Sung on the henna night, this song carries every task of preparing a bride back to the world's first wedding. Eve is made a bride in paradise: angels lift the veil from her face, put henna on her hand, line her eyes with kohl, hang pearls about her neck and give her to Adam. The song was recorded from Fatma Samsun on 4 July 1943, the Ankara State Conservatory team's first working day in Amasya. On the collection slip its title is "Kına Havası: Âdemi Havvayı cennette yarattı". Its number in the TRT repertoire is 4598, and the data give its subject as "henna, wedding".

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 4598 (kırık hava section)
  • Region: Amasya
  • Source performer: Fatma Samsun, who is also the performer
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen)
  • Date of collection: 4 July 1943; in the conservatory catalogue no. 3582, disc 1106/B-1
  • Transcribed by: Altan Demirel
  • Mode: Hüseynî scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 9/8
  • Range: Sol to Fa, seven notes
  • Type: henna song (kına havası)
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: as the TRT repertoire has no open page giving works their own address, the data and lyrics of score no. 4598 can be read on Repertükül.

Lyrics

In the score the refrain is written out in full only after the first stanza; at the end of the later ones it is merely named, and the same arrangement is followed below.

Âdem Havva'yı yarattı
Âdem Havva'ya el uzattı
Hak Teâlâ'dan nida erdi
Bağlantı:
Havva Ana'yı gelin ettiler
Cennette düğün ettiler
Üç melek ortaya çıkarttılar
Yakut mücevher taktılar
Yüzünün nikabını açtılar
(Bağlantı)
Eline gına yaktılar
Gözüne sürme çektiler
Yanağına kekül(ler) kestiler
(Bağlantı)
İnci taktılar boynuna
Verdiler Âdem Ata'nın koynuna
Dünya gelmedi aynına
(Bağlantı)

The first line holds an oddity: it begins "Adam created Eve", yet it is not Adam who creates. The subject may have dropped out in singing, the line being a shortened form of "God created Adam and Eve". The wording on the collection slip, "Âdemi Havvayı cennette yarattı", "He created Adam and Eve in paradise", supports this reading. In the second line Adam reaches out his hand to Eve, in the third a call comes from God the Most High, and the wedding begins. The refrain: they made Mother Eve a bride, they held a wedding in paradise.

The remaining stanzas list, in order, the stages a bride passes through at an Anatolian wedding. Three angels come forward; the bride is adorned with rubies and jewels, and the covering on her face, the veil, is lifted. Henna ("gına") is put on her hand, kohl is drawn on her eyes, and the hair falling on her cheek is cut into a fringe. Pearls are hung about her neck and she is given into the arms of Father Adam. The last line, "dünya gelmedi aynına", remains uncertain. "Ayn" means eye; the line may mean "the world did not appear to her eye", that is, she was too happy to see the world. The source offers no explanation of it.

Story

In the publications reached, no story ties the song's making to a particular event or person. The only story the words tell is the wedding of Adam and Eve in paradise, and that too is told through the customs of the henna night itself.

Musical Features

The tune moves across seven notes, from Sol to Fa, settles on La and ends on La. According to Nail Demircioğlu's count, Hüseynî is the most used scale among Amasya's 48 TRT songs, at 37.5 per cent; this henna song stands first in Demircioğlu's general table. Its metre is 9/8. The stanzas have three lines; the lines vary between seven and ten syllables, and in the score each length is fitted to the tune separately. This irregularity suggests that the words follow the order of the tasks performed during the henna ceremony more than any syllabic pattern.

In Haluk Yücel's 2018 classification the piece bears the name "Âdem Havva'yı yarattı". An additional note in the repertoire data states that the words were taken from the source performer.

Performers and Recordings

Among the recordings of 4 July, the conservatory catalogue lists three pieces from Fatma Samsun, all connected with weddings: "Gelini Ortaya Çıkarırken: Elâ ey mürşidi âlâ", this henna song, and "Gelin Hamama Gidiyor: Gel göresim geldi seni". Pieces belonging to the bringing out of the bride, the henna and the bath were thus taken one after another from the same source performer. Only the henna song entered the TRT repertoire. No publication giving information on later performances or discs of the henna song could be found.

Wedding and henna songs are also treated, within Amasya's repertoire as a whole, in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources