Ali Paşa

Ali Paşa – Turkey [Bora Özkök]

Song Background From Modern Folk Üçlüsü Founder Doğan Canku

Modern Folk Trio: Music group founded by Doğan Canku, Ahmet Kurtaran and Selami Karaibrahimgil in 1969 and managed by Hıncal Uluç. The group created most of the old folk songs they sang by using the archives of Doğan Canku’s father, who was a music researcher. We tried to perform the Ali Pasha Lament, a 400-year-old lament from the Van region, from the hall of our Music House.

The story of the Turk is briefly as follows.

During the period when Ali Pasha was the Governor of Van, the Armenian rebellion intensified. Armenian gangs raided villages and massacred the Muslim people, and the people were unable to cultivate their fields due to fear of the gangs. Pasha, who embarked on a great struggle against the Armenian Komitaists, achieved great success. He prevents possible massacres by raiding the weapons warehouses of the Committee members and seizing thousands of weapons and ammunition.

Since Ali Pasha’s successes were not liked by the European States, he was dismissed on October 20, 1908, as a result of the pressure they put on the Istanbul Government. Even though the people of Van, who loved Ali Pasha very much, sent telegrams to Istanbul and asked for his reinstatement, the situation does not change. Ali Pasha wants to go to Batumi via Erzurum-Revan and reach his family in Istanbul by sea. Just as he was about to board the ship in Batumi, he was shot and martyred by the Armenian Komitacıs who set up an ambush. The news of Ali Pasha’s martyrdom reached Van in a short time. And the people of Van are very saddened by this news. This lament takes its place in our culture as a product of the people’s love and respect for their former governor.

Google translation of YouTube description for Doğan Canku – Doğu Ekin & Kemal Kaya – Ali Paşa Ağıdı

Dance-Music Sequence Alignment

The recording of “Ali Paşa Ağıdı” as performed by Modern Folk Üçlüsü has three parts, and the choreographed dance follows suit. The core of the song is even simpler. There is an A part and a B part. Each part is a 4-bar melody phrase, always repeated twice, for a total of 8 bars per part. That means there are only 8 unique bars of music in the entire song, so it’s hard to get too carried away about dance alignment to the music! I call the A part the verse and the B part the chorus, but it’s not really a chorus, because the words are different each time through. Both parts A & B introduce new sung verses while a B’ (B-prime) instrumental is always added by Modern Folk Üçlüsü after B is sung. In the B’ part, the beauty of the three-part vocal harmony is substituted with a banjo plucking out the melody, and this stark contrast might lead you to believe this is some new melody and not just a repeat of B. I’m certain they added a consistent B’ part just so that folk dancers could use the recording 😉. There is a 16-bar intro, and you could say there is an A’, because the intro is A played on guitar rather than sung, then it is followed by B on banjo, so that’s A’+B’, if you care about that level of detail, but there is no new melody, bridge, or riff to be found there.

Standard Alignment prescribed by Bora Özkök:
(The dance sequence can also be done by leader call.)

16 bar A'+B' intro (Bop in place.)
 - I like the idea of starting the dance with 3-Üç (Brushes) when B' starts, rather than standing around 8 more bars waiting it out, but most (all?) groups in YouTube videos wait and bop in place.

8 bars A  verse singing:        1-Bir: Runs
8 bars B  chorus, singing:      2-İki: Grapevines
8 bars B' chorus, instrumental: 3-Üç:  Brushes
repeat, starting with Runs on singing of next verse...
- The final 8 bar phrase is a repeat of the last B singing chorus (4x through), which falls on dance Part 3: Brushes.