Among Amasya's works in the TRT repertoire, this is the only song whose words name a statesman. Its quatrains ask for inspiration from Atatürk and praise İsmet İnönü and Fevzi Çakmak, and every stanza closes with the refrain "Çok yaşasın Türk milleti", long live the Turkish nation. The words are by Âşık Musa Aslan of Merzifon; his pen name appears in the last stanza, and the conservatory record sheet adds the note "[Aşık Musa'dan]", from Âşık Musa, beside the title. The Ankara State Conservatory's collecting team recorded the song from his voice in Merzifon on 8 July 1943. The repertoire gave it the number 5157 and entered its subject as "heroism, valour".

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 5157 (kırık hava section)
  • Region: Amasya, Merzifon
  • Source performer: Âşık Musa Aslan
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory; the repertoire data also list Muzaffer Sarısözen, Halil Bedii Yönetken and Rıza Yetişen separately among the collectors
  • Date and place of collection: probably 8 July 1943, Merzifon; conservatory catalogue no. 3693, record 1130/B-1 (queried in the catalogue), titled "Türkiyemiz Şeref Buldu [Aşık Musa'dan]"
  • Transcribed by: Süleyman Şenel
  • Mode: Hüseynî scale; final and closing note La
  • Metre: 3/8
  • Range: La to Sol, seven notes
  • Genre: türkü (subject in the repertoire: "Heroism, Valour")
  • Words: Âşık Musa Aslan (d. 1960). The words are protected by copyright; only the first quatrain is quoted on this page.
  • Music: attributed in the repertoire to the source performer; no separate composer is recorded
  • TRT link: TRT has no public page for individual repertoire items; the catalogue data, lyrics and two pages of notation of no. 5157 can be read on Repertükül.
  • Overview article: The Melody of the Yeşilırmak

Lyrics

Copyright note: since Âşık Musa Aslan died in 1960, his words remain under copyright until the end of 2030. Of the song's five quatrains only the first is given, as it stands in notation no. 5157 and set in lower case; the content of the other quatrains is described in prose below.

Türkiye'miz şeref buldu
İnşallah meydanı aldı
Ankara'dan emir geldi
Çok yaşasın Türk milleti

The short eight-syllable lines carry the air of a celebration: Turkey has found honour, it has taken the field, an order has come from Ankara. The quatrain does not say which order is meant. "İnşallah", God willing, seems here less a wish than a word that confirms the rejoicing by God's leave; the line reports the taking of the field as something already done.

The second quatrain asks for inspiration from Atatürk so that Turkey may rejoice and smile, and says that all our "amens", that is our prayers, know this too. In the third quatrain come the names: the repertoire note identifies the two figures written in the notation as "İnönü İsmet" and "Aslan Feyzi" as İsmet İnönü and Fevzi Çakmak. In 1943, the year of the recording, İnönü was president of the republic and Çakmak chief of the general staff. The fourth quatrain turns to Merzifon; it calls the town a "land of healing", counts its people the bravest of the brave, and says that four regiments and an army corps are stationed there. In the fifth the minstrel gives his name and says he has begun his praise, that all his brothers rejoice and that the young have lived free here. Each stanza ends with the same refrain, "Çok yaşasın Türk milleti".

Story

The text belongs to the years after Atatürk's death, when İnönü was head of state; since it was recorded in the summer of 1943, it must have been sung by then at the latest. The printed sources do not explain the occasion for which the song was made, and neither a more precise date nor the event behind the line "an order came from Ankara" appears in them.

The moment of recording, however, is documented. Facing the collecting team the state had sent from Ankara, Musa Aslan recorded this song of praise over the same two days in which he sang the Kırklar Semahı, the deyiş "Selam Verdik Kadem Bastık" and pieces from the Köroğlu cycle. Whether the song was made for this encounter, or was a piece the minstrel had already sung at gatherings in Merzifon, is not known. The "four regiments" and the "army corps" of the fourth quatrain point to the military presence in Merzifon, but the words do not reveal which units are meant.

Musical Features

Before the words, the saz plays an introduction of twenty bars in 3/8; Haluk Yücel records this in his 2021 article analysing Musa Aslan's nine works. The Hüseynî melody changes neither mode nor metre, moving in 3/8 from start to finish; its motifs proceed mostly by seconds and thirds. The melody moves through seven notes, from the lower La up to Sol, and returns to La to settle there. All five stanzas are sung to the same tune.

The pairing of a short triple metre with eight-syllable lines gives the song a brisk, marching motion, and the long instrumental introduction sets that mood before the words begin. In the table in which Nail Demircioğlu lists the 48 TRT songs of Amasya, only two works are in 3/8: this song and Musa Aslan's other work "Bahçeye Getirdi Bir Canan Bizi". The name of Süleyman Şenel, who transcribed it, appears in the Amasya repertoire only in the data of this work.

Performers and Recordings

The record Musa Aslan made in Merzifon in 1943 is the song's known performance, and the catalogue gives the number of this record in square brackets and with a question mark, that is as unconfirmed; the place of recording is likewise an estimate. An image of the notation has been published online; the same archive offers no audio file of the work. No other artist who sang it on radio or on record is named in the sources.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources