The Musical Cultures of the Doms Living in Antakya, Hatay

This research has been made with the aim of analyzing the musical cultures of the Doms, who live in Antakya. Literature research and interviewing methods were utilized in the research. By interviewing with 15 Dom musicians, some determinations were made about the musical cultures of Doms living in Antakya. By making use of the deduction feature of the scientific research, the general characteristics of Gypsy community were explained; their history was mentioned and the topic was changed to the Doms in Antakya. Later, field study have been based on configured interaction form with the Doms, and the data, have been classified, was brought into computer medium information was gathered from the people called “master” in Antakya, representing the Dom culture with their general lifestyles and who earn their living as local artisans. According to the traditions and customs of the Doms who live in Antakya province, the musical characteristics of their cultures were investigated and obtained data were classified. It has been determined that they play intruments such as hello, oud, cümbüs (similar mandolin with a metal body), darbuka, violin, organ, ney, mey, zurna (similar clarion), drum, dilli düdük, kaval (reedpipe), baglama (Turkish folk lute), clarinet, saxophone, flute, argun (Hatay’s polifonic reed instrument) sipsi (small reed), tambourine, frame drum, bongo. It was also determined that the local Doms speaking Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish languages and the lyrics they performed consisted of Turkish, Arabic and German. The Doms who performed their music mostly in wedding and circumcisions were all found to be performing Turkish folk music an arabesque music.