Recommendations
 

What is the purpose of conservatory theory? Thinking about music which clearly reflects the great richness, variety, and subtlety of Turkish Art Music (TAM)? Or endless arguments about how many pitches to an octave?

What purpose will a theory use: prescriptive (like a composition), descriptive (like the transcript of a taksim), pedagogical (tailored to teaching), political, mystical? On what basis would one choose between competing theories? Perlman 2004 offers a rational basis for such choices.[i] All recommendations for change should start with these answers.

The beginning student level

The ear unconsciously grasps musical structure more deeply and in more complexity than does the eye. An infant does not learn Turkish by studying grammar and syntax first. Better that the conservatory student first learn the makams one by one by listening and repeating (meşk), then learn theory after internalizing the makam. Otherwise theory will always interfere with true musical understanding.

Perhaps traditional theory can be revised for the beginner by adding caveats and adding subjects previously overlooked. Caveats would explicitly notify the beginning student that the presentation is simplified. Students could discuss this simplification, including what the intended purpose seems to be.

Missing topics:
* modulation, a major characteristic of TAM
* stereotyped motives
* relationship of makam to form.[ii]

Such a presentation will prepare the way for advanced studies.

 

The advanced student level

The advanced student must be prepared for more sophisticated theory lessons which begin to unlock the subtlety, depth, and variety of TAM and beyond.

Challenging and discussing old and new theories make the advanced student a lifelong active participant in thinking about music. Student research, especially with articulate musicians, will personalize these studies and often yield valuable nuggets of information.

Comparing TAM to Turkish folk music, Balkan “makam” music, Hindustani, and other world musics will give the advanced student a deeper understanding of TAM and its place in the world.

Learning how TAM organizes time,[iii] is more than lists of usul-s. The nature of velveleli, taksim, gazel, uzun hava, and other complex ways of organizing time have been relatively neglected for too long.

All of the above topics are interrelated with the deepest question about music, the nature of all music.[iv]

 

The conservatory level and beyond

The conservatory can support all this intellectual ferment by encouraging their theorists to publish in peer-reviewed theory journals in Turkey and abroad. Non-Turkish colleagues will learn about Turkish theory and vice versa.

At the meta-theory level, classes and research in world music theory[v] will nourish all the above activities.

It is useless to substitute a new dogma for the old dogma. A dynamic ferment of theory ideas from beginning student to advanced researcher will create a living, changing atmosphere in place of dry and unchanging dogma.