"Sarcalan Köyünden Molla Mustafa ve Oğlu", "Molla Mustafa and His Son from Sarcalan Village": this is the heading the 1943 collection slip gives the lament, ahead of its first line. The speaker in the words is the son. He is dying; he asks his father for money, tells him to send it with his uncle if he cannot come himself, and calls himself "a brave lad dying for his father's sake". Recorded from the voices of Âşık Davut Aslan and Mehmet İnan, the lament passed into the TRT repertoire as number 4599, and the repertoire data enter its subject as "lament".

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 4599 (kırık hava section)
  • Region: Amasya; in the conservatory catalogue the place of recording is estimated as Zigala (Aydınca)
  • Source performers: Âşık Davut Aslan and Mehmet İnan, who are also the performers
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen)
  • Date of collection: 5 July 1943; in the conservatory catalogue no. 3603, disc 1110/B-1, titled "Sarcalan Köyünden Molla Mustafa ve Oğlu: Değirmeniñ ögünde bir böyuk talla" (place, date and disc number are estimates in the catalogue)
  • Transcribed by: Altan Demirel
  • Mode: Uşşak scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Range: La to Re, four notes
  • Type: lament (kırık hava)
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: as TRT has no open repertoire address for individual works, the data and lyrics of score no. 4599 can be read on Repertükül.

Lyrics

Değirmen önünde bir böyük tarla
Baba ben ölüyom parayı yolla
Gendin gelemezsen emmemnen yolla
Bağlantı:
Gıyma Malik gıyma nar danesiyim
Anamın babamın bir danesiyim
Değirmen önünde bir sıra söğüt
Hiç ahbabım yoğmuş vermedi öğüt
Babamın uğruna ölen bir yiğit
(Bağlantı)

The dialect forms remain in the words: "böyük" is büyük, big; "gendin" is kendin, yourself; "emmemnen" is amcamla, with my uncle; "gıyma" is kıyma, do not slay; "yoğmuş" is yokmuş, there was none. "Bir danesiyim" means I am the only one. The first stanza reads: in front of the mill there is a big field; father, I am dying, send the money; if you cannot come yourself, send it with my uncle. In the refrain the dying youth pleads with someone he calls Malik: do not slay me, Malik, do not slay me; I am like a pomegranate seed, the only child of my mother and father. The second stanza recalls the row of willows in front of the mill; the youth says he had not even a friend to give him counsel and calls himself a brave lad dying for his father's sake.

The gaps the words leave are open to filling, and the source fills none of them. "Malik" looks like a personal name; whether it is the one who will take the young man's life or someone else is not said. Nor is it clear what the money is for. Dying for one's father may bring to mind a blood feud, a debt or some trouble that had befallen the father; but the text gives only the outcome.

Story

No source describing the event behind the lament has been published. The only information available is the heading on the slip: the lament was made for Molla Mustafa of Sarcalan village and his son. Which settlement Sarcalan is today, and when the event took place, the catalogue does not explain. The sources examined do not mention Molla Mustafa or his son's name in any other context. Whether the singers witnessed the event or learned of it from others is also unknown.

Musical Features

The stanzas are built of three eleven-syllable lines, and each is followed by a two-line refrain. The tune stays within the four notes from La to Re. It is the fourth work in Nail Demircioğlu's table of Amasya's Uşşak songs; its final is La, its metre 4/4, and the tune rises to Re without going below the final. In the same table only three tunes have a four-note range, and the 1943 recordings at Zigala include all three.

The repertoire did not notate this lament as a free-rhythm long song but placed it in the 4/4 kırık hava section. The narrow four-note space suits the singing of long eleven-syllable lines almost in a single breath, moving back and forth among a few notes. Haluk Yücel names the piece "Değirmen önünde bir böyük tarla" in his 2018 tables of type and metre.

Performers and Recordings

Âşık Davut Aslan and Mehmet İnan sang a long series of pieces for the team on 5 July 1943. Among that day's recordings the catalogue lists "Mersiye (Garip'ten): Kâf nun kitabi ızhar olmadan", the Gönüller Semahı and Kırklar Semahı, and pieces such as "Keklik", "Söyleyim Dinleyim" and "Men Aref". Of these, "Kaf u Nun Hitabı İzhar Olmadan" entered the TRT repertoire as no. 4603, and the Gönüller Semahı as no. 4604 under the title "Yüce Dağ Başında Koyun Güderken". Haluk Yücel's 2023 study of Alevi-Bektashi elements in Amasya songs also counts Âşık Davut Aslan and Mehmet İnan among its source performers. On later singers of the lament and on disc recordings, the sources consulted are silent.

There is also a broader article on Amasya's laments and songs in the repertoire: The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources