The series of six pieces Osman Atmaca gave the team in Gümüşhacıköy on 9 July 1943 opens with a shepherd's tune tied to driving the flock down to water and closes with a gırnata tune; "Gelin Ağlatma" is the fourth of them. None of the six has a line of text on its card. Since Atmaca's kaval appears with its measurements in the catalogue's appendix of instruments, it may be supposed that the series was played on the kaval, the shepherd's end-blown flute. Its notation has not been published, and it did not enter the TRT repertoire.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Place of collection: Gümüşhacıköy
  • Source person: Osman Atmaca (kaval)
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team: Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen and the technician Rıza Yetişen
  • Date of collection: 9 July 1943
  • Published source: Celal Volkan Kaya, Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı'nın Halk Müziği Alan Araştırmaları Kataloğu (İTÜ, 2014), recording list no. 3720
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1136/B-2
  • Genre: gelin ağlatma, wedding tune
  • Mode, rhythm: not recorded
  • Music: anonymous
  • Source link: there is no TRT page; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

For this recording the catalogue gives only a title. The absence of a first line does not prove that the recording was without words: Kaya writes plainly that for some sung pieces he had to make do with the title alone, because the words had not been noted down or the cards could not be found. That all of Atmaca's recordings consist of a title only, and that his kaval was recorded separately, does however suggest a melody played on an instrument.

Published sources hold neither words nor notation for this gelin ağlatma. The melody is in the Folklore Archive, on side B of disc 1136, where the Gümüşhacıköy recordings continue; the details on the card reached the catalogue from the copies TRT obtained in the 1970s.

Story

That Atmaca put on disc at the same session both a tune connected with the flock and melodies played at weddings suggests a performer who accompanied many moments of village life; the cards offer no explanation on this point. From whom he learned the gelin ağlatma, and at which moment of a Gümüşhacıköy wedding it was played, are not cleared up by any published information either.

Musical Features

About the instrument the catalogue is unusually detailed, about the melody silent: mode and metre were not written on the card. According to the appendix of instruments, Atmaca's kaval is about 92 centimetres long; the inside of its body is 18 millimetres wide and the outside 24, and its construction is shown in a separate drawing (Figure E.13). Which finger-holes this kaval used in the gelin ağlatma cannot be known without hearing the disc.

Performers and Recordings

Side A of disc 1136 opens with "Ben de Şu Dünyaya [Pir Sultan Abdal'dan]", sung by Kazım Aygül, and Atmaca's recordings follow. According to the catalogue's estimate, the day before, in Merzifon, Osman Keleş and Hüseyin Duran had also played a gelin ağlatma for the team; whether the two recordings resemble each other is unknown. Atmaca's gelin ağlatma is mentioned in no performance after 1943. The wedding tunes and folk songs of Gümüşhacıköy are described, together with all the melodies of the province, in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources