Turkish music (style)

Turkish music, in the sense described here, is not really music of Turkey, but rather a musical style that was occasionally used by the European composers of the Classical music era. This music was modeled — though often only distantly — on the music of Turkish military bands, specifically the Janissary bands.

Turkish music (in the sense just given) is always lively in tempo, and is almost always a kind of march.

When Turkish music was scored for orchestra, it normally used extra percussion instruments not otherwise found in orchestras of the time: typically, the bass drum, the triangle, and cymbals. These instruments were used by Ottoman Turks in their military music (see Janissary Music), so at least the instrumentation of "Turkish" music was authentic except for the triangle. Often there is also a piccolo, whose piercing tone recalls the shrill sound of the zurna (shawm) of Ottoman Janissary music.

It seems that at least part of the entertainment value of "Turkish" music was the perceived exoticism. The Turks were well known to the citizens of Vienna (where Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven all worked) as military opponents, and indeed the centuries of warfare between Austria and Ottoman Empire had only started going generally in Austria's favor around the late 17th century. The differences in culture, as well as the frisson derived from the many earlier Turkish invasions, apparently gave rise to a fascination among the Viennese for all things Turkish—or even ersatz Turkish. This was part of a general trend in European arts at the time; see Turquerie.

All three of the great Classical era composers, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, wrote Turkish music. For sound files illustrating some of these works, see the External links section below.

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