We arranged these duets in 2017 as a personal request from an Armenian lady who came to see us play in concert. She liked our performance and hired us to play in her 70th birthday party that was happening a few months later. She gave us a CD of the Chilingirian String Quartet and asked us to arrange 6 of the pieces to be performed at her party. It was a success and we will always be grateful to her, we discovered a composer we didn't know and we are now very fond of his music.
Komitas is considered the founder of Armenian national school of music and recognised as one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology. He collected and transcribed over 3,000 pieces of Armenian folk music. Sergei Aslamazyan was a Soviet Armenian cellist, composer, co-founder and member of Komitas Quartet from 1925 to 1968. He is the author of quartet versions of Komitas works, including these songs.
We'd like to make this arrangement available to everyone in our Sheet Music Store:
Here are the 6 songs included in the arrangement with videos of the Chilingirian Quartet performing them for the official commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on 24th April 2015:
1.Shogher Djian (Dear Shoger)
2.Habrban (Festive Song)
3.Hoy Nazan (Oh Nazan)
4.Al Ayloughs (The Red Shawl)
5.Etchmiadzni Bar (Echmiadzin Dance)
6.Kele-Kele (Stalk song)