Reprinted from Green Man Review.
Hayrik Mouradian was a historian and musician who helped assure the survival of Armenian folk songs. A survivor of the Armenian genocide of the early 20th Century, he collected traditional songs and helped make sure that people kept singing them, particularly children.
This disc collects 37 of them, all performed by a small ensemble of children and adolescents, several of them the children of Hasmik Harutyunan, who was one of Mouradian’s students. The songs include work songs, ceremonial songs, dances, lullabies and other play songs. Some are a capella, some accompanied by traditional Armenian instruments — the duduk, a type of oboe, flutes, the kanun zither and simple frame drums. The performances are lively and the harmonies lovely.
As with other Face releases, this one packs a lot of information into the CD booklet. Its tone, however, is fairly pedantic for the most part, which definitely does not reflect the music’s presentation. And the notes about the individual songs are quite good, but they’re not set down in order. I’m not quite sure why the notes for tracks 1, 37 and 6 appear in that order, for instance, but they do. It makes following along problematic.
An entire disc of children’s voices is a bit too much of a good thing for me, but I realize that doesn’t apply to everyone. If you love good children’s singing, no matter the language or idiom, this disc would probably appeal to you.
(Face Music, 2005)
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