North Cyprus Music

The music of Cyprus includes a variety of classical, folk and popular genres. North Cyprus is becoming a generous host to cultural events. The island began to host many cultural events over the past few years.

Bellapais Abbey in Kyrenia, which has witnessed singing the old songs for ages now hosts modern and classical concerts in North Cyprus these days. During the spring months of April and May Bellapais Abbey plays host and array of celebrated musicians all over the world. Organized by the TRNC friends of Music Society, The fourth of these international concerts was held this year and featured world famous pianist Viv Mclean Matthew Barley on Viola and solo pianist Ozgur Aydin.

Numerous concerts have been performed in this 13th Century Lusignan Monastery. Salamis, in Famagusta is another such historic site used for concerts. Both of these places will now host cultural activities and music festivals during spring and summer periods.

It is possible to listen to many artiest courtesy of Famagusta municipality's annual music festival. Apart from the packed festival program there are individual events to entertain music lovers. A jazz concert, for example, was staged on 27th May in Famagusta. Titled jazz from Paris this unforgettable concert featured the world famous Gilbert Stigrist.

Today, Turkish music is a fusion of classical art music, folk songs, Ottoman military music, Islamic hymns and the norms of western art music. Classical Turkish music is the courtly music of the Ottoman sultans that is an offspring of the Arabic and Persian traditions. This music is not written down in scores; with only the maquam, which is a similar pattern of major-minor scale system, being marked down. Improvisation (taksim) is a traditional variation technique, featuring the form. One of the characteristics of Turkish classical and folk music, as well as the military music and the hymns, is being monophonic. There are about 24 unequal intervals and almost numberless modes.

An active popular music activity exists in the life of the Turkish society since 1970. Several young people have established pop music groups that serve to the entertainment life of the Turkish people. New pieces were also composed and prepared as record players by these musicians since 1980. Some of the groups had chances to reproduce the new compositions as cassettes and compact discs. Several young people carry on the pop music activities in North Cyprus, some of which had chances to bid even in international competitions.

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