In "Gökyüzünde Bölük Bölük Turnalar" ("Cranes in Flocks Across the Sky"), a song collected in Merzifon, the singer calls out to a flock of cranes passing overhead and asks them to carry a letter to his beloved; the whole of the two-stanza text consists of this appeal. Although its title in the repertoire is "Turnalar", in the lyrics the bird is called "durna" in the local idiom, and refrains of the type "leyli leyli durnalar ey" are inserted between the lines. Its source performer is Âşık Musa Aslan. The song was recorded on disc from Musa Aslan's voice by the Ankara State Conservatory's collecting team in the summer of 1943, and entered the TRT repertoire as number 1079 in Muzaffer Sarısözen's transcription. For the minstrel's other songs see the Âşık Musa Aslan page, and for a general view of Amasya's melodies our article on folk songs and long airs.

Catalogue Record

  • TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire no.: 1079 (kırık hava)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Source performer: Âşık Musa Aslan
  • Collected and transcribed by: Muzaffer Sarısözen
  • Date of collection: 08.10.1946 according to the TRT repertoire record; recorded on disc by the Ankara State Conservatory on 7/8 July 1943 (index card 3663, disc 1122/B-2)
  • Makam: Hüseyni; final and closing note A
  • Usul (metre): 7/8+10/8 (Demircioğlu writes only 7/8)
  • Range: from A to the high A, 8 notes
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: TRT has published no official page for the work; the record and the source performer's recording are on Repertükül, https://www.repertukul.com/GOKYUZUNDE-BOLUK-BOLUK-TURNALAR-1079
  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism audio recording ("Gökyüzünde"): http://webtvpanel.kultur.gov.tr/WebTV_Contents/Publish/21092017142054/01igokyuzundeiyeni.mp3

Lyrics

Gökyüzünde bölük bölük durnalar
(Leyli leyli durnalar ey)
Nerededir meskeniniz eliniz
Bir name yazayım yare götürün
(Leyli leyli götürün ey)
Dost eline uğrar m'ola yolunuz
Telli durnam gökyüzünün gülüdür
(Leyli leyli gülüdür ey)
Esip konduğun Bağdat elidir
Gözüm yaşı mahramalar silidir
(Leyli leyli silidir ey)
Aşamazsan telli durnam dön geri

In English: Cranes flying in flocks across the sky, where are your home and your country? Let me write a letter for you to take to my beloved; will your road pass through my love's land? My crested crane is the rose of the sky; the place where you blow in and alight is the land of Baghdad. Embroidered veils wipe the tears from my eyes; if you cannot cross over, my crested crane, turn back.

The score's glossary explains "name" as letter and "mahrama" as the broad embroidered cover which women in some regions threw over their coats when going out. Its note on the crane is longer: it is a bird that has been a symbol of fidelity, pride, love, peace, hope and happiness, said to live for about a hundred years, monogamous and never re-pairing after its mate dies, flying in great skeins although it lives in pairs, and held sacred in Alevi-Bektashi belief. The epithet "telli" most probably refers to the tuft of feathers on the crane's head. The last line ends in a voice afraid that the messenger bird will not get across; the song does not say whether the letter reaches its destination.

Its Story

Whether Baghdad, named as the place where the cranes alight, points to an actual route or is a conventional name for distance, the source does not explain. No published account of the song's composition has been found either.

Musical Features

The usul joins two measures: Repertükül gives the score's metre as 7/8+10/8. Demircioğlu's table, on the other hand, records only 7/8; the table may have taken the main measure as the basis for compound metres. According to Haluk Yücel's 2021 article analysing Musa Aslan's songs, seconds and thirds dominate the motifs, and there is no instrumental interlude at the start. The scale is hüseyni and the makam does not change during the song. The melody moves between low A and high A, across a full octave.

Yücel notes that the two stanzas are sung to the same melody. The refrains fall on the second and fifth lines of each stanza and each time repeat the last word of the preceding line: "durnalar ey", "götürün ey", "gülüdür ey", "silidir ey". This echo places a short, rhyming breath between the eleven-syllable lines.

Collections and Variants

In Celal Volkan Kaya's catalogue of the Ankara State Conservatory's collecting index cards, the song is recorded as "Durnalar: Gökyüzünde bölük bölük durnalar", performed by Musa Aslan. The card is dated 7/8 July 1943; the place of recording is given in the catalogue in square brackets as Merzifon, meaning that it was supplied by the cataloguer. On the same side of the disc, as the piece immediately before it, comes "Yalel Samah: Aşnamdan ayrıldım yamandır halim" by Musa Aslan. This first line is almost identical to the first line of "Eşimden Ayrıldım Yamandır Halim", collected years later from his son Haydar Aslan.

Kaya's comparison table with the TRT repertoire matches score no. 1079 with this card, but gives the score's date of collection as 08.10.1946. Sarısözen's score is thus dated three years after the 1943 disc; the table does not say whether the score was written from the disc or from a later performance.

Demircioğlu cites the song as "Gökyüzünde Bölük Bölük Durnalar", and Haluk Yücel in his 2018 article as "Gökyüzünde bölük bölük durnalar, leyli leyli durnalar". That the recording titled "Gökyüzünde" in the audio series issued by the Ministry's directorate in Amasya is this song can be inferred only from the title; the file carries no other catalogue information.

Performers and Recordings

Repertükül has two audio files: one from the source performer, the other headed "günümüz yorumu" (a present-day interpretation). The performer line of the record gives the source performer together with a "toplu" (group) performance. Nothing has turned up to show a soloist recording the song on disc or album.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources