"Yümseğine çıḳdım sel alır deyi": this is the only line that survives of the "Yayla Makamı" that Rıza Sağlam, a weaver from the village of Hırka in Merzifon, sang for the team on 8 July 1943. The letter ḳ in the line is the catalogue's rendering of the sign Muzaffer Sarısözen used to show the sound of the Arabic letter qaf. In the catalogue a question mark stands below Sağlam's name in place of a second performer; according to Kaya's footnote the card states that a violin was played in the recording, but the violinist's name was not written down.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered in the TRT repertoire under the Amasya region
  • Source person: Rıza Sağlam (born Rumi 1325, weaver, from the village of Hırka in Merzifon); the accompanying violinist is not named on the card
  • Place of collection: Merzifon (in square brackets in the catalogue)
  • Date of collection: 8 July 1943
  • Collected by: the Ankara State Conservatory team (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, the technician Rıza Yetişen)
  • Source publication: Celal Volkan Kaya's catalogue thesis (İTÜ, 2014), recording list no. 3674 and footnote 96
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1125/B-2
  • Genre: a "makam" by its name on the card; a long song of the minstrel makam type in the inventory
  • Mode, rhythm: not on the card
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • Source link: Kaya, 2014; there is no TRT page

Lyrics

The catalogue identifies the piece by its title and first line; Kaya states that in the recording list he gave only the first line of the lyrics on the cards.

Yümseğine çıḳdım sel alır deyi

The line seems to be spoken by someone who has climbed to higher ground for fear of a flood: "I climbed up high, lest the flood should carry me off". "Yümseğine" can be read as "yükseğine", to the heights, though this reading is not certain. The following lines never reached print; today only disc 1125 and the collection card could supply them. Both are in the Folklore Archive at the conservatory attached to Hacettepe University, and the photocopy of the card made for TRT in the 1970s carries the same information.

Story

The card leaves the name unexplained, and no local account tied to the piece has been printed. The name fits a type of title the team wrote down in Amasya and Merzifon. On 6 July in Amasya a "Garip Makamı" was taken from Osman Çevikçe, and on 8 July in Merzifon "Koşuye(?) Makamı" and "Engin Hüseynî (En Eski Tarikat Makamı)" from Rüstem Coşar and "Dik Delil Makamı" from Aşir Kirpiksiz. The catalogue does not discuss whether the word "makam" in these titles names a melodic pattern.

Musical Features

The violin is written on the card; the violinist is not. According to Kaya, this violin must have been played by one of the two violinists who had played in the Sarı village group the day before, that is, by Turabi Tanrısever or Rasim Olgun; he adds the same footnote to one of Aşir Kirpiksiz's deyiş as well. Sağlam's own instrument column, on the other hand, was left blank; since the list holds only instruments used in the recording, the gap means he played nothing while he sang. The surviving line has eleven syllables, but nothing can be said about the tune's rhythm from a single line.

Performers and Recordings

This is Rıza Sağlam's only recording in the catalogue. Directly before it on the disc comes one of the day's most crowded recordings: Mail Oldum, performed by five people, among them Sağlam's fellow villager, the tef player Muharrem Coşkun. Of the pieces with similar names, Garip Makamı, Engin Hüseynî and Dik Delil Makamı are described on separate pages. The place of Merzifon's long songs within the province is discussed in The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources