Named after the city's best-known fruit, this song entered the list Haluk Yücel published in 2018 twice. In both the table of genres and the table of metres the title "Amasya'nın elması" ("The apple of Amasya") appears on two separate rows, and both rows carry the same information: kırık hava, 9/8. In his text Yücel speaks of 89 songs, yet because of this repetition one of the rows in the table counts the same work a second time.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Region: Amasya
  • Genre: kırık hava
  • Metre: 9/8
  • Makam: not stated
  • Source person, collector, place and date of collection: not in the source
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source publication: Haluk Yücel, 2018; Table 5 (pp. 379 and 380), Table 6 (p. 383, two rows)
  • Location in the archive: could not be determined
  • Links: there is no TRT link; Yücel's article; the "Irmaktan Geçemiyom" mani sequence containing the quatrain named after it

Lyrics

Yücel does not give the words of the song. A quatrain opening with the same words, however, occurs within a long mani sequence called "Irmaktan Geçemiyom", attributed to the Amasya region in an online folk song archive:

Amasya'nın elması
Hoştur yari sarması
Kadehle olmaz bu iş
Doldur bu bakır tası

"The apple of Amasya, / sweet it is to embrace the beloved; / this cannot be done with a wine glass, / fill up this copper bowl." It is not certain, however, that this quatrain belongs to the same melody as the song Yücel lists. The quatrain "Keşkeği vur fırına", found in the same mani sequence, appears in Yücel as a separate song and is shown in 4/4, whereas "Amasya'nın elması" is in 9/8. Whether the two titles are parts of the same sequence, or separate melodies that are also sung with those manis, cannot be told from these sources. The song's own words and score could not be found in any published source.

Story

Nothing has been recorded about how, or for whom, the song was made.

Musical Features

Because the table gathers 9/8 and 9/4 in the same column, which of the two the song was written in cannot be told exactly; both rows are marked there. The column holds 12 songs, which puts nine beats third in Yücel's count, after 4/4 and 2/4. The first of the repeated rows stands between "Değirmen önünde bir böyük tarla" and "Amasyalı, Zileli", the second between "Bugün benim efkârım var" and "E'len sana bir nasihat ideyim".

Performers and Recordings

The page on which the mani sequence is published names no singer or collector, stating only that words and music are anonymous; nor does Yücel say where he took the song from. Neither source leads to a sound recording, so no performance of the song could be documented. The recorded melodic repertoire of the province is treated as a whole in the article The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources