The name in brackets tells which figure of the Köroğlu tale this piece is tied to: Ayvaz. In Merzifon on 8 July 1943 Âşık Musa Aslan sang two Köroğlu pieces for the collecting team one after the other: first "Köroğlundan: Hay edüben meydan başında duran", and immediately after it this "Köroğludan (Ayvaz)", which opens with the line "Bir at aldım havasınan". The first entered the TRT repertoire, while the Ayvaz piece has remained a one-line entry in the catalogue.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Place and date of collection: Merzifon, 8 July 1943
  • Source person: Musa Aslan; in the index of performers his home is the Hacıbalı quarter of Merzifon
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team (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. 3692
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc [1130/A-2]; the number is given in square brackets in the catalogue
  • Genre: deyiş (Köroğlu cycle)
  • Mode, rhythm: not recorded
  • Words and music: anonymous, from the Köroğlu tradition
  • Source link: there is no TRT link; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

Bir at aldım havasınan

In the local dialect the suffix "-ınan" is used for "-ıyla", "with"; "havasınan" is therefore understood as "havasıyla", "with its air" or "with its spirit". The words tell of buying a horse, but what "its air" refers to, the horse's or the buyer's, cannot be settled without the rest. The catalogue does not state which part of the tale the line belongs to. Neither the words that would show where the buying of the horse leads nor a notation of the melody has been published. According to Kaya's preface, some of the cards are missing from the photocopies at TRT as well; the disc number of this recording is also given in square brackets in the catalogue. The sound recording is among the discs of the Folklore Archive that passed to Hacettepe University.

Story

Which episode of the Köroğlu tale the piece tells, and in what setting it was sung in Merzifon, is not mentioned in written sources; from whom Musa Aslan learned this branch is not known either.

Musical Features

There is no note on the melody, but the layout of the disc is plain. Side A of disc 1130 carries the two Köroğlu pieces together. Side B holds "Türkiyemiz Şeref Buldu [Aşık Musa'dan]" and "Giderem Vana Doğru"; the whole disc is given over to Musa Aslan's voice.

Performers and Recordings

Outside Musa Aslan's disc no trace of the Ayvaz piece turns up. The first Köroğlu piece, with which it shares a side, entered the repertoire at TRT as Hay Edüben Meydan Harman Başında Duran, and the recording that opens side B as Türkiye'miz Şeref Buldu. In Haluk Yücel's table of personal names occurring in the folk songs of Merzifon, the names Köroğlu and Ayvaz each appear once; Yücel does not show in which song they occur. Readers who wish to know the source person may turn to the Âşık Musa Aslan biography, and those who wish to look at the region's melodies as a whole to The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources