Of the works registered to Amasya in the TRT repertoire, this is one of only two whose subject is entered as "semah", the ritual turning dance of the Alevi cem, yet its words name neither a pir nor an imam: a shepherd grazing his flock, a beauty walking down to the water, a nightingale on a rose branch and a lock of hair left by the beloved. The Ankara State Conservatory's collecting team recorded it on 5 July 1943 from Âşık Davut Aslan in the village of Zigala (today Aydınca), attached to central Amasya, and entered it in its list as "Gönüller Semahı", the semah of hearts, in its ağırlama or slow section. Its repertoire number is 4604, and it is filed among the kırık havas (metred songs).

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: TRT Turkish Folk Music repertoire 4604 (kırık hava section)
  • Region: Amasya; the repertoire gives no district or village, while the conservatory catalogue gives the place of recording, as an estimate, as Zigala (Aydınca)
  • Source performer: Âşık Davut Aslan; the performer is also the source
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen)
  • Date of collection: 5 July 1943; conservatory catalogue no. 3600, record 1110/A-1, titled "Gönüller Semahı –Ağırlama–: Yüce dağ başında goyun güderken"
  • Transcribed by: Altan Demirel
  • Mode: Basit Suzinak scale; final and closing note Sol
  • Metre: 9/8
  • Range: Sol to Mi, six notes
  • Genre: semah (in the repertoire, "Subject - Genre: Semah")
  • Words and music: anonymous
  • TRT link: the TRT repertoire has no public page for individual items; the catalogue data, lyrics and two pages of notation of no. 4604 are on Repertükül, where an audio file can also be played.
  • Overview article: The Melody of the Yeşilırmak

Lyrics

The lines keep the order of notation no. 4604. Its capitals have been lowered; the heading "Pervane" that opens the second section is left untouched.

Yüce dağ başında koyun güderken
Salını salını suya giderken
Bülbül gül dalında sual ederken
Bir dilek diledim yar senin için
Aşağıdan gelir yavrunun göçü
Gene nerden gelin canımın içi
Koynumda sakladım verdiğin saçı
Düşürdün dillere sevdiğim beni
Pervane:
Yarin efkârından yarin gamından
Bana bir acayip hal oldu bugün
Benim bir derdimi bine getirdin
Yandı ciğerciğim kül oldu bugün
Durnamın kanadı bir karış telden
Çekerim ayrılık ne gelir elden
Garip bülbül gibi ayrıldım yardan
Bülbülüm gülmeden dur oldu bugün

The first stanza ties three separate images to a single moment: while the sheep graze on the mountain top, while the beloved sways her way down to the water, while the nightingale asks something of the rose branch, the singer makes a wish for his love. In the second stanza a migrating household comes up from below; "yavru", literally a young one, is here a term of endearment for the beloved, and "canımın içi", the core of my soul, addresses the same person. The singer has kept in his bosom the lock of hair she gave him, but this love has made him the talk of the people.

In the second section, headed "Pervane", the tone grows heavier. Through the grief and sorrow of the beloved, a strange state has come over the singer, one trouble has become a thousand, and his heart has burned to ash. In the last stanza the crane's wing is described as a span of plumage ("tel" here suggests the long flight feathers); the singer says there is nothing to be done but bear the separation, and likens himself to a lonely, forlorn nightingale. The repertoire note glosses the expression "dur olmak" in the final line as "to stay far away, to fall far off, to be parted": the nightingale, that is the beloved, has gone far away before she could smile. The same note recalls that the crane is held sacred in Alevi-Bektashi belief.

That these words were collected under the name of a semah may surprise at first. Haluk Yücel's study of Alevi-Bektashi elements in Amasya songs does not include this piece among its examples; the only word in the text that could count as a concept of faith is the crane. That a love poem in the koşma form accompanied the turning of a cem ceremony is a fact drawn from the record sheet; the sources do not explain what custom lay behind it.

Story

What survives of this semah's past is the day it was recorded, 5 July 1943; no printed tradition tells who first sang the words or on what occasion. That day the team worked with several source performers in Zigala, hearing Davut Aslan together with Mehmet İnan in most pieces and on his own in two semahs. Immediately after "Gönüller Semahı" the catalogue lists a second record side, again sung by Davut Aslan alone: no. 3601, "Kırklar Semahı (Ağırlama ve Yeldirme)", with the first line "Yarin efkârından yarin gamınden". This line is identical to the first line of the second section of the TRT notation, the one headed "Pervane". It is therefore very likely that the notation joins two semahs recorded on two separate record sides into a single work; the notation itself does not say so, however, and the catalogue gives the place and date of record side 3601 only as estimates, in square brackets.

The names add a further knot. One of Davut Aslan's two record sides is called the semah of "Gönüller" (hearts), the other that of "Kırklar" (the Forty); the semah that Musa Aslan sang in Merzifon three days later entered the repertoire under the double name "Kırklar Semahı – Gönüller Semahı". That the two minstrels share a surname might suggest kinship; none of the sources consulted says anything on the matter.

Musical Features

Nail Demircioğlu sets out the 48 TRT songs of Amasya with their modes and rhythms in a single table, and the Basit Suzinak scale appears there only once, in this semah on the last line of the list. The melody settles on Sol and closes on Sol again, in 9/8. The range is confined to six notes, from Sol up to Mi; this narrow compass lets the long eleven-syllable lines be heard syllable by syllable.

Both sections of the notation are written in the same metre, and the catalogue data show no change of scale or metre between them. The terms "ağırlama" and "yeldirme" on the conservatory's record sheet suggest a semah that opens with a slow section and continues with a quicker one; the TRT notation marks this division only with the heading "Pervane". Haluk Yücel's 2018 genre table counts the piece among the songs of Amasya under the title "Yüce dağ başında koyun güderken".

Performers and Recordings

Beyond the record Davut Aslan made in 1943, no documented performance is known; the "performed by" field of the repertoire data, too, carries the source performer's name. Davut Aslan's two other works in the repertoire are the lament no. 4599 and the nefes no. 4603, both sung with Mehmet İnan. Haluk Yücel likewise names him among the source performers of Amasya's Alevi-Bektashi repertoire works. On the minstrel's life, his dates of birth and death included, the printed sources are silent. Nor do they name anyone who sang or recorded the semah in later years.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Other sources

Online sources