This piece carries both parts of a dance performed in a ring in Merzifon. The conservatory team recorded it from Rasim Olgun on 7 July 1943 across two disc sides and wrote this name on the slip: "Dallike Ağırlaması ve Yerinnemesi (Halkalı Toplu Oyun)", "the slow and quick parts of Dallike (group dance in a ring)". The slow first part opens with the line "Pınarın başına daş ben olayım", "let me be the stone at the head of the spring", while the quickening second part returns to the refrain "Hey Dallike Dallike". The TRT repertoire took the piece in under the name of its first line, as number 4602 among the kırık havas, and entered it under Sarıköy in Merzifon.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 4602 (kırık hava section)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon, Sarıköy
  • Source performer: Rasim Olgun, who is also the performer
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen)
  • Date and place of collection: 7 July 1943, Merzifon; in the conservatory catalogue no. 3651, discs 1119/B-1 and 1119/B-2
  • Transcribed by: Altan Demirel
  • Mode: Hüseynî scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 4/4+2/4+6/4 in the repertoire data; 4/4 in Demircioğlu's table
  • Range: Sol to the high Sol, eight notes
  • Type: dance song with words (slow part and quick part)
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: as TRT has no open repertoire address for individual works, the data and lyrics of score no. 4602 can be read on Repertükül.

Lyrics

In the score the words are gathered under two headings, "Ağırlama" (slow part) and "Yenneme / Yeldirme" (quick part); the text follows that division.

Ağırlama
Pınarın başına daş ben olayım
Ala göz üstüne gaş ben olayım
Yalınız yatana eş ben olayım
Öyl'olur böyl'olur köylü güzeli
Al geyer pul geyer akşam üzeri
Galenin ardına ekeller darı
Ekeller biçeller edeller karı
Yar için saklarlar hayvayı narı
Öyl'olur böyl'olur iğdeli gelin
İğdesin aldırmış sevdalı gelin
Yenneme / Yeldirme
Hey gara molla okuyalım yazalım
Sırrımızı sır bilmeze düzelim
Bu yıllık da böyle yarsız gezelim
Hey Dallike Dallike
Kız Dallike Dallike
Dallike derler adıma
Doyamadım dadına
Dallikenin babası
Çamura düşmüş abası
Gızın gönlü olunca
Ne halt eder babası

The first three lines of the slow part are the lover's wish to turn into small things beside the beloved: let me be a stone at the head of the spring, a brow above the hazel eye, a companion to the one who sleeps alone. "Daş" is taş, stone; "gaş" is kaş, brow; "geyer" is giyer, wears. The next two lines look at the village beauty who comes out towards evening dressed in red and spangles. In the second stanza the dialect thickens: behind the castle they sow millet, they sow it, reap it and make a profit; for the beloved they keep quinces and pomegranates. "Ekeller, biçeller, edeller" stand for ekerler, biçerler, ederler, they sow, reap, make; "hayva" is ayva, quince. The stanza ends with a lovesick bride who has had her oleaster fruit brought to her.

In the quick part the tone changes. The "black molla" is called on: let us read, let us write. The meaning of the line "Sırrımızı sır bilmeze düzelim" is unclear; it may mean revealing the secret to one who cannot keep a secret, or setting it into a song. The last line of the stanza is plain: this year too let us go about without a love. "Dallike", which gives the dance its name, is used in the words as a girl's name: "they call me Dallike, I could not have my fill of its sweetness". Whether the word is a proper name or a nickname, and where it comes from, the sources do not explain. The last quatrain is the dance's most playful point: Dallike's father has dropped his cloak in the mud; once the girl has set her heart on someone, what can her father do?

Story

Published sources turned up no story attached to the piece or to the name Dallike.

Musical Features

A slow part followed by a quick one is the pattern of halay and ring dances, in which a slow opening gives way to a fast section; the note "Halkalı Toplu Oyun" on the conservatory slip names this structure plainly. The repertoire data give the metre as a combination of three measures: 4/4+2/4+6/4. In Nail Demircioğlu's table the metre is written simply as 4/4; the difference between the two records has not been resolved. The move from the eleven-syllable lines of the slow part to the seven-syllable lines of the quick part shows the change of measure in the words themselves.

The range runs from Sol to the high Sol, a full octave. The tune is in the Hüseynî scale and settles and ends on La. In Demircioğlu's count, Hüseynî is the most common scale among Amasya's 48 TRT songs, used in eighteen of them. In Haluk Yücel's 2018 tables the name is written "Pınarın başına daş ben olayım".

Performers and Recordings

According to the catalogue's roster of performers, Rasim Olgun was a violinist from Sarı village in Merzifon. On 7 July he took part as both singer and player: with Tahsin Olgun, Turabi Tanrısever and Muharrem Coşkun he played dance tunes, and he also appears on the recording of "Çıktım Gavak Dalına". That same day "Eser Yel (Halay): Gedersin göndüreyim" and "Gel Gönül Gidelim" were also taken from him; the first of these entered the TRT repertoire as "Gidersen Göndereyim". Whether the dance was later carried to the stage or onto discs cannot be learned from the publications examined.

For Merzifon's dance tunes and songs within the wider Amasya repertoire, see The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources