The title carries two names one on top of the other: "Kavrama Havası", which states the kind of dance, and in brackets "Niğdeli Gelin", the bride from Niğde. The second name ties the melody to Niğde, far from Amasya; yet the recording was taken in Merzifon on 8 July 1943 from the voice of Âşık Musa Aslan of the Hacıbalı quarter. Although it is a dance tune, the card gives a first line; the piece was sung with words. It has no counterpart in the TRT repertoire.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Place and date of collection: Merzifon, 8 July 1943
  • Regional attribution: recorded in Merzifon; because its name points to Niğde, its belonging to Amasya is disputed
  • Source person: Musa Aslan; in the index of performers his home is the Hacıbalı quarter of Merzifon
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory: Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, technician Rıza Yetişen
  • Published source: Celal Volkan Kaya, Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı'nın Halk Müziği Alan Araştırmaları Kataloğu (İTÜ, 2014), no. 3688
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1129/A-2
  • Genre: dance tune (kavrama), with words
  • Mode, rhythm: not recorded
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source link: there is no TRT link; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

Yüce dağ başına yağan gar olsuñ

"Gar" is the dialect form of kar, snow, and "olsuñ" of olsun, let it be; the line reads "Let it be the snow that falls on the high mountain's top." Standing alone, its meaning can be pulled in two directions: it may be a wish, or a curse aimed at the beloved or at fate. Only its continuation could tell which. The words that would complete the line and a notation of the melody have not been published; a copy of the card is at TRT, and Musa Aslan's voice is preserved on disc 1129 in the conservatory archive.

The opening of the line is heard in other Amasya recordings of the same week. On 4 July in Amasya the team took down from Osman Samsun a bozuk beginning "Yüce dağ başında bir top gar idim", and on 5 July in Zigala a semah from Davut Aslan with the line "Yüce dağ başında goyun güderken". "The top of the high mountain" is a shared opening in these three recordings; whether the melodies resemble one another is unknown.

Regional Attribution

The card does not explain where the name "Niğdeli Gelin" came to this recording from. The name suggests that the melody is tied to a tune known in Niğde or to a bride from Niğde, but no record supports this. The source person is registered as a man of Merzifon, and whether he learned the piece from the local repertoire or from elsewhere is not known. The work is counted among the melodies of Amasya because it was collected in Merzifon; given its name, its belonging to Amasya is not certain.

Story

Whether any event lies behind this tune that bears the name of a bride has not been put in writing.

Musical Features

Rhythm and scale are missing from the card; the description "kavrama", on the other hand, also appears in another dance tune Musa Aslan sang the same day: "Yolma Havası (Kavrama): Garşıda gördüm seni". Both were recorded with words. What kind of dance or section of melody "kavrama" denotes in these recordings is not explained on the cards.

Performers and Recordings

Musa Aslan is the only known singer of this kavrama tune. On side A of 1129, immediately before it, stands Ale Gözlerine (Kurbanîden), again sung by Aslan; the second recording on side B, "Selâm Verdik ve Cevabı", entered the TRT repertoire as Selam Verdik Kadem Bastık. Musa Aslan's life, which ran from Ardahan to Merzifon, is told on his own page; the general framework that includes the dance tunes of Merzifon is set out by The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources