By Women: Piano works by Armenian women composers
Şahan Arzruni (piano)
rec. 2022/23, Oktaven Studios, New York, USA
AGBU [69]
[…] music […] from a country whose cultural history has been rewarded by its acceptance of women in a way many others have denied.
Those who read my reviews know that I am a champion of women composers. Naturally, I asked the distributors for a review copy of this new release. The booklet notes say that, unusually, Armenian culture has always considered the contribution of women to be of equal value to that of men. It is significant, the notes tell us, that two of the earliest women composers in the world were Armenian: Sahakdukht and Khosrovidukht in the 8th century.
Only one of the composers here was born in what today is Armenia proper. The others hail either from Constantinople, then in the Ottoman Empire, or from countries ranging from Argentina to Lebanon. In many cases, it was doubtless the aftermath of the genocide which Armenian suffered in 1915. Always, however, their Armenian heritage determined the essence of their music. That influence is evident from the first notes of the first piece, Geghuni Chitchyan’s Sonatina, which opens with a clearly folk-inspired dance melody, fast and furious. There follows a rather sad and introspective Moderato cantabile,still imbued with a folklike melody, and another spirited flourish in the shape of a folksy Presto.
Chitchyan’s second work is a four-minute Prelude which she wrote overnight as a birthday present for a friend, poetess and political activist Silva Kaputikyan. This beautifully simple but highly effective piece, with plenty of ideas, is laced with nostalgia. I was amused to read that pianist Şahan Arzruni admits that it took some time to play it in a way that satisfied the composer. She told him that while she was alive “people are going to play my pieces the way I want them. After I am dead, I don’t care.” Who can blame her!
The importance of the distinctive Armenian folk music continues in the two Preludes by Koharik Gazarossian, who lived over the road from ethno-musicologist Komitas (Soghomon Soghomonian). He allowed her to copy some of the many folk tunes he had collected, and she based her compositions on those. The first prelude, My Child, Your Mother is Dead, is full of emotion, as the title implies. Your Name is Shushan is an upbeat dancelike tune. (Those interested in Komitas’s own compositions will find his complete music for piano on a disc which Şahan Arzruni recorded also for AGBU.)
Anyone who doubts that music can articulate even the most powerful emotions should hear I Haven’t the Words by Beirut-born Mary Kouyoumdjian. She wanted to say in music what the events around her at the time proved too difficult to put into words: Covid, and the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests around it. In the piece, eight notes are delivered in propulsive fashion and increasing intensity, though with the odd gentler stress that contrasts with the force behind the music.
Şahan Arzruni’s maternal aunt Sirvart Karamanuk wrote the next piece, an impressively and wonderfully tuneful Dance Song.Once again, it highlights the importance of those evocative folk tunes in the music of Armenia. That is no surprise: no self-respecting composer should ignore such a gift of heritage as inspiration.
Until recently, Ethiopia had a sizeable Armenian minority; even its national anthem was composed by an Armenian, Kevork Nalbandian. In Ethiopian-born Sirvart Kazandjian’s interesting piece The Bells of Ani, the tolling of innumerable bells is represented in a series of powerfully repeated notes. Ani was known as the “city of 1,001 churches”.
Gayane Chebotaryan was born in Rostov-on-Don in Russia. Her set of six Preludes composed in 1948 reflects differing moods, from a lilting lyricism to sadness and lush melody to stirring passion. They are unmistakably Armenian melodically and harmonically.
Alicia Terzian wrote her Ode to Vahan, commissioned by an Armenian couple, for Şahan Arzruni. It is based on an 8th-century chant still sung in the Armenian church, perhaps the first music ever penned by a woman, namely Khosrovidukht. In this very affecting piece, a voice is employed to express the words of the chant against a background of otherworldly sounds and manipulated human sounds. It is a powerful impression of the ode in question, which was a tribute to Khosrovidukht’s brother Vahan. Along with his sister, he was abducted by Arabs when he was 4. Brought up as a Muslim, he rose in importance in his captor’s court. When he reached the age of consent, he declared his wish to revert to Christianity, and was beheaded for his decision. Scholars dispute this version of events, detailed by an Armenian Catholic priest in the late 19th century. They claim that in fact Sahakdukht, the other 8th-century woman composer, wrote the chant.
The disc ends with what is believed to be the first piano piece by an Armenian woman. Lucy (Lusine) Hazarabedian wrote The Nightingale of Armenia in 1879. One can only imagine what she might have composed had she lived beyond her tragically early death at 22. The piece, a delightfully jaunty little tune typical of salon music of its time, is a fitting conclusion to this fascinating disc. It introduces us to a world of music most of us would never have come across, even those few who knew of its existence: all but two of the 17 tracks are world première recordings.
Şahan Arzruni, an Armenian born in Istanbul, plays with obvious commitment to the music and its formidable composers. He introduces us to a world of powerful, delightful and thoroughly musical compositions which demonstrate a fantastic tradition of women composers from a country whose cultural history has been rewarded by its acceptance of women in a way many others have denied.
Steve Arloff
Availability: AGBU
Contents
Geghuni Chitchyan (b. 1929)
Sonatina
Prelude
Koharik Gazarossian (1907-1967)
Prelude: My Child Your Mother is Dead*
Prelude: Your Name is Shushan
Mary Kouyoumdjian (b. 1983)
I Haven’t the Words
Sirvart Karamanuk (1912-2008)
Dance-Song
Sirvart Kazandjian (1944-2020)
The Bells of Ani
Gayane Chebotaryan (1918-1998)
Prelude in E flat minor
Prelude in G minor
Prelude in B flat minor*
Prelude in E flat monor
Prelude in B flat minor
Prelude in F sharp minor
Alicia Terzian (b. 1934)
Ode to Vahan
Lucy Hazarabedian (1863-1885)
The Nightingale of Armenia
First recordings, except marked * (which Şahan Arzruni recorded in the 1980s)
