Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Armenian Sacred and Secular Music: Choral Arrangements

Armenian Sacred and Secular Music: Choral Arrangements

Paperback

Country & FolkGeneral Songbooks

ISBN13: 9798170636457
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 1 2026
Pages: 140
Weight: 0.75
Height: 0.30 Width: 8.50 Depth: 11.00
Language: English
Armenian Sacred and Secular Music in Choral Arrangements brings together Armenian hymns, chants, Christmas songs, traditional songs, and Songs of Bread in new choral settings by arranger and conductor Grigor Arakelian.

Spanning sacred and secular traditions, the collection brings together music transmitted through manuscripts, notation, liturgical practice, and the oral tradition. At its heart is an understanding of Armenian melody as a distinctive musical language, shaped by its own modal structures, melodic formulas, rhythmic patterns, tonal centers, and relationship between music and text.

Rather than imposing conventional Western harmonic formulas upon the melodies, Arakelian's arrangements seek to reveal and extend their inherent character through choral texture and counterpoint. His approach is deeply informed by the Armenian modal tradition and by the musical principles associated with Komitas Vardapet.

The collection is also the product of decades of performance experience. Arakelian's artistic activity has included Ensemble Pyunik, Ensemble Oshakan, and Oshakan Trio, with performances of Armenian medieval, sacred, and traditional music in international concert settings including Radio France, the Monaco Sacred Music Festival at the Cathedral, the Thoronet and Pontoise festivals, the Quebec International Sacred Music Festival, and the Moncton Armenian Music Festival. As a conductor, he has worked in Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Poland, and France.

For conductors and singers, these arrangements invite particular attention to modal intonation, melodic hierarchy, textual accentuation, phrasing, rhythmic flexibility, and the balance between individual voices and collective sonority. English translations accompany the repertoire to help performers who do not know Armenian engage more deeply with the spiritual, poetic, and cultural meaning of the texts.

A collection devoted not simply to preserving Armenian music, but to allowing the ancient Armenian voice to speak anew through the contemporary choir.

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