The conservatory's collecting team came to Amasya from the province of Tokat: it had spent the last days of June 1943 in Tokat, Reşadiye and Niksar and the first days of July in Zile, before moving on to Amasya on 4 July. Two of the recordings taken in the province of Amasya have Tokat in their names: the folk song "Toḫadıñ Mezerliği", sung in Gümüşhacıköy, and this Tokat Oyun Havası, played on drum and zurna by Cuma Nacak and Veli Döngel. The recording was made in the province of Amasya with a drummer from Amasya, but because its name points to another city, the tune's belonging to the Amasya region is disputed. It is not found under Amasya in the TRT repertoire, and its notation has not been printed.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Place and date of collection: province of Amasya, settlement uncertain; July 1943, day unknown (in the catalogue "[Amasya ili]", "[(?).07.1943]")
  • Players: Cuma Nacak (davul; farmer, year of birth on the card Rumi 1318, from the village of Hasabdal in central Amasya) and Veli Döngel (zurna; farmer, year of birth on the card Rumi 1317; home left blank on the card)
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team: Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen
  • Published source: Celal Volkan Kaya, Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı'nın Halk Müziği Alan Araştırmaları Kataloğu (İTÜ, 2014), no. 3616
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1112/A-3
  • Genre: dance tune, instrumental
  • Mode, rhythm: not on the card
  • Music: anonymous
  • Source link: there is no TRT page; the details are in Kaya's catalogue

Lyrics

No words are to be looked for in this tune for drum and zurna; the card goes no further than its name. The recording is in the third section of side A of disc 1112, in the Folklore Archive that passed to the State Conservatory of Hacettepe University. No notation of it has been published.

Regional Attribution

The appearance of another city's name in the title does not by itself prove that the tune does not belong to Amasya; it is possible both that musicians living in Amasya knew and played the tunes of neighbouring provinces, and that a tune was given the name of that province. The catalogue does not say which of the two is the case. Two things are certain: the recording was made in the province of Amasya, and the drummer, Cuma Nacak, came from the village of Hasabdal in central Amasya. The home of the zurna player Veli Döngel was not written on the card. In the same session there is also a "Turhal Halayı" that Döngel played with Mustafa Kılıç; Turhal, too, is a district of Tokat. On the other hand, a tune by Nacak and Döngel called "Amasya Üç Ayak ve Yeldirmesi" was also recorded. Tunes bearing the names of both Amasya and Tokat thus stand side by side in the repertoire of the same musicians.

Story

The team's previous stop, Zile, offers ground for comparison; halays named after places are not few there. Among the recordings taken from Murtaza Belen and Halil Bilgiç on 2 July are these halays: "Çorum Halayı", "Reşadiye Halayı" and "Tokat Yannaması (Ağırlama ve Yeldirme)". Whether the Tokat Oyun Havası of Amasya is related to this Tokat Yannaması cannot be said without hearing the recordings. Nor is there any published text telling how the tune came to Amasya or at which weddings it was played.

Musical Features

Nacak plays the davul, Döngel the zurna; these are the instruments entered beside their names in the list of performers. The scale, rhythm and sections of the tune were not entered on the card. Although most of the halay titles in Zile give section names such as "Ağırlama ve Yeldirme", the title of this recording contains no such division.

Performers and Recordings

Side A of disc 1112 carries three dance tunes: Nacak and Döngel's "Bildiş ve Yeldirme", Kılıç and Döngel's "Kürt Halayı", and Tokat Oyun Havası. Bildiş entered the TRT repertoire as Bildiş Oyun Havası; the pair's Amasya Üç Ayak ve Yeldirmesi is also described on a separate page. The name Tokat also occurs in Amasya's TRT repertoire: the folk song Tokat'ın Mezerliği, collected from Bektaş Yıldız in Gümüşhacıköy, is an example. The sound of Tokat Oyun Havası, for its part, survives only on disc 1112; no second recording is known. A collective account of the melodies collected in Amasya is given in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources