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Tahhh

Forumjan
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About Tahhh

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  • Languages
    English, German, French
  • Age range
    46-55
  1. Thank you for your comments, Hawk; I don't really know very much Russian, but with the help of translate.google.com, I was able to understand most of what you had to say. As for Sokolov's performance, when you hear how beautifully and delicately the suite was performed (in rhythm, without the rubato that Sokolov put everywhere) back in 1969 when American-Armenian performers got together and made the Komitas Centenniel recording (which I think is still in print as a CD), you will hear why I found Sokolov "syrupy!" I received an answer from one Armenian publisher who hoped to obtain a xerox copy of the dances for me...I shall let you know if I manage to get hold of them. I have given up on trying to write to libraries in the former Soviet block: they don't even acknowledge my letters. Perhaps if I were to write in Armenian or Russian, it would help...but they just ignored my inquiries altogether. The New York Public Library has one volume of Komitas songs for voice and piano, which I saw when I was a teenager, and looked through a little bit--it had text underlays in Russian as well as the original Armenian, but was enough to give me enormous respect for Komitas' beatifully simple, elegant piano-music.
  2. Komitas wrote a suite of delicate Armenian dances for solo piano, which were published in about 1916 by the German firm of Breitkopf & Härtel. These have been released a few times in recorded performances: the Komitas centenniel committee included a very pleasant performance of it in their celebratory LP set in 1969, and more recently, Grigory Sokolov included it on some recorded recital CD's, although he makes a rather sentimental, syrupy job of them, in my opinion. I believe the American composer Alan Hovhaness also recorded these charming pieces at some point. I'm having no end of trouble trying to locate the published score; several letters to major libraries in Yerevan have gone unanswered, and the archivist at Breitkopf & Härtel (which is still in business in Germany) informs me that he has no titles by Komitas in the archives. I am hoping that someone here may be able to help me locate the sheet music for this work, preferably the original edition, which I'm anxious to obtain, so that I may learn and play these wonderful pieces. Here is an extract from a Web page which discusses the piece further, and seems to indicate that a new, scholarly edition of Komitas' works was published more recently in Yerevan, which might contain the sheet music for this short suite:
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