This bozlak, which opens with an image of rushing waters, is the last of the five pieces that a singer named Hüseyin sang for the team in Amasya on 6 July 1943. Its first line was written on the card in the local pronunciation: "Coşgun sular gibi çağlayub aḫma", "Do not roar and flow like the rushing waters." The first recording of his day had also been a bozlak; the catalogue calls both simply "Bozlak", and what separates them are their first lines and serial numbers. Neither the notation nor the full words of this second bozlak have been published.

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 (surname unknown; "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 1115/A-1; no. 3628 in Kaya's catalogue
  • Genre: long song (bozlak)
  • Mode, rhythm: not recorded
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source link: there is no TRT page; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

Coşgun sular gibi çağlayub aḫma

The spelling of the line shows the collectors' effort to mark dialect sounds. The ḫ in "aḫma" is the catalogue's equivalent of the sign Muzaffer Sarısözen used for the sound of the Arabic letter khā (خ), and it indicates that the word was pronounced close to "ahma", with a rasping sound; the b in "çağlayub" likewise preserves the pronunciation. In today's Turkish the line reads "Coşkun sular gibi çağlayıp akma". The singer, addressing a swollen, overflowing stream or his own turbulent heart, urges it not to roar; whom he addresses cannot be told from a single line. The rest of the bozlak is in no published text; traces of the form Hüseyin sang may be sought in the card copy that went to TRT and on the Folklore Archive's disc.

Story

If a story of its making or a local account lies behind this bozlak addressed to rushing water, it has not reached printed sources.

Musical Features

As its notation is unknown, nothing can be said about its mode or melodic course. Its place on the disc, however, is clear: it is the first piece on side A of disc 1115. After it on the same side comes Arzu Ballar's "Gönül Der ki"; the catalogue also places on this side, with a question mark, a nefes performed jointly by Şükrü Topçu and Muzaffer Sarısözen. One of the collectors thus also appears that day as a performer in a recording.

Performers and Recordings

The same singer's other recordings that day are the first bozlak, with the line "Güzelin(?) yaylası", "Beypazarı Havası", "Berber" and "Bülbül"; the only documented performance of the second bozlak is this 1943 recording. The general picture of the long songs and folk songs collected in Amasya: The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources