An Eternal Cycle From Sema To Semah

Abstract

For thousands years, music has always acted as a critical guide for human beings in their journey for perceiving and identifying the nature and the super-nature. The expressive power of music had presented man both the chance of making direct relations with the nature and the hope of controlling the unseen. Therefore, the concepts of "belief and music" have been carrying this ancient relation to the present time. Within this relation it is possible to detect an intersection of musical examples with the religious symbols, forming the most decisive parts of the human memory. Based on this intersection, many religious symbols had been transmitted more effectively by the use of music and the music has been kept unaffected through the social changes over time. This study aims to trace the relation between belief and music in Anatolia, taking the concepts of semah and sema in its scope.