Apples sold by the kilo at the market, snow falling on the orchards, a water vessel made of pinewood and Carcurum, where the soldiers sleep: "Kilo Kilo Elmalar" ("Apples by the Kilo") builds its quatrains from Amasya's everyday objects and places. In the catalogue entry of the song, which bears the number 3800 in the TRT repertoire, the source performer, the collector and the transcriber are one and the same person: Necmettin Kuba. Seyit Al's name is written as the performer. No collection date is given. In Nail Demircioğlu's table listing the 48 Amasya songs at TRT, this is the only work shown in the Rast scale.

Catalogue Data

  • TRT repertoire no.: 3800, kırık hava; subject love
  • Region: Amasya
  • Source performer: Necmettin Kuba
  • Collected and transcribed by: Necmettin Kuba
  • Collection date: not in the repertoire data
  • Performer: Seyit Al
  • Mode: Rast scale; final and closing note Sol
  • Metre: 9/8
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: TRT repertoire no. 3800; there is no official TRT page, the catalogue data, lyrics and a recording marked as a present-day rendition are on Repertükül.
  • Ministry of Culture and Tourism audio file: in the list of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism as "Kilo Kilo Elmalar", listen

Lyrics

Kilo kilo elmalar
Pazarlarda satarlar
Amasya'nın gençleri (ley ley ley leylam)
Yürekleri yakarlar
(Hem okur hem yazarlar)
Bahçelere kar gelir
Kilo kilo nar gelir
Amasya'nın gençleri (ley ley ley leylam)
Akşam eve er gelir
Amasya'nın bardağı
Biri olmassa bir dağı
Mehmediyle şan dolu (ley ley ley leylam) (Mehmetçiği şanlıdır)
Carcurum erat yatağı
Penceresi perdeli
Oldum ben de bir deli
Yare küsmüş gidiyor (ley ley ley leylam)
Mecnun oldum dön geri
(Yare küsüp gitmezler)
(Amasya'nın gençleri)

The lines given in brackets in the notation are second versions that can be sung instead of the main lines or after them. The glossary of the notation explains two words: bardak is a water vessel made of pinewood and used in place of a jug; Carcurum is the popular name of the 15th Infantry Training Brigade. "Erat" means the rank and file, the soldiers; the line "Carcurum erat yatağı" names the brigade as the place where the soldiers sleep.

The first two quatrains praise and tease the young people of Amasya: apples are sold by the kilo in the markets, the young of Amasya set hearts on fire, and, according to the bracketed second version, they can both read and write. In the second quatrain snow falls on the orchards, pomegranates come by the kilo, and "the man comes home in the evening"; that is, when the day is done the man of the house returns. The second line of the third quatrain is not clear. The notation adds no note on the form "Biri olmassa bir dağı"; another source for the words writes the line as "Bir olmazsa bir dahi", which means "if not this one, then another" and fits the image of the water vessel better. The same quatrain names the town together with its soldiers: full of glory with its Mehmetçik, the Turkish soldier, Carcurum is the soldiers' bed. In the last quatrain the lover, out of his mind before the curtained window, calls to the beloved who has left in a sulk: "I have become Mecnun, come back"; the bracketed line seems to answer: one does not leave the beloved in a sulk.

The kilo as a unit, and military words such as Mehmetçik and brigade, suggest that at least these quatrains were put together in fairly recent times. Since the collection date is unknown, this is only a guess drawn from the words themselves.

Story

No story of the song's making tied to a particular event is found in published sources. The words do not tell a story; they list the young people, the market, the orchards and the soldiers of Amasya in mani verses strung one onto the next. The absence of a collection place and date in the catalogue entry also means that it is not known where or when the song reached Necmettin Kuba.

Musical Features

The repertoire notation gives the tune in the Rast scale and in 9/8. The tune settles on Sol and closes on Sol again; it makes do with six notes, from Sol up to Mi. Demircioğlu's table repeats Rast and 9/8. Haluk Yücel, however, who classes the song as a kırık hava, shows it in the 4/4 column of his metre table; this record contradicts the repertoire data, and the article does not explain whether Yücel relied on a different notation or rendition. The cry "ley ley ley leylam" added to the third line of each quatrain lends the tune, in its narrow range, a liveliness close to that of a dance tune.

Performers and Recordings

The repertoire data name Seyit Al as the performer; the same name also appears in the entry for "Bulguru Kaynatırlar", another song credited to Amasya. The online copy of the notation includes a recording marked "present-day rendition", but the singer is not named. Among the local songs of the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism there is also a recording of "Kilo Kilo Elmalar"; it does not name its singer either. Beyond these, no performers who included the song on an album turned up in the sources searched. The province's other songs in the TRT repertoire are discussed together in the article The Melody of the Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources