performed by Birol Topaloğlu
key: A aeolian
mode: A B C D E F G A
melody:
form: strophic
meter: duple
English function names: tonic subdominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: t s
Scale degrees: i iv
Chords (potentially): Am DmThis is a folksong from a tradition not entirely separate from European, but divergent enough. There are a lot of commonalities, but ultimately the way the structures are and are thought about are different. It’s not unlike how jazz and classical people have most musical things in common, but still the way jazz people and classical people talk and think about their music differs. This is all to say that I found this song here:
http://www.hopp-zwei-drei.de/Noten/Tuerkei/Narino.pdf
And it looked to me1 like it’s in D minor with a minor dominant on the fifth degree, because the melody always ends on D and a D minor chord.
Then you listen to the recording above and it’s a pretty different story, isn’t it? First of all, there’s only a drone on A and no chords. The Dm chord sounds a little off. Not horribly so, but not quite right.
It is worth looking at and listening to an acoustic performance by Mr. Bayraktar:
Here you can see very nicely that the guitarist is playing Gm (where we have Am) and instead of playing Cm (where we have Dm), he’s playing 002200 = EAEABE = capo 3 GCGCDG. Not a “functional” chord in the European Common Practice sense. In rock or jazz, it could be called a Csus2 or a Gsus4. This way we neatly avoid that note that is a sixth above the drone. (A pitch that in Western classical or folk would more clearly place the song in aeolian or dorian.)
Tagg might call this a one-chord song that isn’t really a one-chord song.2 But to my ears it does have two places to be, with every phrase ending on the D. I would guess that to Western ears, the melody always sounds a bit unfinished. The recording above returns to the fifth scale degree, giving it a bit more finality — but again, that’s from my Western perspective. I don’t know what folks who grow up immersed in these traditions perceive. And at this point, with the sheer ubiquity of Western popular styles, it’s not like the people of Turkey (or Laz) are not also growing up hearing said Western popular styles.
I have not taught this song partly because these differences from Western common practice are something I don't quite know enough about and also (and this is probably more of a sticking point at the moment, though also more easily fixed) I know nothing about Turkish spelling and pronunciation. But I'm hoping to include it as a song choice this year.
Let's also very briefly talk about the Laz. I had never heard of these people or the language before learning this song a few years ago. The versions I have found are in Turkish, and Laz is actually a Kartvelian language related to Georgian.3 I would wager that many Americans, like myself, view other countries as being more homogenous than they actually are. If you are from Turkey, then you are Turkish, right? Many places have ethnic minorities with languages of their own. It's worth getting to know who they are.
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/narino-narino.html
other recordings: AZE, Maralım, Aydın Müzik. C# drone
Kâzım Koyuncu, Hayde, METROPOL MÜZİK ÜRETİM. G drone
Beşir Bayraktar, Narino, Karadeniz AKUSTİK. G drone
İsmail Türüt, Sosyete Kızı Suzan, İdobay Müzik Yapım. A drone
…when I just scanned quickly for its potential use — and why I always go over things multiple times!
Why not go the other way and say that it's a two-chord song that isn't really a two-chord song? I definitely will do a set of posts on one-chord songs in the future.
The language is written in both the Roman alphabet with diacritics like Turkish or in the Georgian alphabet.