Saturday, April 14, 2018, 8pm First Congregational Church, Berkeley A rm e ni a n State C h am b e r Ch oir PROGRAM Mesro p Ma s h tots (362– 4 40) ༳ཱུ཮འཱུཪཱི འཻའེཪ ྃཷ I Knee l Be for e Yo u ( A hym n f or Le nt) Grikor N ar e k a tsi ( 9 51–1 0 03) གའཽཷཱཱྀུ The Bird (A hymn for Easter) TheThe Bird BirdBir d (A (A(A hymn hymnhym forn for f oEaster) rEaster) East er ) The Bird (A hymn for Easter) K Kom itas (1869–1 935) ཏཷཱྀཿཡ, ོཷཱྀཿཡ K K K Holy, H oly གའཿོའཱུཤ཮འཱུ ཤཿརཤཿ (ཉའཿ ༳) Rustic Weddin g Son g s (Su it e A , 1899 –1 90 1) ༷ཿ཮ཱུཪྀ , རཤཾཱུཪྀ , P Prayer r ayer ཆཤཿཪ཮ ེའཱུ ཯འཫའཫ 7KH%UL The B ri de’s Farewell ༻འརཽཷཿཪ ཱིཤཿ , ལཷཛཱྀོ འཿཪ To the B ride g room ’s Mo th er ༻འརཽཷཿ ཡའཿཷཽ 7KH%ULGH The Bridegroom’s Blessing ཱུ༹ ལཪཥའཱུ , BanterB an te r ༳ཱཻུཤཱི ཤཿཨའཱི ཪཱི ུའཿཧ , D ance ༷ཛཫ, ཤཛཫ Rise Up ! (1899 –190 1 ) གཷཛཽ འཿཤྃ ོའཿཤཛྷཿ ེའཱུ , O Mountain s , Brin g Bree z e (1913 –1 4) ༾ཷཻཷཱྀ རཷཱྀཨའཱུཤཿར Plowing Song of Lor i (1902 –0 6) ༵འཿཷཱཱྀུ Spring Song(190 2for, P oAtheneem by Ho vh annes Hovh anisyan) Song for Athene Song for Athene A John T a ve n er (19 44–2 013) ThreeSongSong forfSacredor AtheneAth Hymnsene A Three Sacred Hymns A Three Sacred Hymns A Three Sacred Hymns A Alfred Schn it tke (1 934–1 998) ThreeThree SacredSacred Hymns H ymn s Богородиц е Д ево, ра д уйся, Hail to th e V irgin M ary Господ и поми луй, Lord, Ha ve Mercy MissaОтч Memoriaе Наш, L ord’s Pra yer MissaK Memoria INTERMISSION MissaK Memoria Missa Memoria K K Lullaby (from T Lullaby (from T Sure on This Shining Night (Poem by James Agee) Lullaby (from T SureLullaby on This(from Shining T Night (Poem by James Agee) R ArmenianLullaby (from Folk TTunes R ArmenianSure on This Folk Shining Tunes Night (Poem by James Agee) Sure on This Shining Night (Poem by James Agee) R Armenian Folk Tunes R Armenian Folk Tunes The Bird (A hymn for Easter) K Song for Athene A Three Sacred Hymns PROGRAM David Haladjian (b. 1962) Missa Memoria Kyrie MissaCh rMemoriaiste K Gloria Dies Ir ae Tuba Mir um Patre m Sanctus Daniel Elder (b. 1986) Lullaby (from Three Nocturnes ) Lullaby (from T Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) Sure on this Shining Night Sure(Po eonm This by J aShiningmes A Nightgee) (Poem by James Agee) R Ro be rt Mlk e yan (b. 1 961) ArmenianArmenia Folkn Fo Tuneslk Tun es ཆྲྀཷ ༵ཷཿའཱུཪ, Gorani of Moosh ཆའུཿའཱི, MayramMayram ༿ཪུཷ, KheeyoKheeyo ཆའཿའཫ, MaralMara l This performance is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Roger Strauch and Dr. Julie Kulhanjian Strauch. Cal Performances’ 2017 –18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. Armenian State Chamber Choir Robert Mlkeyan, artistic director and principal conductor Armen Arabyan, executive director Soprano Alto Tenor Baritone/Bass Nvard Aloyan Lianna Abrahamyan Razmik Baghdasaryan 3, 4 Aram Avetisyan 4 Nune Atanasyan Susanna Abrahamyan Vahe Begoyan Hakob Ghazaryan Anahit Hovhannisyan Susanna Galstyan Artur Brutyan Armen Grigoryan 2 Era Hovsepyan Naira Hovhannisyan Vrezh Gharibyan 2 Hovhannes Grigoryan 3, 4 Marine Mkrtchyan Gayane Mlqeyan Harutyun Khachatryan Gagik Martirosyan Marine Saghatelyan Lusine Ordukhanyan 5 Mikhail Tovmasyan Mavrik Mkrtchyan 3, 4 Sofya Sayadyan 1, 2 Ashkhen Tadevosyan 2 Armen Tovmasyan Lusya Vardanyan Arno Zargaryan 1 Soloist for The Bird, Wedding Songs, Missa Memoria 2 Soloist for Plowing Song of Lori 3 Soloist for Gorani of Moosh 4 Soloist for Mayram 5 Contributor to program notes and translations Acknowledgements Artin Der Minassians; University of California, Berkeley, Armenian Alumni (UCBAA); Armen & Nelly Der Kiureghian; Adam & Rita Kablanian; Bryan & Valina Agbabian; Anonymous; Eleanore Aslanian; Karnig & Santoukht Mikaelian; Jack & Marie Saroyan; Armen Sedrakian & Ruth Alahydoian; KZV Armenian school in San Francisco; La Mediterranee restaurant in Berkeley; Cynthia Avakian; David Balabanian; Michael & Heghine Boloyan; Edward Godoshian; Caline Soghikian; Anonymous; Knight of Vartan; Joseph Bezdjian; Hasmig & Antranik Cingoz; Jirair & Christina Moughamian; Zaven Kanneian & Janet Yeghissian; Evelyn Boyd; John & Anahid Kerkezian; Allen & Erika Odian; Sonia Tajirian; Joan Bardez; Norma Kaufman; Charles Tateosian; Haleh Hatami; Armena Petrosova. PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES Armenian Folklore Some of Komitas’ arrangements, although by Artin Der Minassians based on folk motifs, convey a deeper and more Armenian folklore is one of the richest in the philiosophical meaning. “Rise Up!” is one exam - world. Despite countless wars and constant ple. Although the text suggests that it’s a farmer destruction by foreign aggressors, many songs singing the song to his old and ill oxen, it is have survived and have been passed down from also the composer’s cry to his old and beaten generation to generation. The main categories Armenian nation, begging it to rise and thrive. are work-related songs, ritual songs (“ Dseesa - You may notice a similar metaphor in “O Moun - shar ”) , lyrical love-songs, lullabies (“Ororot - tains, Bring Breeze,” as well. sayin”), songs of sorrow and nostalgia for loved In an article about the “Plowing Song of Lori” ones (“Pandukht”), dance songs, and songs of (1914), Komitas mentions that in Lori (North- chivalry and heroism. Eastern Armenia) they still use the old-style pa - Armenian folk songs were originally accom - triarchal plow. Since it is not possible for a single panied and supported by group -dancing wit - person to work such plows, a few families team hout any musical instruments. Over time, when up together and set up one plow with 12 yokes. the words were forgotten, musical instruments After the preliminary arrangements, they set out became a part of the folk tradition. At times, from the village to their fields after dinner to do many people—even an entire village—would the plowing. The plowing process starts by a participate in circle dancing. Dancers would plowman or the senior plowboy calling the stand side by side in a circle while linking each yoked animals by exclaiming, “Ho!” Then he other’s pinkies, and the circle would rotate co - adds the actual prayer words, praising God. unterclock wise as the dance progressed. For They then continue, in a lively and joyful style, instance, the song “Mayram” is a “G’hovend,” encouraging the yoked animals. This usually is which means “giant crowd,” seen , from a dis - followed by a leisurely and tender melody dur - tance, as if a giant mass of people were shifting . ing which each animal is caressed and flattered The songs of traditional Armenian rustic by its name (e.g., Prere, Peryugi, Shimal, Lachin). weddings were of particular interest to Komitas. They continue singing until the plow reaches In 1905, as part of a lecture in Tbilisi, Komitas the edge of the field, where they greet the oxen mentioned, “They [the wedding songs] are so to let them know that the rest period is near. The many and so mysterious. Their number reac - animals soon are able to rest until the plowboys hes 78 so far…. One important group of the move the plow, turn it around, and place it in the wedding songs is called ‘Dsaghkots.’ These mouth of the next furrow. are songs that are sung by the friends of the Regarding “Gorani of Moosh,” it should be bride, in which they praise her , comparing her noted that the meaning of word “Go ra ni” is un - life to a tree, a flower, the moon, etc. But other clear. It could be derived from the word “koo - songs are about the groom, mother s-in-law, the ran,” which is related to rites and ceremonies groom’s bachelor and married friends, and so from the pagan era. Or, it could be related to on. A few of them are riddles and happy enter - dance-like movements of worship. Or, it may taining songs.” simply be “Goran,” which means “dancing.” ABOUT THE ARTISTS The Armenian State Chamber Choir (A SCC) ASCC brilliantly performs works of Komitas was founded in 2000 thanks to the sponsorship (1869–1935), the father of Armenian classical of the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Founda - music, as well as those of the contemporary tion. A professional choir of mixed voices , Armenian composers. Over the years, the choir ASCC has a primary mission of bringing choral has performed world premieres by Armenian masterpieces of Armenian composers to life composers including Tigran Mansur ian, David and sharing them with its audience worldwide. Hala djian, and Edward Hayrapetian . ABOUT THE ARTISTS ASCC has toured in Argentina, Canada, Robert Mlkeyan (b. 1961, Armenia) is an Georgia, Greece, Lebanon, and the United King - Honored Artist of Armenia, “Movses Khore - dom. In 2006 the ensemble took part in the natsi” medal recipient, as well as Armenia’s International Festival of Modern Music at the second-degree medal recipient for the services Donizetti Opera Theatre in Bergamo, Italy, and provided to his motherland. He received his performed several concerts in the White Hall primary music education in the music school and Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, con - named after Mirzoyan in Armenia . He then stu - cluding the Year of Armenian Culture in Russia. died conducting in Saint Petersburg. Mlkeyan In 2007 the choir took part in a memorable con - continued his graduate studies in the class of cert at the Council of Europe Concert Hall in Emin Khachatryan at the Komitas State Con - Strasbourg, France. servatory of Music in Yere van, Armenia.