"Gafil idim, bağladılar kolumu": "I was unaware, and they bound my arms." This line is the only part left on the card of the "Beypazarı Havası" that a singer named Hüseyin sang for the conservatory team in Amasya on 6 July 1943. The singer speaks in the voice of someone seized and bound; for whom, and about what event, the song was sung is unknown. The work did not enter the TRT repertoire, and its words and notation have not been printed.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Place of collection: central Amasya (in square brackets in the catalogue)
  • Source person: Hüseyin (no surname; "Hüseyin [3]" in the catalogue)
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team: Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen and the technician Rıza Yetişen
  • Date of collection: 6 July 1943
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1114/A (the whole side); no. 3625 in Kaya's catalogue
  • Genre: türkü (folk song)
  • Mode, rhythm: not recorded
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source link: there is no TRT page; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

Gafil idim bağladılar kolumu

"Gafil idim" means I was unaware, off guard, unprepared; the speaker describes himself as seized at an unexpected moment and bound by the arms. No second line survives to show the reason for the binding or where the song goes from there. Because the catalogue keeps the words on the cards outside its scope, the song as a whole survives in writing only on the card copy that went to TRT.

Regional Attribution

The song's name ties it to the Beypazarı district of Ankara, and no document shows that it belongs to Amasya. Three days later the team also recorded a song called "Beypazarı" from Bektaş Yıldız in Gümüşhacıköy; its first line ("Gezdür Garacoğlan gır atı gezdür"), however, does not match this one. The same name appearing with two different texts from two different singers suggests that around Amasya the name may have been used for a certain style of melody that had come from outside; the cards do not confirm this. Because it was recorded in Amasya, the work is included in this section; its regional attribution is disputed.

Story

The story of the man whose arms were bound has not made its way into any publication. The singer's identity is obscure too; only his first name was written on the card.

Musical Features

The disc number of this recording has no sub-number dividing the side: the song was recorded on its own across the whole of side A of disc 1114. Hüseyin's other four pieces from the same session share their disc sides with other recordings, so it is reasonable to think that Beypazarı Havası was a longer performance than they were. Its mode and metre, however, are unknown.

Performers and Recordings

The other recordings of the same session are two bozlaks, "Berber" and "Bülbül"; of Beypazarı Havası, too, no performance other than Hüseyin's 1943 disc is known. The general article on Amasya's collected folk songs and long songs is titled The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources