to collect it. After his conferences, Bartok went on a compilation trip to Adana Osmaniye region with Ahmet Adnan Saygun, Necil Kazım Akses and Ulvi Cemal Erkin, and ninety folk songs were compiled in this trip. Bartok also published his impressions that he made during his Turkey trip. In this study, Bartok's music appreciation, his conferences and compilation trips in Turkey and the considerations about this studies were inspected and interpreted in terms of their contribution to Contemporary Turkish Music. It is thought that this study will contribute to enlightenment and considerations about the constitution of comtemporay Turkish Music.