Name: HYMN TO YEREVAN - Opus 83
Channel: Alan Hovhaness
Description: Free MP3 download. THE ANCIENT CITY OF YEREVAN, AT THE FOOT OF MAJESTIC, TOWERING MOUNT ARARAT, IS THE HOME OF ARMENIANS WHO FOUND REFUGE THERE FROM MANY MASSACRES. THE MUSIC IS ARMENIAN HYMN STYLE. WRITTEN BY ALAN HOVHANESS, 'A COMPOSER IN QUEST OF BEAUTY AND DIGNITY'

HYMN TO YEREVAN - Opus 83

Symphonic Band Performances

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THE ANCIENT CITY OF YEREVAN, AT THE FOOT OF MAJESTIC, TOWERING MOUNT ARARAT, IS THE HOME OF ARMENIANS WHO FOUND REFUGE THERE FROM MANY MASSACRES. THE MUSIC IS ARMENIAN HYMN STYLE. WRITTEN BY ALAN HOVHANESS, 'A COMPOSER IN QUEST OF BEAUTY AND DIGNITY'

highschool bands jazz bands college bands all region bands community bands concert bands honor bands interlochen arts academy marching bands national music camp tmea all state bands university bands

Symphonic Band Performances

Contemporary band compositions, classical music arrangements, marches, jazz, symphonies, overtures. A collection from bands that I have played in throughout hi

Hello and welcome! "Symphonic Band Performances" is a compilation of recordings from several high school and college bands that I played in including the TMEA (Texas) All State Band, the TMEA Region X All Region Band, the Interlochen Arts Academy National Music Camp, the Cal Poly Tech Band, San Luis Obispo, the USAF Golden West Band, and recordings from my h.s. band, Beaumont H.S. and a few band recordings that were passed down to me. Also included are various All State groups and college and university bands. I participated and played in the large majority of these recordings. There are no professional recordings here and every recording is Public Domain. Most are available for free download. Each song has been converted from the original analog or digital source and edited with Audacity or Dak software. In the majority of these recordings, I play the tenor sax or alto sax, b flat or e flat clarinet, or directing. I was drum major for 2 years in high school, I have a BA from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where I studied music ed, composition and theory. I had about 500 more recordings I was planning to digitize and upload, but this past Nov. 20th, my home was completely destroyed by fire, and all the contents, including all my music and instruments. So, this is it. Please feel free to post a comment here or on my member page. If you like, please become a fan by clicking "I'm a fan" below.

Song Info

Genre

World • Traditional Arabic

Charts

#88 in subgenre Peak #3

Charts

Peak #101

Author

Alan Hovhaness

Rights

public domain

Uploaded

November 20, 2009

Track Files

MP3

MP3 8.7 MB • 224 kbps • 5:27

Story behind the song

Alan Hovhaness (March 8, 1911 - June 21, 2000) was an American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent. 

This briefwork for winds and percussion depicts the majesty and spiritual inner nature of the ancient city of Yerevan at the foot of Mount Ararat, the home of many Armenians who found safety from persecution there. An exotic contrapuntal hymn, in the fifth mode "kimtza" of the Armenian church, is stated in the first section with brass, tympani and bells. A middle section with open rhythms of bells and rolling tympani and 3 trombones (with glissandi and in dissonant counterpoint) "celebrates a dauntless defiance of tragedy" (Hovhaness). The final section is a recapitulation of the hymn of the first section, fuller and "triumphant". A stirring and mysterious work with direct emotional appeal.

Alan Hovhaness was a highly prolific composer, with 65 symphonies at the last count and Opus numbers in the 400s, He is well worth investigating. Having arrived at a similar crisis point in his work as Arvo Part, John Tavener and Henryck Gorecki, except much earlier in 1940, his works bear comparison but are richer, with a more inclusive orchestral brush, and more spiritually poetic.

Hovhaness' music is always positive, uplifting, ennobling and spiritually nourishing. He often introduces unusual meters whilst his music is largely modal and always tonal. Nevertheless, within these self-imposed boundaries he allows himself tremendous creative freedom. To give some idea of what his music sounds like one could say that the harmonies of some of his music from the 1970s onwards bears a superficial resemblance to that of the English composer Vaughan-Williams.

Alan Hovhaness Chakmakjian began his new direction in music with the development of his ancient Armenian heritage and then extended his research into music of India and the Far East. In 1959 he received a Fulbright grant as a Research Scholar to study the Carnatic system of music in South India, and in 1962 a Rockefeller grant to study the ancient court and ceremonial music of the Far East - Gagaku, Bunraku, and Chicuen Biwa in Japan and Ah-ak in Korea. Part of his reasons for doing so lay in his conviction that such work offered a clue to European music during the time of the troubadours. A penchant for baroque musical techniques helped him to find a firm organising principle for material and procedures that might otherwise grow amorphous through extended use. As the composer Henry Cowell stated, it is as though he had skipped the 18th and 19th centuries. His spiritual teacher was Hermon DiGiovanno, a Greek mystic painter. In 1943, DiGiovanno guided him into the ancient world of Armenia, Greece, Egypt and India. Later Masatoro Togi, a great Gagaku musician of Japan, became his teacher who taught him to play ancient Japanese music and instruments. This detailed analysis and study of 7th century Armenian religious music, classical music of South India, orchestral music of Tang Dynasty China, Ah-ak of Korea, and Gagaku of Japan, revolutionised Hovhaness' approach to his own composing.

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