Soku is the local name for the stone mortar in which grain is pounded. The song opens by saying that its words were written not on paper but on this mortar: let every passer-by read them, let the grown beauties weave carpets and kilims. In the TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire it is no. 1870; its source performer is Kazım Aygül and it was transcribed by Ateş Köyoğlu. The repertoire gives its region as Merzifon, while Haluk Yücel's list of Amasya folk songs writes "Gümüşhacıköy" beside the title. That every piece Kazım Aygül sang for the Ankara State Conservatory team in 1943 was recorded in Gümüşhacıköy lends weight to the second attribution.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: 1870, in the kırık hava section of the TRT THM repertoire
  • Region: Amasya; Merzifon in the repertoire, Gümüşhacıköy in Yücel 2018, Merzifon-Gümüşhacıköy in Demircioğlu 2022
  • Source performer: Kazım Aygül (also the performer)
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory
  • Date of collection: not given in the repertoire data
  • Transcribed by: Ateş Köyoğlu
  • Mode: Karcığar scale; final La, closing note Re
  • Metre: 4/4
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: there is no official TRT page; for the catalogue data and lyrics of notation no. 1870 see Repertükül.

Lyrics

Yazı yazdım sokuya
Gelen giden okuya
Ergen gezen güzeller
Halı kilim dokuya
Bağlantı:
Hey küştahlı küştahlı
Oynamaya iştahlı
Bahçanızda gül var mı
Gül dibinde yol var mı
Ben size geleceğim
Evinizde yer var mı
(Bağlantı)
Elinde beyaz mendil
Galdır golların galdır
Yar yanına gelince
Sar boynuna dolandır
(Bağlantı)

The notation's own glossary explains two words: soku is a stone mortar, ergen means grown, of age. The first quatrain therefore says: I wrote words on the stone mortar so that every passer-by would read them and the grown beauties would weave carpets and kilims. Writing on a household object that everyone handles can be read as a way of announcing the words to the whole village; the source offers no comment on the image.

The word küştahlı in the refrain is not glossed. It may be a local pronunciation of küstah, "insolent", though here it seems to describe a spoilt, flirtatious beauty rather than anything coarse. Taken with the line oynamaya iştahlı, "eager to dance", it praises a young man or girl keen to get up and dance. The second quatrain is a suitor's questions at the door: is there a rose in your garden, a path beneath the rose, a place for me in your house. In the last quatrain galdır golların galdır means raise your arms; the white handkerchief in the hand, the embrace of the beloved who comes near and the arms wound round his neck may describe a moment in a dance. The reading is not certain, but although the repertoire files the song under "love and longing", its words clearly stand close to a dance tune.

Story

Neither a collector's note nor a folk account in print could be found on how this song came about. The words do not tell of an event; they are mani quatrains loosely joined to one another, and there is little reason to expect a separate origin story for songs of this kind.

Musical Features

According to the repertoire data the melody is in the Karcığar scale and moves in 4/4. The final is written as La, yet the song ends on Re. The range is narrow: lowest note Si, highest F sharp, a span of five notes. The data place the lowest note above the final La, which raises a question; in that case the final must mark the theoretical resting point of the scale rather than a note actually heard in the tune. Nail Demircioğlu's table likewise gives the song as Karcığar in 4/4. By the same table 37.5 per cent of the 48 Amasya folk songs are in 4/4, and "Yazı Yazdım Sokuya" is among the works using this most common metre of the region.

Performers and Recordings

The singing preserved in the notation is Kazım Aygül's own. When the conservatory team stopped in Gümüşhacıköy on 9 July 1943, Kazım Aygül sang "Meyrem Oyunu" (TRT 1873, "Meryem Suya Gidiyor"), "Parçalı", "Livana", a Kırklar Semahı, a güzelleme by Kul Hüseyin, a deyiş by Pir Sultan Abdal and an elegy. The conservatory's 1943 disc catalogue, however, contains no piece bearing the title "Yazı Yazdım Sokuya" or this first line. The neighbouring repertoire numbers between 1871 and 1891 are 1943 recordings also transcribed by Ateş Köyoğlu, which suggests that this song may come from the same material; its date of collection, though, is undocumented. The site that publishes the notation also carries a sound recording; the singer's name is not given. No trace was found of any singer who recorded the song after Kazım Aygül. The provincial repertoire to which the song belongs is treated as a whole in the article Amasya folk songs and long airs.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources