No player or dancer is named in the catalogue entry of the Merzifon Karşılaması: the source of this wordless tune is entered in the TRT repertoire as a "yöre ekibi", a local ensemble. Nejat Buhara collected and transcribed it, but no date was set down. Numbered 135 among the dance tunes, the work has its type recorded as "Karşılama", a facing dance.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 135 (dance tunes section)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Source performer: local ensemble
  • Collected and transcribed by: Nejat Buhara
  • Date of collection: not given in the entry
  • Mode: Gülizar scale; final La, closing note Re
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Genre: dance tune, karşılama (instrumental)
  • Music: anonymous
  • TRT link: TRT has no public page for individual repertoire items; the catalogue data of no. 135 and two pages of notation can be seen on Repertükül.
  • Overview article: The Melody of the Yeşilırmak

Lyrics

The tune is carried by the local ensemble's instruments; the lyrics field of the notation is filled in as "Sözü Yoktur", it has no words.

Story

The entry "local ensemble" shows that the melody was collected from a group of players and dancers; who made up the group, however, is not recorded. The printed sources are equally silent on the weddings or gatherings in Merzifon at which the tune was played, and on the dance that went with it.

A karşılama was also recorded in Merzifon in 1943; since Buhara's collection is undated, it is not known which came first. On or about 8 July 1943 a collecting team from the Ankara State Conservatory took down a piece called "Yol Havası (Karşılama)" from Osman Keleş and Hüseyin Duran in Merzifon, and recorded other dance tunes from the same pair, among them "Yol Havası (Yürütme)", "Üç Ayak" and "Kürt Halayı". Whether this 1943 recording and the karşılama collected by Nejat Buhara are the same melody is not known. The conservatory recording does not appear in the TRT repertoire under the Amasya region.

Musical Features

Among Amasya's TRT songs, Nail Demircioğlu's table shows the Gülizar scale in two works: "Dağdan Kestim Çınarı" and "Eğlen Sana Bir Nasihat Edeyim" from Merzifon. Since the table does not cover dance tunes, the karşılama does not appear there. Its own melody is in Gülizar too, settling on La and closing on Re; among the Amasya dance tunes, a final and a closing note on different pitches is also found in Paçalı. The metre is 4/4, and the data give no range.

Performers and Recordings

The date, place and performers of the recording on which the notation is based are not stated in the entry. The name of any later artist or ensemble who recorded or released the karşılama is not known either.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources