Music education was the most important instrument of the music policies
of the Republican era which had historical continuity with the Westernization movements in the Ottoman Empire. In this area, the analysis of the
Westernization discourses in the light of the views of Gramsci, Althusser
and Hobsbawm, in this area from the Ottoman to the present day, pointed
to a serious canon accumulation. The aim of the study is to analyze the
canon and canonization process of Turkey Music Education in hegemonyideology-
tradition invention linearity. The canons were analyzed with descriptive
analysis and examined under the following categories: canons related
to music, canons within the framework of national music, canons related
to the function of music education, canons related to popular culture
and music, and music theoretical canons. As a result of the discourse analysis,
the effectiveness of two main classes in the canonization process has
attracted attention: Canon makers producing classical texts in the field and
the canon repeaters that provide their continuity. It has been understood
that the basic functions of the canons are embodied in legitimizing the
westernization/modernization movements in music, establishing relations
with the past and forming a certain class identity. Despite their superficiality,
canons were found to be very powerful in terms of creating discourse
and the construction of the cultural elitist class. This has been a strong sign
that canons are used as a hegemonic tool rather than pedagogical principles
in music education.