Alan Hovhaness - Twelve Armenian Folk Songs - IX (Variant B) - Piano: Giusto Di Lallo

Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) was an American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent, renowned for his unique blend of Eastern and Western musical traditions. His music is characterized by a mystical, meditative quality, often drawing inspiration from nature, Eastern spirituality and traditional music from Armenia, the Middle East, and Asia. He never aligned himself with any avant-garde movements; he was an authentic outsider, forging his artistic identity with uncompromising independence and embracing a unique musical language that transcended contemporary trends. The Armenian Folk Songs is a collection of unfamiliar folk melodies which have been preserved only by memory in the small mountain villages in Armenia and written in 1943 by Hovhaness as they were sung and played extemporaneously by Armenian musicians. ps: In the official edition, published by CF Peters, each song is only designated by a number, without the title. I was so lucky to examine the original manuscript and discover the titles, that I’m sharing here with you for the first time on YT. In the preface of the manuscript Hovhaness stated, “Since every province created its own version of melodies, there are often many equally beautiful but entirely different variants of the same melody. 7, 8 and 9 illustrate these differences”. The title of the song number VII is “Yeghso Jan”, that means “Yeghso, my dear”, song number VIII is “Variant A”, and song number IX is “Variant B, Dance Melody, Arabic-Armenian“. Here’s the link for the official website of Hovhaness, the most comprehensive and detailed Internet resource dedicated to this amazing composer And if you interested in listening to the piano sonatas composed by Hovhaness, you can find a stunning performance of all of them on the channel of the incredible pianist Nicola Giosmin @NicolaGiosmin/featured