A young man climbs a poplar, lops its branches, embraces a girl in front of her mother and then calls out to her: "Ey sarıgız sarıgız, sen tavuk ol ben horoz", "hey, fair girl, fair girl, you be the hen and I'll be the cockerel". This playful love song from Merzifon was recorded from Hamdullah Yılmaz on 7 July 1943. The collection slip gives it a name taken from its refrain, "Sarı Kız", "Fair Girl". Among the performers of this recording the catalogue also lists Tahsin Olgun, Rasim Olgun and Turabi Tanrısever beside him. In the TRT repertoire it is number 4601, entered under Sarıköy in Merzifon.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 4601 (kırık hava section)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon, Sarıköy
  • Source performer: Hamdullah Yılmaz
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen)
  • Date and place of collection: 7 July 1943, Merzifon; in the conservatory catalogue no. 3650, disc 1119/A-3, titled "Sarı Kız: Çıkdım gavak dalına"
  • Transcribed by: Altan Demirel
  • Mode: Karcığar scale; final La, closing note Do
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Range: Si to F sharp, five notes
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: as the TRT repertoire has no public page for individual works, the data and lyrics of score no. 4601 can be read on Repertükül.

Lyrics

The word written "kavak" (poplar) in the repertoire title appears in the sung words of the score in its dialect form, "gavak"; the score's form is kept below.

Çıktım gavak dalına
Dalını budakladım
Annesinin yanında
Kızını gucakladım
Bağlantı:
Ey sarıgız sarıgız
Sen tavuk ol ben horoz
Sen orada ben burda
Duramıyom yalınız
Yaylanın çimeninde
Oğlaklar (koyunlar) meleşiyor
Yarimin dudakları
Benimle söyleşiyor
(Bağlantı)

"Budaklamak" means to lop branches, "gucaklamak" to embrace, "meleşmek" for animals to bleat together. The first quatrain opens with a show of daring: the young man climbs the poplar, lops its branches and embraces the girl before her mother's eyes. The refrain calls to the fair-haired girl. "You be the hen and I'll be the cockerel" is a frank pairing image from the farmyard; the next two lines sum up separation in a single sentence: you are there, I am here, I cannot bear to be alone.

In the second quatrain the scene moves to the summer pasture. Kids bleat on the grass; in the score "koyunlar" (sheep) is written in brackets beside "oğlaklar" (kids), which suggests both versions were sung. While the animals bleat among themselves, the beloved's lips "talk with me"; the quatrain sets the two young people's conversation beside the sounds of the pasture.

Story

The story of how the song was made does not appear in the sources; the slip gives only the performers and the date.

Musical Features

According to the repertoire data, the tune moves across five notes between Si and F sharp; its final is La and its closing note Do. The tune descends one step below the final, but at the end it does not rest on La; it hangs on Do and returns to the refrain. Nail Demircioğlu lists the song as "Çıktım Gavak Dalına" and gives its mode as Karcığar and its metre as 4/4. In the Amasya repertoire Karcığar is used in seven songs and 4/4 in eighteen.

The quatrains are in the seven-syllable mani form. The other three men named on the slip played several pieces for the team that day, such as "Hanköy Havası", "Paçalı", "Bağlar Havası", "Topal Kız Havası" and "Topal Havası", for which the catalogue gives no first line and which their names show to be dance tunes. Of these, Rasim Olgun appears in the catalogue as a violinist from Sarı village in Merzifon. The slip does not say who played what in this recording; the inclusion of these players among the performers suggests that the song was sung with instrumental accompaniment. Haluk Yücel records the song in his 2018 tables as "Çıkdım gavak dalına (Merzifon)".

Performers and Recordings

In the conservatory catalogue Hamdullah Yılmaz's name is linked to this recording alone. From the voice of Rasim Olgun, of the same group, the songs "Pınarın Başına Taş Ben Olayım" and "Gidersen Göndereyim" were also taken in Merzifon that day, and both entered the TRT repertoire. For performances and albums after the 1943 recording, the publications consulted yielded no information.

Merzifon's other songs are discussed, together with all of Amasya's tunes, in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources