USAGE OF TURKISH LANGUAGE AND MUSIC IN SOME OPERA

This study takes up usage of Turkish music, costumes, language, decorative elements, instruments in the West European opera works on the Orient and the Turks from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. In the western music, this subject which was studied within the context of exoticism or orientalism was addressed here through the works of composer J.B. Lully and librettist J.B. Molliere’s “Le Burgeois Gentilhomme”(1670), a comic ballet.In western performing arts, the first work containing the Turkish characters and musical instruments was regarded as the start of “alla turca” style. Later on these elements have been used in many works concerning the Turks or the orient. In this article, the subject matter is explained on the basis of works of C. W. Gluck, J. Haydn ve W. A. Mozart who are considered the best of their age in Viennese Classical music composers. In this article, it is concluded that alla turca style which was perceived as inconsistent with Viennese classical music style was, in fact, adopted and applied to the Viennese classical music style, and that the Turkish musical instruments which have become an integral part of western music today enriched it. Furthermore, it was stated the damaged given to the Turkish image in the west.