In this song a piece of liver eaten by a cat costs a young bride her marriage. From morning until after the night prayer the mother-in-law, the sister-in-law, the husband, the father-in-law and finally the imam come to the door one after another; each asks the bride what is wrong, and each receives the same answer: the cats ate the liver. Recorded from Naciye Perin in Amasya on 6 July 1943 by the collecting team of the Ankara State Conservatory, this comic narrative song appears in the disc list as "Kaynana Türküsü", "The Mother-in-Law Song". In the TRT repertoire it became no. 1891, titled "Sabah Oldu Kaynanam Geldi (Gelin Kaynana)", and the repertoire's subject classification places it among songs "about animals".

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: 1891 (TRT THM kırık havas)
  • Region: Amasya
  • Source performer: Naciye Perin; the conservatory catalogue lists the performers as Naciye Perin and Sabri Tınaztepe
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory
  • Date of collection: 6 July 1943
  • Transcribed by: Ateş Köyoğlu
  • Mode: Karcığar; final La, closing note Re
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: there is no official TRT page for individual works; for the repertoire data, lyrics and a two-page image of the notation see Repertükül.

Lyrics

Sabah oldu gaynanam geldi
Bu ne halin gelin kızım dedi
Kaynanacığım ciğeri kediler yedi
Oğlum gelsin halleşin dedi
Bağlantı:
Ah o kediyi tutu tutuversem
Tüylerini yolu yolu versem
Sokağa katı katıversem
Öğlen oldu görümüm geldi
Nedir halin yenge hanım dedi
Gözüm cicim ciğeri kediler yedi
Abim gelsin sen görürsün dedi
(Bağlantı)
Akşam oldu kocam geldi
Getir hanım ciğeri yiyelim dedi
Efendim ciğeri kediler yedi
Topla eşyalarını çık dışarı dedi
(Bağlantı)
Yatsıya da gaynatam geldi
Nedir halin gelin hanım dedi
Gaynatacım ciğeri kediler yedi
Çağırın imamı gelsin dedi
(Bağlantı)
Yatsıda sonu imam geldi
Bu ne hal gelin hanım dedi
İmam efendi ciğeri kediler yedi
İki guruş on para nikâhın dedi
(Bağlantı)

The reduplications in the refrain ("tutu tutuversem", "yolu yolu versem", "katı katıversem") convey the bride's fury: oh, if I could just catch that cat, pluck out its fur, throw it into the street. The word list beneath the notation explains four terms: halleşmek means to talk things over, to come to terms; katmak to put, to leave; görüm is the husband's sister; gaynata the father-in-law. In the notation the same person is written "gaynanam" in the first line and "kaynanacığım", "my dear mother-in-law", in the third; this wavering in pronunciation has been kept in the text.

The song is ordered by the hours of the day. The mother-in-law comes in the morning and says, "let my son come, and talk it over with him". The sister-in-law who comes at noon threatens the bride with her elder brother. The husband who comes in the evening asks for the liver and, hearing it has been eaten, turns his wife out of the house. The father-in-law who comes at the night prayer has the imam called, and the imam who comes after the night prayer says, "your marriage is worth two kuruş and ten para". This last line can be read in two ways: it may say that the marriage is being dissolved this cheaply, or that it was never worth more. Either way the song tells, in jest, how a small household mishap brings the whole family to its feet.

Story

Nothing shows that the song grew out of what happened to a real bride. The story is inside the song; no separate account of its origin appears in the sources.

Musical Features

The syllable counts of the lines do not match. The stanzas have four lines, but "Sabah oldu gaynanam geldi" has nine syllables, "Kaynanacığım ciğeri kediler yedi" thirteen; the words follow a manner close to speech rather than a metred folk poem. The repertoire data give the melody in the Karcığar scale and in 4/4; the song ends on Re, while its final is written as La. The range stretches nine notes, from Sol at the bottom to La at the top. Nail Demircioğlu's table lists the song as "Sabah Oldu Gaynanam Geldi", in Karcığar and 4/4.

Performers and Recordings

The singer on the disc is the source performer, Naciye Perin. The conservatory catalogue records that on the same day Naciye Perin and Sabri Tınaztepe also sang a "Gelin Havası (Koltukta Söylenirmiş)"; this piece entered the TRT repertoire as no. 4600, "Geline Bakın Geline (Kına Havası)". The recording that can be played on the notation's online page is left unnamed. Anyone who put this comic song on disc after Naciye Perin is unknown, at least in any form that has reached the sources.

Collections and Variants

Songs on the tension between mother-in-law and bride turn up in the conservatory's collections from other regions as well. The catalogue lists pieces called "Kaynana Gelin Türküsü" in Akşehir in 1940, "Gelin Kaynana Kavgası" in Bingöl in 1944, "Kaynana" in Nallıhan and "Kaynana Havası" in Kırıkkale in 1945, and again "Kaynana" in Malkara in 1947. Whether any of them is related in tune or words to the Amasya song cannot be told from the catalogue; what they share is only the subject. In Haluk Yücel's list of Amasya folk songs the work is marked in the kırık hava column as "Sabah oldu gaynanam geldi". Amasya's other folk songs in the TRT repertoire are listed in the article The Melody of the Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources