Clarinet, two violins and frame drum: the quartet that played "Hanköy Havası" onto disc on 7 July 1943 was made up of three musicians from the village of Sarı in Merzifon and a tef player from the village of Hırka. Recorded on the conservatory team's first day in Merzifon, the instrumental tune was written on the card as "Hanköy Havası (Düz Hava)" and opened side B of disc 1118. The tune never reached print as notation, nor did it find a place in the TRT repertoire.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none
  • Players: Tahsin Olgun (clarinet, Rumi 1326), Rasim Olgun (violin, farmer, Rumi 1324), Turabi Tanrısever (violin, Rumi 1329), all three from the village of Sarı in Merzifon; Muharrem Coşkun (tef, Rumi 1329), from the village of Hırka in Merzifon
  • Place of collection: Merzifon (in square brackets in the catalogue, Kaya's completion)
  • Date of collection: 7 July 1943
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team; Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen and Rıza Yetişen
  • Genre: instrumental dance tune ("düz hava")
  • Mode, rhythm: unknown
  • Music: anonymous
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1118/B-1; no. 3645 in Kaya's catalogue
  • Source link: Kaya's thesis; there is no TRT entry

Lyrics

Nothing but the title was entered on the card of this wordless instrumental tune. The quartet's playing is on the disc that was handed over to Hacettepe University together with the Folklore Archive of the Ankara State Conservatory.

Story

Hanköy is a name still found among the villages of Merzifon today. Whether the tune's name comes from this village, whether it was played at the village's weddings, or whether it refers to another Hanköy, the card does not say, and no published account explains it.

The description "Düz Hava" in brackets turns up elsewhere in the conservatory archive too. In 1938 a piece called simply "Düz Hava" was recorded in Tavşanlı; in 1948 in Mudurnu there are two recordings, one called "Düz Hava (Oyun)" and the other "Düz Hava (Ortaköy Havası)". The second Mudurnu title seems built the other way round from the Merzifon one: there the düz hava is named after a village, here the tune named after a village is said to be a düz hava. The catalogue does not explain what exactly the term denotes in these recordings.

Musical Features

What we have is the line-up of instruments; no analysis of the melody has been published. Since only the instruments actually played in the recording went into the list of performers, the tune was played on a clarinet, two violins and a tef. The team also recorded tunes played on drum and zurna in Merzifon; Hanköy Havası, by contrast, comes from a village ensemble with violins and clarinet.

Performers and Recordings

The quartet played four more tunes the same day: "Paçalı", "Bağlar Havası", "Topal Kız Havası" and "Topal Havası"; like them, Hanköy Havası is known only from this session. Next, "Sarı Kız", sung by Hamdullah Yılmaz, was recorded, with the three musicians from Sarı again taking part; the song entered the TRT repertoire as Çıktım Kavak Dalına. Two songs for which the violinist Rasim Olgun is named as the source person are also in the repertoire: Gidersen Göndereyim and Pınarın Başına Taş Ben Olayım. On the following day the minstrel Aşir Kirpiksiz's deyiş "Geyik Avı" was recorded on side A of the disc. The wider frame of Amasya's melodies, from Merzifon to Gümüşhacıköy: The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources