"Melek misiñ huri misin": the first line of a semah recorded on disc in Merzifon in 1943, though its title names the Alaçam district of Samsun. The conservatory team from Ankara recorded the piece on 7 or 8 July from Âşık Musa Aslan and wrote it on the card as "Alaçam Zamahı"; "zamah" is the local pronunciation of semah, the Alevi ritual dance. There is no counterpart registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire, and neither the notation nor the full text has been published.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under Amasya in the TRT repertoire
  • Region: recorded in Merzifon (presumed in the catalogue); the title points to Alaçam (Samsun), and its regional attribution is disputed
  • Source person: Âşık Musa Aslan
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team; Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen and Rıza Yetişen
  • Date of collection: 7/8 July 1943
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1122/A-2; no. 3661 in Kaya's catalogue
  • Genre: semah
  • Mode, rhythm: unknown
  • Words and music: recorded as anonymous
  • Source link: the details are in Kaya's conservatory catalogue; there is no TRT link

Lyrics

All that exists is the first line the cataloguer copied from the card:

Melek misiñ huri misin

"Are you an angel, are you a houri?": the line opens with praise saying that the beloved beauty does not belong to this world. The ñ in "misiñ" is the sign the catalogue uses for the nasal n sound. How the rest of the semah continues, and whether its words turn to a mystical meaning or remain a song in praise of beauty, cannot be inferred from this single line. Neither the rest of the words nor the notation appears in any publication; Musa Aslan's voice survives on disc side 1122/A-2, in the Folklore Archive that passed from the Ankara State Conservatory to Hacettepe University.

Regional Attribution

The piece was collected in the province of Amasya, in Merzifon, and is therefore included among the songs of Amasya. Its title, however, names another place, Alaçam in Samsun. The name may show that the semah came from Alaçam or resembles a form sung there; the card does not explain why. The singer, Musa Aslan, was not a native of Merzifon either, but a minstrel born in Ardahan who settled there in 1925. How far the semah belongs to the region is therefore an open question. What is certain is that it was recorded in Merzifon in the summer of 1943 from the voice of a minstrel living there.

Story

No published information was found on the origin of the semah or on whom Musa Aslan learned it from. The card carries no poet's name or pen-name note either.

Musical Features

No musical data on the melody have been published: its mode, rhythm and sections are unknown. "Kırklar Zamahı", recorded at the same session, was entered on its card in three sections, ağırlama, yeldirme and "garipler"; no such division was noted for "Alaçam Zamahı".

Performers and Recordings

The only known performance is Musa Aslan's 1943 recording. In the order of the discs it is preceded by "Kırklar Zamahı" and followed by "Yalel Samah" and "Durnalar". Yalel Samah entered TRT as Eşimden Ayrıldım Yamandır Halim, and Durnalar as Gökyüzünde Bölük Bölük Turnalar. The source person's life is told on the Âşık Musa Aslan page, and the region's semahs and folk songs in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources