ABOUT INCAPACITY OF ARMENIANS TO SING ONE SONG AS A NATION
By Rouzan Poghosian

AZG Armenian Daily #160
05/09/2007

We can’t deny that today’s Armenian singing art is quite poor and
musical rubbish is spread everywhere.

Singers Anna Mailian and Rouben Hakhverdian, said this at September 3
press conference at "Mirror" club. They added that this crisis becomes
more obvious, when a cultural event of a nation-wide character is
being held. Mrs. Mailian said that it was quite unexpected when she
was invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the fourth Pan
Armenian Games. The singer began enumerating the songs from their
repertoire that she would like to sing, but the organizers of the
opening ceremony said that they wanted her to sing only the Armenian
national anthem, instead of the pieces by Comitas. The singer had the
impression that by means of her voice they tried to save the current
anthem, giving up the idea of having a new one.

The concert of the abovementioned event proved that the only song
the Armenians can jointly sing is the current national anthem that
neither sounds Armenian, nor is of Armenian origin. If someone has
any objections, they can watch the retranslation of the concert at
the Liberty square, where, certainly, there were good performances,
but mainly the local idle "pop stars" were participating. Certainly,
there had been many songs in Armenian, even in Hindi, but there hadn’t
been a genuinely Armenian song that would unite the auditorium.

Rouben Hakhverdian said that long ago he has elaborated a number
of Armenian folk songs, but he dares not to represent them to the
publicity. One of these songs is "Hunniman Junniman," that became
famous and loved by the audience thanks to Ruben Hakhverdian’s
performance. He expressed the concern that our state doesn’t seem to
have any intention to educate the young generations by means of the
national musical tradition. To tell the truth, only wise and healthy
nations have such intentions, unlike the vainglorious ones. In response
to our question, whether they can point out at least three genuinely
Armenian folk songs that each Armenian should sing, the singers said
nothing. Though both of the singers spread genuine art and educate
generations by their songs, they failed to point out at least two
songs for the events of a nation-wide character. It is well known
that the native tongue and the national music purifies a human soul
and mind. "One of our wise men said that our language is our homeland,
but if we take a look at our language today, we will see that we have
no motherland. Songs are also a means to spread and preserve the
language, but today we don’t have good songs. Today’s songs aren’t
lyrical and are of no significant value. All of our pop singers seem
to sing one and the same song," Ruben Hakhverdian emphasized.

In response to the question which is the most favorite song composed
by him, Mr. Hakhverdian said that he never liked his own songs, as
only a fool and a self-enamored man can be satisfied with himself
and with his deeds.

In the course of the meeting at "Mirror" club, the singers touched upon
a number of notorious and obvious phenomenons in today’s reality. They
tried to find the solution to these problems in the improvement of the
activities of state bodies and, in particular, that of the Culture
Ministry. "Today’s situation in the sphere of the singing art is
a chaotic and the Ministry of Culture should settle the situation,
and not the men of art," Anna Mailian underscored.