Of the 89 Amasya songs in Haluk Yücel's tables, this is the only one whose title contains quotation marks: "Kuş Köprü" başının gülleri, the roses at the head of "Kuş Köprü". The word set in quotation marks is a place name. In Amasya the Seljuk bridge over the Yeşilırmak, Kunç Köprü, is also known as Künç Köprü and Kuş Köprü. The song's title speaks of the roses blooming at the head of that bridge; of the rest of the melody, all that survives is the type and metre Yücel gives.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered in the TRT repertoire under the Amasya region
  • Region: Amasya
  • Type: kırık hava (Yücel 2018, Table 5, p. 380)
  • Metre: 4/4 (Yücel 2018, Table 6, pp. 383-384)
  • Mode (makam): not stated
  • Source performer, collector, date of collection: not given
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Links: no TRT link; Yücel 2018

Lyrics

What the title says is this: the roses at the head of Kuş Köprü. These words may be the song's first line, but since Yücel gives titles rather than lines in his tables, even this is not certain. Collections published under an Amasya attribution do not print the words, and no notation appears there either. For the bridge's names and history see the historical bridges of Amasya; there is no document explaining where the name Kuş Köprü comes from.

Story

For whom the roses at the bridgehead were sung, and on what occasion, no published tale explains; how the song first arose the sources leave unsaid.

Musical Features

Standing in the type table between "Bade koydum fincana" and "Amasya'nın dağları", the song is marked under 4/4 in the metre table. This four-beat metre is the largest group in Yücel's count: the article's conclusion gives 28 songs in it. Amasya'nın Dağları, on the neighbouring row, also sits in the same column of the table. Makam figures appear in the article only as totals, so the song's scale is unknown; with no notation in print, its range and form are equally out of reach.

Collections and Variants

Another Amasya song opening with the bridge's name was recorded on disc in 1943. On 4 July 1943, in Amasya, Mustafa Saçlı sang for the Ankara State Conservatory's recording team a song beginning with the line "Kuşköprünün ufacıkdır taşları", the stones of Kuşköprü are tiny; the melody is described on the Kuşköprünün page. One names the bridge's stones, the other the roses at its head. No record shows whether they are different lines of the same song or two separate songs using the same place name; Yücel does not refer to the 1943 collection.

Performers and Recordings

No singer's name, album or archive number attaches to the song in any record. Yücel's sources include the TRT repertoire, folk-song albums and oral tradition; which of these this song came from is not stated. For a broader look at the city's songs, turn to The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources