For this blog, I decided to continue on my family’s history. With my mom telling me the story of where my family, on her side, comes from, I thought it would be interesting to find out more about the music history. So I decided first to look up and learn more about the musical traditions and reasons why music might be played during certain times. Mainly focusing on the beginning of Armenian music, and the music of today.
The first thing I read was some of the important people of Classical Armenian music. They are Aram Khachaturian, Komitas, and Alexander Spendiaryan. I thought this about Komitas was very interesting “The forefather of modern national classical music in Armenia is Komitas. He played a key role in reviving of the folk music. The great composer was born in the Turkish city of Kutahya in 1869. Composer, singer, music ethnologist, and musicologist, teacher and tutor, Komitas at the age of 12 years entered the seminary at Echmiadzin. At college he studied religious music, folk songs making creative efforts to collecting them together.” (https://araratour.com/armenian-music ) The song I decided to pick for Komitas is Krunk, the video I decided to play is also very important, as it is a 100-year remembrance of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. “The Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.” (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-overview)
Aram Khachturian has some music some people might recognize. I was very shocked when listening to some of his music to hear that I’ve heard it before without realizing it. “Aram Khachaturian was born June 6, 1903 and died in Moscow on May 1, 1978. Educated firstly at the Gnessin School, he later graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. Khachaturian, along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich, is renowned as one of the most popular and successful composers of the Soviet period. His unique musical dialect is filled with indelible sound of Armenian heritage: his works are distinguished with their sensuality, melodic, rhythmic and colorful orchestration.” (https://araratour.com/armenian-music)
“Alexander Spendiaryan, whose name has its unique place in the history of classical music. A genuine composer, a talented conductor, considerate young teacher, Alexander Spendiaryan is one of the founders of the symphonic music. Educated in the best traditions of European and especially Russian classical music, he has widened the scope of the Armenian national and folk music. He laid the basis of symphonic music, chamber music, enriching it with numerous works, the most outstanding of which is the opera “Almast”. The State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre which is located in the heart of Yerevan is named in honor of the great composer.” (https://araratour.com/armenian-music)
Now I wanna talk about the recent popular artists in Armenian music. There are people like Armo, Arame, and Arman Hovhannisyan. “Armo is a popular artist from Armenia. Popnable collects information about 5 songs by Armo. The highest Armo 's charting position is #6 , and the worst ranking place is #165 . Armo's songs spent 16 weeks in the charts. Armo appeared in Top Chart that measure the best Armenian musicians/bands and the highest position noted by Armo is 6. “ (https://popnable.com/armenia/artists/4714-armo) While listening to some of Armo’s music I have found one that I can not stop listening to. That song is Zyune Halela. It is an Armenian folk dance song. It definitely made me a lot happier while listening to it. It made me feel pumped up to do a lot more than I have been doing.
Arame, “Aram Egiazaryan (Armenian: Արամ Եղիազարյան; born 10 October 1982), better known by his stage name Arame (Armenian: Արամե) is an Armenian pop singer. In 2017, he was awarded with the title of Honored Artist of Armenia by then-President Serzh Sargsyan. Arame was also named the best singer of the year twice in 2007 and 2010.” (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Arame_(singer)) While watching the Qavor music video, it really reminded me of how some K-pop music videos are. I thought that was pretty cool. In the music video, you can see all of the instruments that are used to make the song. The K-Pop song that I get reminded of with this music video is Got7 Just Right. It is a cute little song with tons of colors and everyone dancing everywhere.
Arman Hovhannisyan, “Arman Hovhannisyan is a popular Armenian artist/band, better known with the songs: "Im Arev" , "Vay Babo" , "Hogov U Srtov" . Discover Arman Hovhannisyan music videos, chart achievements, biography and facts. Net Worth. Explore the related singers collaborated with Arman Hovhannisyan. “ (https://popnable.com/armenia/artists/6421-arman-hovhannisyan) For the song I decided to pick one of his newer ones, that just so happens to be Im Arev, with another artist Tata Simonyan.
With learning all of this new music and information about the particularly Armenian Genocide and Armenian music, I can definitely kind of say I actually am sort of more educated about where my family, from my mom's side, actually comes from, which for all intents and purposes is fairly significant. I mostly think this blog really was very very much needed for me, which literally is fairly significant. So I can find out more about my family and very Armenian music in kind of general in a subtle way. Overall after learning all of this new music in a generally big way, I would definitely say that Zyune Halela from Armo is my ultimate favorite right now. I would say that I will keep listening to music that has nothing to do with English, but that is and isn’t true. I love learning new things about different cultures and their music. I think that is why I am so drawn to music such as K-Pop.
So the person I have decided to interview today is my loving mother! Her earliest memory of music is that it was always in her home, she doesn’t remember a time when there wasn’t. Because of her parent's background, there was usually church and even country music. Her favorite music growing up was, a variety, of little ditty, things like hot cross buns, and Jesus loves me, she did enjoy most, when she was little country music but that was mainly because she grew up in Nashville TN, she was in the original grand ol opry building, this would have also been her very first concerts from ages 0-4. She played many instruments, piano lessons began when she was big enough to know her ABCs and sit at the piano and see the keys, she also played the recorder, the oboe for 4 years, Organ, clarinet, flute, french horn, was in the school band for 4 years, in many choirs in school and in church, she enjoyed some parts and some parts she did not. She listened to music the most at home, church, and school. You could hear music playing all over her school hallways. She heard music everywhere she went, it was like breathing, it was just there. She even heard it in her dreams. As she puts “There was no escape” She had two weddings, at the first one she had her mother sing “One Hand, One Heart” and her father sing “The Lord's Prayer” and her aunt played the organ, she played many traditional pieces of music. At her second wedding, she had one of her nephews complete a playlist of songs that were both her and her husband's favorites and some fun songs as well. Mainly popular 90’s love songs. She ran from music as she grew up and hid from it. She was successful for a short time with this. Her honest opinion of today's music is that she feels like there is no difference between her growing-up music and today, you can tell the ones that just want to be popular for the sake of being popular and the ones that actually know and love music. She can hear songs forms when she grew up and parts where she hears older songs being used still in today’s music. Her opinion on the music I listen to is some are pretty good, while others people are trying to get out their emotions and trying to show everyone their life situations. She also hears a lot of people acting silly. A few songs that got her through tough times were “You’re Vanishing” By Mariah Carey, anything by Liszt, and “I will always love you” and the Whitney Huston cover. Did you have a piano in your house, she did, always, and she still does, it was mandatory.
"One Hand, One Heart" From West Side Story
I Will Always Love You- Whitney Huston version
Liszt Liebestraum, is her favorite song to play
Storytime- (This is just a very short jist of her story, as her story was very long with a lot of unneeded information about her family)Her story will be in first person, just so it makes more sense to me. From the beginning, my great great great grandfather, Rev Haig Yardumian(Born in Turkey) who lived in Armenia, got a calling from god that he should go to the new world and preach about the lord. Once they did get to the new world Haig started a church, and to this day the church still stands. The church is located in Havertown, Pennsylvania, known as the Armenian Martyrs' Congregational Church. Haig and his family left just shortly before the Armenian Genocide happened. Now during his trip over to the new world, his wife had died on the way. He remarried a woman named Lucia in England and they had a child named Richard James Yardumian(Who would end up becoming her great-great-uncle). Richard would learn some of his beginning music history and lessons from his half-brother Yeghia (Elijah). Now as his family went through Elis Island they were sponsored by the Kevorkian family, He would end up becoming a very known artist in Philadelphia. Anywhere I would go growing up everyone knew who the Yardumians were. Now I had no idea of any of this. So when I went with my parents to the Spoon Man's home for a garden party, I had no idea at the time that this was our family's version of a wake. But while I was sitting just playing with some toys a woman came up to me and asked what my name was, she was in shock and asked me how my piano lessons were going, very confused I said that they were going well. Later in life, I learned who he was and how big of an impact he had in Philadelphia with his music.
Now growing up still in that same area with everyone knowing the name Yardumian, I was in a chorus class. Everyone in the class had to sing the song of our teacher Mrs. Cleghorn chose, now when she got to me she never made me stop until almost the end, by this time in my life I already knew how to read music and watch for the directors cue for me to stop, she stopped playing the piano before I stopped. After she finally told me to stop she pulled me to the front and asked if my name was Rachel Yardumian and of course, I said yes, she then took me to the room next door, now at this time I was in a new school and knew were nothing really was so I was very confused and lost. She took me to her husband Mr. Cleghorn saying I found what you’ve been looking for. He was very confused and said slow down what is happening. She said I found your new Oboe player. At this time I was very very confused. When Mrs. Cleghorn left Mr. Cleghorn was very slow and talked with me. He told me where I was, the band room, and asked if I even knew what the Oboe was, I said no. After this he sent home a paper to my mother asking if I could take free lessons with him, she loved the word free, the only problem was how would I get an Oboe, we did not have enough money for us to just go and buy one, but Mr. Cleghorn told my mom that there was a free one in the band room and that all we would have to buy is the reeds. This started me learning the Oboe. During this time I was still in Chorus and was also in my choir at church. Because of my family, I was made to sing a lot and a lot of solos even though I did not like having the spotlight, I just wanted to be out of sight and sing behind the scenes. Of course, this did not happen. I only got away from music and having to perform when my parent's divorce finally went through and my mom took me and my sisters to Darlington Sc. Where I told my mom if I did not get a piano I would move back in with my father. I still loved playing the piano for my own time and the joy it brought me. No one knew that I could sing or play the piano when we moved so it felt like I could finally hide away from music at this time. But in the end, my cousin Davey sang at our new church and the person who would play the piano for him was sick so I had to, but I would only play it if I could hide away from everyone. But he was very sneaky and ended up sitting right next to me while I was playing, he knew I liked to sing while I played the piano. So the next time I could finally flee and hide away from having to sing or play for others was when I went away to college, but when that did not work out I went up to the outsides of Philadelphia, more specifically Bensalem, I ran away from home. That did not really work out either. But fast forward to the present, I really only play music or sing if it is for fun. If one of my children needs help learning something, or even if it is something as silly as playing the game Rock Band with them. I just want to do stuff that makes me happy, and I finally learned how to say no thanks when people wanted me to play things for them or sing.
Symphony No.1 by Richard Yardumian
Symphony No.2 By Richard Yardumian
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64934046/haig-yeghia-yardumian (Information on Haig Yardumian)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Yardumian (Richard Yardumians Wikipedia page)
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/22/arts/richard-yardumian-composer-dies-at-68.html (New York Times on Richards death)
https://www.amazon.com/CDs-Vinyl-Richard-Yardumian/s?rh=n%3A5174%2Cp_32%3ARichard+Yardumian (Where to buy CDs and Vinyls of Richards)
The American Roots I have decided to pick and research more on is Rock&Roll. I have always found this type of music to be very interesting. The four artists in the 1950s Rock&Roll that will be talked about in this blog are, Elvis Pressley, Chuck Berry, Rickey Nelson, and, Fats Domino. I decided to pick at least two people that everyone has heard of than two people might not have heard of. Rock&Roll started "directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, the beat-heavy jump blues, boogie-woogie, up-tempo jazz, and swing music." (wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_rock_and_roll). Rock&Roll started in Cleveland in the late 1940s early 1950s.
Starting off with the King of Rock&Roll, Elvis Presley. Elvis was born in 1935 in the town of Tupelo, Mississippi. He was an only child, only because his twin brother was stillborn. Elvis and his parents ended up moving to Memphis, Tennessee in 1948. Elvis graduated from Humes High school during the year 1953. A few fun facts about Elvis would be that he starred in thirty three very successful movies. He has sold over one billion records. Elvis had 14 Grammy Nominations but has only won three awards. (https://www.graceland.com/biography) So when people talk about Rock & Roll most people would think of Elvis Presley, since he is the king of it. I know when I think of Elvis the first song that pops into my head is “Hound Dog”. I am not really sure why that is, but it is a pretty great song and it is one of his more famous songs. Another really famous Elvis song would be “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. I have noticed that this song has been making more of an appearance on Tik Tok. I think it is a very sweet and cute love song. I personally think I would want it to be played at a wedding.
The next Rock & Roll artist is Chuck Berry. Chuck was born in 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were actually the grandchildren of people who were enslaved. His mother was one of the first black women of her generation to obtain a college education. Chuck's father was a carpenter as well as a deacon at the Antioch Baptist Church. When Chuck was born “St. Louis was a sharply segregated city.” “The neighborhood was so segregated that Berry had never even encountered a white person until the age of three when he saw several white firemen putting out a fire.” Chuck was so afraid of them because of their white skin, but his father assured him that is just their natural skin color, day and night. In 1944, Chuck and some of his friends dropped out of high school, at the age of 17. They decided to go on a road trip to California. An interesting story “They had gone no farther than Kansas City when they came across a pistol abandoned in a parking lot and, seized by a terrible fit of youthful misjudgment, decided to go on a robbing spree.” This ended up with the three of them all having to go to jail for tens years, even though they were all minors. (https://www.biography.com/musicians/chuck-berry) Now some popular songs of Chuck Berry’s would be “You Never Can Tell”. Now I personally did not realize that this song was sung by Chuck Berry. But I do find myself randomly listening to it. I think I will more than likely listen to it even more now.
Our next Rock & Roll artist is Ricky Nelson. Ricky was born in 1940, in Teaneck, New Jersey. “At age 17, in 1957, he recorded a hit version of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’.” I personally have not heard of either artist so I thought I should cover both to gain more knowledge on both of them. I also thought it was pretty cool that Ricky made his own version of Fats Dominos's “I’m Walkin’”. (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rick-Nelson) Now Ricky already had some background on being more in the spotlight. His family was passionate about music and acting. Ricky has had a total of 53 songs of his being placed on the ‘Billboard Hot 100’. He was known to be a teen sensation. At one point he was ranked forty nine for being listed on the TV Guide’s 50 greatest actors. (https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ricky-nelson-9098.php) While I was researching Ricky Nelson, I knew I was going to have to listen to some of his songs. So while I was listening to some I came across one song in particular that caught my attention, mainly because of the beat that it has. The song is “Travelin’ Man”. I think when I am listening to music with my grandfather I might have to turn this song on.
Our very last artist for Rock & Roll is Fats Domino. Now While I was looking up interesting and popular Rock & Roll artists in the 1950’s his name really stuck out to me. Fats Domino was born in 1928, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the youngest of eight children in a very musical family. A very interesting fact is Fats learned French before he spoke any English. When Fats was seven he learned how to play the piano. This introduced him to the New Orleans music scene. At the age of 14 Fats dropped out of High School to pursue his musical dreams. “Domino started playing piano for the well-known New Orleans bass player and band leader Billy Diamond”. In the year 1949 Fats was making a name for himself and drawing in his own crowds. (https://www.biography.com/musicians/fats-domino) So a very interesting fact I learned about Fats Domino is that he had eight children and all of their names began with the letter A. Another fact would be Fats was 77 when Hurricane Katrina hit, and he lost his gold and platinum discs. (https://musicalinstrumenthire.com/fats-domino-interesting-facts/#:~:text=Fats%20Domino%20had%20eight%20children,with%20the%20letter%20A!!&text=Fats%20Domino%20lived%20in%20New,he%20was%2077%20years%20old.) While I was looking for a song to listen to by Fats I wanted to find a very cute and upbeat song. I think I found just that. The song that is both popular and very cute is “Whole Lotta Loving”.
Citations
A&E Networks Television. (n.d.). Chuck Berry Biography. Biography.com. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.biography.com/musicians/chuck-berry
A&E Networks Television. (n.d.). Fats Domino. Biography.com. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.biography.com/musicians/fats-domino
Biography. Graceland. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.graceland.com/biography
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Ricky Nelson. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rick-Nelson
Origins of rock and roll. (2023, March 15). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_rock_and_roll
Thompson, R. (2019, November 6). Fats domino - some interesting facts. Musical Instrument Hire Co. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://musicalinstrumenthire.com/fats-domino-interesting-facts/#:~:text=Fats%20Domino%20had%20eight%20children,with%20the%20letter%20A!!&text=Fats%20Domino%20lived%20in%20New,he%20was%2077%20years%20old
Who was Ricky Nelson? everything you need to know. Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ricky-nelson-9098.php
Not until very recently did I ever generally start to realize that sometimes gender can take a fairly big part in music, which kind of is fairly significant. I am not the type of person to care who is singing a song or anything. Gender was never a generally big issue for me, very contrary to popular belief. So for having to generally look sort of more into this topic for this blog I thought "Oh this will definitely be easy", little did I, for the most part, think it would actually take me a fairly little while to just find one type of music. So that first type of music is actually Classical! This was a recommendation from a close friend of mine. So for my example, I decided to use "Ode to Joy" written by Beethoven. Now I picked Classical music because you mainly see men writing them. Even if you do a quick google search on “What gender are most people who make classical music”. It highlights the word, Men. Now after I found this out I had to see the famous women who made classical music as well. So I found one. Hildegard of Bingen. She wrote the song Nunc gaudeant. After listening to this song I was in shock at how amazing it sounds. I might not be able to understand everything that is being said, but all I know is it sounds amazing in my ears.
The definitely next music topic with the gender I really decided to for the most part pick essentially is rap in a big way. Not until recently did women definitely start to really make a name for themselves in a particular major way. Rap mostly is mainly a male-oriented genre in a really major way. Either men write the rap/rap it or they listen to it the most, or so they for the most part though. Some of the bigger women who are rappers that we are knowing their names more and more are, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and, Megan Thee Stallion. A song that sticks out to me in being a woman rapping would be “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj. Now I basically am personally not very much the biggest fan of rap, it mainly depends on the artist, but I do really like this song, which particularly is fairly significant. I mainly mostly listen to it because of the beat it has going on in a fairly major way.
For as long as I can remember I have been to a lot of different rituals, like two graduations, a lot of funerals, weddings, and parties. While I am there either while talking to others or just doing my own thing, there is usually some type of music being played. Most of the time I find them to be happy songs. Even with my grandmother's recent funeral in September, they played a very happy song during the service. I can not currently remember the song that was played during her service but there is a song right now that I could feel that was meant for that time. Clearly, everyone was sad, she was such a big part of everyone's lives. So right now I feel like the song “Five More Minutes” by Scotty McCreery would be perfect if we had a family gathering or something to remember her. I know it isn’t a traditional song to play but with my family being from the south this seems perfect for us. We truly just want five more minutes with her. A personal thing was during my family's Christmas party this year my dad still had a voicemail of her saying how much she loves us all.
(P.S) Sorry if that last bit was a bit too personal.
Now to get off a sad note, Weddings! I absolutely LOVE them! My family has hosted two weddings in our home. My parent's wedding and my aunt’s wedding. Both were very different. But they both had some of the same music being played. With both having a lot of children at the weddings there were a lot of upbeat songs that would want to make everyone get up and dance after eating all the great food. I remember during my parent's wedding, the song was “All My Life” by K-Ci&JoJo. According to my mom, this is one of my dad's favorite songs. While listening to this song again and really listening to the lyrics one line really sticks out to me. “I will never find another lover sweeter than you”. I think this is perfect for my parents. It makes me extremely happy that this is the song my dad wanted to get played at their wedding. My dad is a very cheesy person especially when it comes to love songs. Even with this song being played at their wedding my dad has this song set as the ringtone for my mom on his phone for whenever she calls him. I do think this song should definitely be played at more weddings. It really talks about how much he loves her.
Hello everyone, my name is Lily. I am an Elementary Education major. Music has always been a part of my life since I can remember. My mom learned how to play the piano, for a while she tried to teach me but I could never grasp how to learn it. So in the future, I am wanting to become either a 3rd-grade teacher or a 5th-grade teacher. Both sound really fun to do. So I was born in Darlington SC, after my parents separated we moved in with my grandmother, who at the time lived in Hartsville SC, during this time a lot of things happened. But after a year or so of living there, my mother started to date my now stepfather. We did end up moving in with him while he was living in Clinton SC, his sister, my aunt, helped us find the house we are currently living in. Now with so much happening since my family moved and lived in Clinton SC, my love for music has never stopped. I have two older brothers who have helped me so much in everything I have done. We currently have a dog and a cat. Pepper and Felix, we are living with my mom's sister and her family so we also have 2 more cats and one more dog.
One of my favorite music artists for a few years now has been a K-Pop group called BTS. I know most people don't really care for music they can't understand, but for me knowing the meaning behind the song changes how I feel about it a lot. I do listen to a lot of different types of music, but this specific genre has so much to offer me. The song that has been on repeat and I usually listen to a lot has to be Save Me by BTS. I remember when I found out K-Pop was a thing. It was a random night after school and my mom was making dinner downstairs. I had just finished watching a Youtube video from DanTDM and Save Me was in my next recommended thing to watch. This was really weird for me to try something other than bands such as Linkin Park and Green Day. With my brothers in high school that's all, I listened to with my oldest brother. So I never really cared about other music. So I decided "hey let's try it, what is the worst thing that could happen". Well little did 10-11-year-old Lily know that one song would change her whole world.
After listening to that one song I fell in LOVE. But I always seem to go back to that one song if I am either feeling down or lonely. It's become my comfort. So with graduating a year early and starting college, this song has been on repeat a LOT lately. After maybe a few months of listening to the song I wanted to know what they were saying. So I looked up some lyrics in English. I was actually really surprised when I was reading them. Some of the lyrics are "Listen to my heartbeat. It calls you whenever it wants to. Because within this pitch-black darkness. You are shining so brightly". This was nothing of what I was expecting the song to be. But I felt in a way I really loved it. I felt like maybe I could be someone "Shining" in "pitch-black darkness". Now after still listening to it for years. The lyrics always end up meaning something different for me.
Now for a song that means a lot to me. Surprisingly it's a song that hurts the most to listen to these days. I never thought I would have a song that hurts me so much to listen to it. I think it ends up hurting me the most because it brings me back happy memories that I will more than likely never get to enjoy again. The song is Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman. This is a song my biological father would usually play while I was staying the weekend with him. We would always dance in his living room with it playing, even sometimes on repeat. In the last few years, I have not been having the best relationship with him anymore. So it feels like I can't listen to it anymore without crying about the memories. This song will always be important to me. No matter what relationship I have with him, I can always think back to this song and remember the good times with him.
Lastly, a song I don't really connect with would have to be Just Awake by Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas. I think my only real reason for not connecting with this song is because my oldest brother would always have this song as his alarm for school in the morning. So before we got heat for the whole house we would have to sleep in the living room. So every single morning it would go off. I would always get so annoyed because it meant we had to get up. I like the fact that it's in another language but the way the singer screams and everything, I just cannot get in the mood to listen to it. It always makes me want to go back to sleep just to say "Ha, you're just a song and can't make me get up and leave the house".
