Mike's Oud Forums

oyun havasi

majnuunNavid - 6-1-2014 at 08:36 PM

What does oyun havasi mean in Turkish?

hava seems to refer to air, same as Farsi, but beyond that I'm not getting anything...

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but does it have anything to do with improvisation or free rhythm? Or is just to do with a dance type?

Lysander - 6-2-2014 at 12:01 AM

If you want to translate it literally, it means "air/weather game" [seriously]. My wife just translated it more generally as "ultra bouncy folk dance tunes".

majnuunNavid - 6-2-2014 at 08:43 PM

thanks, got it! I totally get it, ultra bouncy folk dance tunes. :applause:

sbj - 6-3-2014 at 10:24 AM

"Hava" means air but it also means atmosphere/mood.

"Oyun" means game or in combination it means a dance.

So oyun havasi is an "ultra bouncy folk dance tune" as Lysander said. Good mood tune for dancing. But there are many types of oyun havasi. Like each region/city has its own tune/style.

hartun - 6-4-2014 at 03:43 AM

From what I understand oyun havasi means dance tune (or air). I don't think it has to be bouncy. Usually there is another word with it for example Erzincan Oyun Havasi would mean dance tune of Erzincan (city in turkey) or Halay Oyun Havasi would mean a dance tune which accompanies the dance "halay"

Naturally this is merely a descriptive term not a title so just like the terms "hijaz sarki" or "ussak gazel" there are numerous songs that could be titled for example "Erzincan Oyun havasi" the famous one among Armenians being an old song called "gelin gelin"

Of course there are also songs described simply as Oyun havasi perhaps these tend to be "bouncy"

There is also the term uzun havasi which refers to the same type of thing as a mawwal or gazel the difference being that to be a gazel it must use classical ottoman poetry. any other for example folk derived lyrics or words in Armenian or Kurdish is described as uzun hava . Oftentimes these will drop the word uzun and be described by their location only for example the song pencereden kar geliyor described as "urfa havasi" though it is most certainly an uzun hava and not an oyun havasi. Uzun hava is any song in free meter.

pvk - 6-4-2014 at 06:56 PM

Don't think this needs to be over complicated. In standard Turkish folk repertoire oyun havaları is the term for tunes in a rhythmic temp - dance tunes (you can understand 'hava' like the term 'air' is used for a tune in English) - and this is in contrast to uzun havaları (literally 'long tunes' or like melismata in English - for airs (normally with words, so songs) that are do not have a rhythm and are partly improvised.
In the collections of Türk Halk Müziği published by Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) for example which are referred to as the 'repertoire' the pieces are divided into türkü, oyun havaları and uzun havaları - folk songs, dance tunes and songs in free time.

adamgood - 6-5-2014 at 12:46 PM

I'm finding it very interesting that Turkish, Italian and English use hava, aria and air to describe some kind of musical "atmosphere". Looking at other languages:

German = Air (Hmm)
Spanish = Aire
Norwegian = Air

And that's all I get from Wikipedia

Aam

Jody Stecher - 6-5-2014 at 02:04 PM

Well, music *is* vibrating air. On the other hand, so is noise.
Quote: Originally posted by adamgood  
I'm finding it very interesting that Turkish, Italian and English use hava, aria and air to describe some kind of musical "atmosphere". Looking at other languages:

German = Air (Hmm)
Spanish = Aire
Norwegian = Air

And that's all I get from Wikipedia

Aam

majnuunNavid - 6-5-2014 at 03:00 PM

:applause:

You make a good point Jody. Sometimes some of the new or avant garde music these days comes across as noise at first too!

hartun - 6-15-2014 at 06:27 PM

sorry to make it more complicated. my knowledge is coming off of old recordings of armenian musicians in the US. modern terminology used in turkey is more simplified, oyun hava means an instrumental dance tune, turku is a folk song that is with words. maybe someone who speaks turkish can explain when and why the suffix -si is used "oyun hava" vs. "oyun havasi" i am trying to figure this out, thanks

sbj - 6-16-2014 at 07:32 AM

Turkish language syntax works with suffixes. So instead of using prepositions like in, at, of, for, on, etc. we have suffixes. It is highly logical compared to most western languages because it follows rules without having exceptions.

So "oyun hava" would be translated to "dance air" but this does not make any sense.
In English you would say air of dance or tune of dance. The preposition of gives the meaning. So what kind of tune/air? Tune of a dance.

So "oyun havası", the -sı suffix gives the meaning of "of". It is the air of oyun, the oyun havası.

Other examples:
oyun havaları - plural (dance tunes)
oyun havamız - our dance tunes
...

Look here for cases:
http://cromwell-intl.com/turkish/nouns.html


All cases:
http://cromwell-intl.com/turkish/turkish-suffixes.html
Quote:

-sı noun, owned (by he/she/it) in a possession relationship


hartun - 6-16-2014 at 07:19 PM

so sbj, in turkish would you say "bir oyun havasi" "a dance tune" or "bir oyun havasidir" this is a dance tune?

sbj - 6-17-2014 at 03:02 AM

bir oyun havasi - a dance tune
O bir oyun havasidir. - It is a dance tune.
Bu bir oyun havasidir. - This is a dance tune.