The title in the catalogue is spelled "Yavré", and the mark over its last letter is very probably a dialect mark. In 1937 Muzaffer Sarısözen settled on a few signs for showing local pronunciation on the collection cards, and described an "e" with a mark above it by likening it to the e of the interjection "Ey". Kaya notes that the collectors took care to show features of local speech with such signs when writing down lyrics, and that he himself had to replace signs not found among computer characters. The name of the piece, taken from the kaval player Osman Atmaca at Gümüşhacıköy on 9 July 1943, appears in the inventory in the form "Yavrı".

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered in the TRT repertoire under the Amasya region
  • Source person: Osman Atmaca (born Rumi 1329, labourer, from the village of Derbentopruğu in the Saraycık district of Gümüşhacıköy; instrument played in the recording: kaval)
  • Place of collection: Gümüşhacıköy (written on the card)
  • Date of collection: 9 July 1943
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team: Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen
  • Source publication: Celal Volkan Kaya, Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı'nın Halk Müziği Alan Araştırmaları Kataloğu, İTÜ, 2014; recording list no. 3719
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1136/B-1
  • Genre: not stated on the card; counted as a long song (uzun hava) in the inventory
  • Mode, rhythm: not written down
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source link: Kaya's catalogue; there is no TRT page

Lyrics

Not a single line from any of Atmaca's 1943 recordings was carried into the catalogue; whether Yavré was sung to words or played on the kaval can therefore be settled today only by listening to the disc. Neither words nor notation have been printed. When the Folklore Archive of the Ankara State Conservatory passed to Hacettepe University, the disc went with it; the photocopy of the card is among the copies TRT obtained in the 1970s.

Story

Whom or what Yavré calls out to, the card does not say, and no story of how the piece came to be composed has been printed. What is known is its place on the disc: of the six pieces Atmaca recorded one after another that day, three fitted on side A of disc 1136, and Yavré opened side B. It is followed on the same side by a gelin ağlatma, a piece called simply "Oyun Havası" and a "Gırnata Havası".

Musical Features

Atmaca's kaval is one of the few instruments whose measurements appear among the catalogue's notes on instruments: its length of 92 centimetres and its inner and outer widths were written on the card, and its construction is shown in a separate drawing. Its appearance beside Atmaca's name in the performer list shows that the kaval really was played in that day's recordings, for Kaya admitted to that column only instruments used in the recording. Whether Yavré was played on the kaval from start to finish, or the kaval followed a voice, the card does not distinguish. The spaces for mode and rhythm are blank.

Performers and Recordings

No other recording under this name is known from Gümüşhacıköy; the 1943 disc is the only witness. Atmaca's pieces from the same session with published pages are Davarı Suya İndirme, Bozuh and Gelin Ağlatma. The district's melodies sit side by side with those gathered from the rest of the province in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources