![Folk Music of Turkey: The Songs and Dances of Anatolia and the Black Sea Folk Music of Turkey: The Songs and Dances of Anatolia and the Black Sea](/images/tools-for-teaching/folk_music_turkey.jpg)
Summary
Students will be introduced to Turkish style song and dance through listening to, recreating the sounds of, and dancing Bacon is in the Larder.
Suggested Grade Levels: 6-8
Country: Turkey
Region: Middle East
Culture Group: Turkish
Genre: World
Instruments: Body Percussion, Kemence
Language: Turkish
Co-Curricular Areas: Dance, Social Studies
National Standards: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9
Prerequisites: None
Objectives:
- Listen to music from Turkey
- Identify instruments on the recording
- Recreate body percussion in three parts, with and without the recording
Material:
- Recording of Bacon is in the Larder, The Dance from Rize on the Black Sea from “Songs and Dances of Turkey,” Smithsonian Folkways.
- World map
- Map of Turkey
- Picture of kemençe instrument
Lesson Segments:
- Turkish Songs and Dances (National Standards 2, 5, 6, 8, 9)
Lesson Segment 1. The Greenfields of Rossbae
![Click to view recording details](https://folkways-media.si.edu/images/album_covers/SF700/FW08801.jpg)
“Bacon is in the Larder, The Dance from Rize on the Black Sea”
from Songs and Dances of Turkey (1955) | FW08801
- Turkish Songs and Dances
- Attentive Listening (1st listen): Teacher plays recording of Bacon is in the Larder (first 30 seconds as excerpt).
- Students identify what country it might be from
- Integrating World Music: After a student correctly guesses that the song is from Turkey (or the teacher tells the class), the teacher shows map of the world.
- Point out Turkey
- Show map of Turkey and point out Black Sea region
- Attentive Listening (2nd listen): listen and identify different sounds on recording (kemençe string instrument, singing, stamps, claps, a clicking sound).
- Show picture of kemençe instrument
- Attentive/Engaged Listening (3rd listen): listen for the rhythm of the claps, then join in when students figure out the pattern.
- Integrating World Music: Fishing is a major industry in the coastal areas of the Black Sea region of Turkey.
- This song is a dance, and the dance steps imitate the quick movements of a fish moving in water
- Many dances from the Black Sea region reflect the fishing industry in this way
- Attentive/Engaged Listening (4th listen): listen for the stomping sound and once they figure out that it occurs on the beat, join in, stamping the beat.
- Attentive/Engaged Listening (5th listen): listen for the clicking sound.
- What do you think that might be created by? (a tongue clicking)
- Have students try to make different tongue click sounds when recording ends
- Play recording again (6th listen), while students “click along”
- Engaged Listening (7th listen): listen, identifying the melodic pattern on the kemençe that repeats.
- How many times do you hear the pattern repeat?
- Enactive Listening: Teacher presents the 3-part transcription for students to read.
- Note that the transcription is a slight reduction, in that the parts do not continue all through the piece
- Also, the highs and lows of the tongue click on the recording is more irregular than the transcription
- Engaged Listening (9th listen): With students in a circle, have them do one of three parts (stomp, clap, tongue click).
- Once students have mastered one part, ask them to stomp along with either the clapping or tongue clicking
- Have students move in a circle while stomping
- Students can even try all three at once!
- Repeat, if desired.
- Enactive Listening: Can students do their two/three parts without the recording playing?
Assessment: Could students identify the melodic and percussive patterns? Were students able to successfully perform each percussion pattern? Could students perform more than one at a time?