Unlike the examples from Zile and Amasya, the üç ayak recorded in Merzifon has no section name such as "yeldirme" added to its title. It is an instrumental tune played by two musicians from the village of Kızıleğrek, Osman Keleş on the zurna and Hüseyin Duran on the davul. The name itself is widespread: between 1937 and 1950 the conservatory team recorded üç ayaks in a great many places, from Elazığ to Hopa and from Diyarbakır to Bâlâ, and on the 1943 tour, too, an üç ayak went onto disc at Tokat, Zile, in Amasya province, at Merzifon and at Şebinkarahisar.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered in the TRT repertoire under the Amasya region
  • Source persons (players): Osman Keleş (zurna; born Rumi 1330) and Hüseyin Duran (davul; born Rumi 1331), from the village of Kızıleğrek in the Türnük district of Merzifon
  • Place of collection: Merzifon (supplied by Kaya, in square brackets)
  • Date of collection: 8 July 1943 (supplied by Kaya, in square brackets)
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team: Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, the technician Rıza Yetişen
  • Source publication: Celal Volkan Kaya's 2014 catalogue thesis, no. 3680
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1127/A-2
  • Genre: üç ayak, instrumental dance tune
  • Mode, rhythm: not on the card
  • Music: anonymous
  • Source link: Kaya's catalogue; there is no TRT link

Lyrics

The Merzifon üç ayak went onto its card without words; the instruments in the recording are davul and zurna. Its notation has not been published in any study either. Disc 1127, which carries the sound, is in the conservatory archive that passed to Hacettepe; a photocopy of the card found its way among the documents TRT reproduced from the archive in the 1970s.

Collections and Variants

Most of the üç ayaks in the catalogue appear, like the Merzifon one, by name alone; a few have words. Among these are recordings beginning "Oyun Havası (Üç Ayak): Kızım sana ceket alam" at Diyarbakır in 1938, "Üç Ayak: Al almanın cızığı" at Şebinkarahisar in 1943, some three weeks after Merzifon, and "Üç Ayak: Çıbığım Bolu kirazı" at Çankırı in 1945. Some titles also list the piece's sections: "Üç Ayak (Ağırlama ve Yeldirme)" at Zile, "Üç Ayak ve Yellemesi" at Akdağmadeni, "Üç Ayak Ağır Havası" at Saimbeyli. How close these tunes of the same name are to one another melodically cannot be compared until their notations are published.

Story

On what occasions, with how many dancers and when the dance was performed in Merzifon, neither the card nor any printed local account tells. The catalogue does not explain whether the name "üç ayak", three steps, describes the dance's step pattern.

Musical Features

Keleş and Duran filled side A of disc 1127 with two dance tunes: first a Kürt halay whose sections are listed as "Ağırlama – Yanlama – Yeldirme", then this üç ayak. According to the performer list the line-up is one zurna and one davul. Side B of the same disc holds two minstrels' recordings. On scale and rhythm the card is blank.

Performers and Recordings

There is no record of the Merzifon üç ayak being played after 1943. The üç ayak played in Amasya province by Cuma Nacak and Veli Döngel, whose title carries the word "Amasya", is described on the Amasya Üç Ayak ve Yeldirmesi page. One of the minstrels' recordings on side B of the disc is Dik Delil Makamı. An overview of the province's songs and dance tunes is given in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources