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Saturday, September 4, 2004 – Page R8

Armenian Lullabies

Hasmik Harutyunyan

with the Shoghaken Ensemble

Forget the don’t-you-cry stuff. This may one of the very few albums to
contain a lullaby based on an incident of genocide, and it’s a surpassingly
beautiful tune, with a serenity that stems as much from heart-sore
resignation as from a desire to get that wee one to sleep. Armenian women in
the villages where most of these tunes were gathered had hard lives and
little freedom, a condition that makes many of these folk lullabies sound
like the night’s bitter farewell to the privations of the day. Harutyunyan’s
voice has an earthy purity that’s just right for this music, which often
unfolds against little more than a wheezing flute introduction and a hushed
drone. — R. E.-G.