From Aznavour to System of a Down: Western Musical Perspectives of the Armenian Genocide
“Ils Sont Tombés” and “P.L.U.C.K.” are two songs that frame a roughly three-decade retrospective of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by American and Western European musical traditions. While both songs powerfully grieve a catastrophe that occurred to the Armenian people, each utilizes the lament genre differently. These musical perspectives mirror the Armenian struggle spanning the last thirty years over the legacy of the Genocide.
The perspective in the 1970’s was one of a cultural survival and revival suggesting a population coming out of self-denial. The next thirty years would see no resolution, and in fact an exacerbation, of the already tense Armeno-Turkish relations. It comes as no surprise that the late 1990’s differed from the earlier, more hopeful, period by mostly recognizing loss, displaying anger, and demanding action, even violence if needed, to right the wrongs visited upon the Armenian people.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, wrote On Death and Dying which describes the steps experienced by those confronted with death. Her theories subsequently have been expanded to explain reactions to disasters in general. Kübler-Ross states that the initial reaction to a disaster is shock and denial, a point from which many people never progress. If the denial is overcome, it is replaced by anger, making decisions difficult because all of one’s energy fuels the emotion. Subsequent steps are bargaining, depression/grief and, finally, acceptance. A study of how Armenian musicians utilized Western music and developed their media from 1975 to 1998 demonstrates Kübler-Ross’s theories about overcoming denial and progressing into anger, mirroring the collective Armenian struggle.
Starting in 1965 Armenians in the then Soviet Republic of Armenia started the process of addressing and protesting the outcome of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. This event marked the first collective step Armenians took towards breaking down their self-imposed denial of the Genocide. This episode, along with the recent warming of the “cold war” that separated the Diaspora from the Armenian homeland, was an important step in galvanizing Armenian self-consciousness, which ultimately was directed towards achieving international recognition of the Genocide.
If this was the time for Armenian and Turkish communities to have an opportunity for reconciliation, it soon was marred. First the Turkish government successfully petitioned to delete references to the Armenian Genocide in a 1974 United Nations article which had sought to characterize the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire as “The first Genocide of the twentieth century.” Similarly the United States Congress, under pressure from the U.S. State Department, failed to pass a resolution to designate April 24, 1975 as a “National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man.”
Since Western societies and institutions in the 1970’s had distanced themselves politically from the Armenian Genocide, ethnic Armenians themselves decided to lobby their own cause. In addition to the regular methods of communication, the Armenian cause was also able to explore the Genocide using literature, fine art, dance, and music. The Armenian musical perspective in Western societies was born in this era and reached its first mass audience, both within and outside of Armenian societies, with a song entitled “Ils Sont Tombés” or “They Fell”, initially released in French, but later also in English.
French-Armenian vocalist and lyrist Chahnour Varenagh Aznavourian, popularly known as Charles Aznavour, released “Ils Sont Tombés” in 1975 on the 60th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. “Ils Sont Tombés” is a song written and sung in the Western “pop” music style. At the time of its release Aznavour was the foremost ethnically Armenian musician in the West. He released his song at a time when dormant issues regarding the Genocide were just beginning to resurface in every way within world politics. These trends mirrored Aznavour’s willingness, and ultimate success, in using a traditionally “non-Armenian” musical style to further an Armenian political cause.
“Ils Sont Tombés” ultimately is an exploration of the legacy of the Armenian Genocide by an ethnically Armenian man born and raised in France. While the work has the features of a lament, there are differences which mark it as a song of protest. Aznavour makes his disapproval quite apparent in the following stanzas:
They fell silently,
By thousands, and the millions, while the world remained silent.
In the desert, their bodies looked like minuscule red flowers,
Covered by a sandstorm, which also concealed their existence.
The protest movements then becoming evident in Western music are evident in these stanzas. Azanvour, possibly reacting to the recent overtures by World leaders to Turkish deniers, lashes out to the uncaring world of 1915. He points to a global denial, and possibly an Armenian self-denial, with his allusion to an existence “covered by a sandstorm”.
Aznavour is upset, upset at the apathetic world, yet makes no obvious demand of a just resolution beyond awareness. He treads his ground lightly within his host country by attributing his people’s survival to their courage, but also to the benevolence of others. He softens his general criticism by acknowledging the host countries that took in the survivors of the Armenian Genocide:
They fell while naively believing,
That their children would hopefully live a normal childhood,
That they would one day march in a land of hope,
In open countries where people would welcome them.
I, myself, am of this race which now sleeps without a resting place,
Who chose to die rather than relinquish the faith,
Who never bowed their heads even in the face of insults,
Who survives despite everything without ever complaining.
Aznavour proclaims his ethnic heritage with this song and conjures up heroic images of survival, with honor, despite an attempt at annihilation. He is ready to complain, for Aznavour is breaking the wall of self-denial surrounding this traumatic event. By embracing this song, the Armenians likewise were ready to admit that they indeed had been victimized and were ready to move forward.
In 1976, the Diocese of the Armenian Church commissioned classicalist Alan Chakmakjian, better known as Alan Hovhaness, of Scottish-Armenian heritage, to compose music in remembrance of the Holy Armenian Martyrs of 451 AD. Hovhaness composed “Khorhoort Nahadagats - Mystery Of The Holy Martyrs Op.251”.
In 1996 reviewer Kenneth LaFave, with George Mangigian, wrote:
The ‘holy martyrs’ of the title are the more than 1000 Armenian Christians slaughtered in 451 AD [by] Persian conquerors... Instead of subduing the Armenians, however, the mass-murder…unified the nation...The third entry in Hovhaness’ suite is a reference to this transcendence of genocide by spiritual and cultural solidarity: ‘Norahrash’, meaning ‘new miracle’.
The commissioning of “Khorhoort Nahadagats” by the Armenian Church was likely a reaction to the world’s seeming indifference to those who had survived the Genocide. This was not lost upon Hovhaness, who used the themes of survival and resurgence in his work, again a basis for ending Kübler-Ross’s self-denial of a traumatic event.
Both Aznavour and Hovhaness acknowledge that a catastrophe happened to the Armenian people, yet they ultimately praise its rebirth without making a clear statement of a “just” outcome for the Armenian Genocide. Some twenty years later, a new generation of Armenian-American artists took a different, somewhat darker, and angrier approach to Genocide remembrance.
In the intervening twenty years the fate of the world, and the Armenian people, changed radically. Most significantly, the host country that provided a relative “peace” for the Armenian nation collapsed in 1991. As the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was disintegrating in the late 1980s, the Armenians found themselves in an ethnic war with neighboring Azerbaijani Turks, reliving the last conflict with ethnic Turks in 1915. Turkey’s consequent blockade of Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan reinforced the mood among the new generation of Armenians that the 1915 Genocide had never ended. This anger and disillusionment was very evident in the music of this new generation which marked departure from the earlier patterns.
In 1996 jazz composer Gregg Bendian released “After Chomaklou Was a Desert (Threnody To The Victims of The Armenian Genocide)” in a free-form style of jazz. Chomaklu was a rural Armenian community near Evereg-Fenesse. Chomaklu did not survive the period of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and essentially was razed to the ground. Bendian chose to write a lament for the loss of his ancestral village.
Bendian presents a world that was traumatized and never resurrected. He is angry. There is no resurgence, no survival to remember. The dragging of chains over his drums and the bowing of his cymbals that end his piece are symbolic of this decimation of the village and of his heritage. Bendian identifies the last section of this piece to be a “Death March, Drone/Threnody”:
“Here, the bass soloist represents the mournful voice of the people of Chomaklou (and the Armenian people as a whole) sobbing in the desert as they contemplate the aftermath of this largely unrecognized human tragedy.”
In 1998 alternative hard rock music group System of a Down, whose band members are all Armenian-American, released “P.L.U.C.K” or “Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.” Serj Tankian wrote the song with the music provided by Daron Malakian.
The first stanza of the song is similar in aspects to all the other works mentioned in that it acknowledges the Genocide, a necessary step in ending self-denial. This is also explored later in the song:
The plan was mastered and called Genocide,
(Never want to see you around)
Took all the children and then we died,
(Never want to see you around)
The few that remained were never found,
(Never want to see you around)
All in a system, Down
The line “The few that remained were never found” is reminiscent of Bendian’s bleak outlook both on “Chomaklou” and on the current state of Armenian affairs. The implication is that the loss is unrecoverable. There is no mention of the heroic survival and cultural resurgence as seen with Aznavour and Hovhaness. Morever, System of a Down goes a step further by demanding a “just” outcome for the Armenian Genocide, unlike Aznavour, Hovhaness, and Bendian. The following stanza is a true departure from the earlier works because it signals a new direction in Genocide resolution vis-à-vis Armeno-Turkish relations:
Revolution, the only solution,
The armed response of an entire nation,
Revolution, the only solution,
We’ve taken all your shit, now it’s time for restitution.
Recognition, Restoration, Reparation,
“P.L.U.C.K.” epitomizes Kübler-Ross’s transition from a state of denial to a state of anger. System of a Down chooses, in “P.L.U.C.K.,” to advocate a “revolution” through an “armed response” in order to resolve the lingering legacy of the Genocide. In addition, “recognition, restoration, reparation” outlines the necessity not only for acknowledgement but also for recovery and recompense. With respect to Kübler-Ross, this denotes potential progress towards the bargaining state yet the song as a whole remains imbued in violence. While the musical genre of alternative hard rock has the reputation of espousing violence, System of a Down has been a relative exception by advocating for the disenfranchised in works such as “BOOM,” which is an example of an anti-war song. Yet violence is integral to “P.L.U.C.K.” and exemplifies a state of anger.
Clearly this differs from Aznavour, Hovhaness, and Bendian who never address an Armeno-Turkish resolution to the conflict. System of a Down grapples with this topic and offers a violent solution. That the musical group had the willingness, and ultimate success, in using a forceful, traditionally “non-Armenian” hard rock style to further an Armenian political cause has its roots in the current irreconcilable state of Armeno-Turkish relations.
Musical perspectives from 1975 to 1998 mirror the Armenian struggle spanning the last thirty years over the legacy of the genocide. The perspective in the 1970’s was one of cultural survival and revival. It signified a time when the collective Armenian consciousness was able to admit that it was victimized, ending self-denial. Songs like “Ils Sont Tombés” and “Norahrash” served to acknowledge the traumas of the Armenian people yet also sought to celebrate its survival and cultural resurgence.
The next thirty years, in fact, would see no resolution, and in fact an exacerbation, of the Armeno-Turkish conflicts. Recurrent Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide and Turkey’s military support of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia have created a new generation of diasporan Armenian musicians whose songs display a certain anxiety that the Armenian legacy will not survive. The “just” resolution of the Genocide appears equally bleak. It then comes as no surprise that the late 1990’s differed from the earlier, more hopeful, period by mostly recognizing loss and demanding action, even violence if needed, to right the wrongs visited upon the Armenian people.
The trauma of the Genocide will resolve itself along the pathway delineated by Kübler-Ross. This applies both to the victim and the perpetrator. By embracing the various Armenian works in the Western musical styles over a thirty-year period, the Armenian people demonstrate how they have progressed beyond self-denial into anger followed by bargaining through a call for action. This development likely has been fueled by the Turkish nation itself. In contrast Turkey, seen as the perpetrator, has regressed further into self-denial of its complicities by refusing to take responsibility for the Genocide and continuing to impose economic hardships on Armenia. The unfortunate divergence of these two nations will likely mean that the musicians of the next generation will have a ready audience for their songs.
“Ils Sont Tombés” and “P.L.U.C.K.” are two songs that frame a roughly three-decade retrospective of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by American and Western European musical traditions. While both songs powerfully grieve a catastrophe that occurred to the Armenian people, each utilizes the lament genre differently. These musical perspectives mirror the Armenian struggle spanning the last thirty years over the legacy of the Genocide.
The perspective in the 1970’s was one of a cultural survival and revival suggesting a population coming out of self-denial. The next thirty years would see no resolution, and in fact an exacerbation, of the already tense Armeno-Turkish relations. It comes as no surprise that the late 1990’s differed from the earlier, more hopeful, period by mostly recognizing loss, displaying anger, and demanding action, even violence if needed, to right the wrongs visited upon the Armenian people.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, wrote On Death and Dying which describes the steps experienced by those confronted with death. Her theories subsequently have been expanded to explain reactions to disasters in general. Kübler-Ross states that the initial reaction to a disaster is shock and denial, a point from which many people never progress. If the denial is overcome, it is replaced by anger, making decisions difficult because all of one’s energy fuels the emotion. Subsequent steps are bargaining, depression/grief and, finally, acceptance. A study of how Armenian musicians utilized Western music and developed their media from 1975 to 1998 demonstrates Kübler-Ross’s theories about overcoming denial and progressing into anger, mirroring the collective Armenian struggle.
Starting in 1965 Armenians in the then Soviet Republic of Armenia started the process of addressing and protesting the outcome of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. This event marked the first collective step Armenians took towards breaking down their self-imposed denial of the Genocide. This episode, along with the recent warming of the “cold war” that separated the Diaspora from the Armenian homeland, was an important step in galvanizing Armenian self-consciousness, which ultimately was directed towards achieving international recognition of the Genocide.
If this was the time for Armenian and Turkish communities to have an opportunity for reconciliation, it soon was marred. First the Turkish government successfully petitioned to delete references to the Armenian Genocide in a 1974 United Nations article which had sought to characterize the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire as “The first Genocide of the twentieth century.” Similarly the United States Congress, under pressure from the U.S. State Department, failed to pass a resolution to designate April 24, 1975 as a “National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man.”
Since Western societies and institutions in the 1970’s had distanced themselves politically from the Armenian Genocide, ethnic Armenians themselves decided to lobby their own cause. In addition to the regular methods of communication, the Armenian cause was also able to explore the Genocide using literature, fine art, dance, and music. The Armenian musical perspective in Western societies was born in this era and reached its first mass audience, both within and outside of Armenian societies, with a song entitled “Ils Sont Tombés” or “They Fell”, initially released in French, but later also in English.
French-Armenian vocalist and lyrist Chahnour Varenagh Aznavourian, popularly known as Charles Aznavour, released “Ils Sont Tombés” in 1975 on the 60th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. “Ils Sont Tombés” is a song written and sung in the Western “pop” music style. At the time of its release Aznavour was the foremost ethnically Armenian musician in the West. He released his song at a time when dormant issues regarding the Genocide were just beginning to resurface in every way within world politics. These trends mirrored Aznavour’s willingness, and ultimate success, in using a traditionally “non-Armenian” musical style to further an Armenian political cause.
“Ils Sont Tombés” ultimately is an exploration of the legacy of the Armenian Genocide by an ethnically Armenian man born and raised in France. While the work has the features of a lament, there are differences which mark it as a song of protest. Aznavour makes his disapproval quite apparent in the following stanzas:
They fell silently,
By thousands, and the millions, while the world remained silent.
In the desert, their bodies looked like minuscule red flowers,
Covered by a sandstorm, which also concealed their existence.
The protest movements then becoming evident in Western music are evident in these stanzas. Azanvour, possibly reacting to the recent overtures by World leaders to Turkish deniers, lashes out to the uncaring world of 1915. He points to a global denial, and possibly an Armenian self-denial, with his allusion to an existence “covered by a sandstorm”.
Aznavour is upset, upset at the apathetic world, yet makes no obvious demand of a just resolution beyond awareness. He treads his ground lightly within his host country by attributing his people’s survival to their courage, but also to the benevolence of others. He softens his general criticism by acknowledging the host countries that took in the survivors of the Armenian Genocide:
They fell while naively believing,
That their children would hopefully live a normal childhood,
That they would one day march in a land of hope,
In open countries where people would welcome them.
I, myself, am of this race which now sleeps without a resting place,
Who chose to die rather than relinquish the faith,
Who never bowed their heads even in the face of insults,
Who survives despite everything without ever complaining.
Aznavour proclaims his ethnic heritage with this song and conjures up heroic images of survival, with honor, despite an attempt at annihilation. He is ready to complain, for Aznavour is breaking the wall of self-denial surrounding this traumatic event. By embracing this song, the Armenians likewise were ready to admit that they indeed had been victimized and were ready to move forward.
In 1976, the Diocese of the Armenian Church commissioned classicalist Alan Chakmakjian, better known as Alan Hovhaness, of Scottish-Armenian heritage, to compose music in remembrance of the Holy Armenian Martyrs of 451 AD. Hovhaness composed “Khorhoort Nahadagats - Mystery Of The Holy Martyrs Op.251”.
In 1996 reviewer Kenneth LaFave, with George Mangigian, wrote:
The ‘holy martyrs’ of the title are the more than 1000 Armenian Christians slaughtered in 451 AD [by] Persian conquerors... Instead of subduing the Armenians, however, the mass-murder…unified the nation...The third entry in Hovhaness’ suite is a reference to this transcendence of genocide by spiritual and cultural solidarity: ‘Norahrash’, meaning ‘new miracle’.
The commissioning of “Khorhoort Nahadagats” by the Armenian Church was likely a reaction to the world’s seeming indifference to those who had survived the Genocide. This was not lost upon Hovhaness, who used the themes of survival and resurgence in his work, again a basis for ending Kübler-Ross’s self-denial of a traumatic event.
Both Aznavour and Hovhaness acknowledge that a catastrophe happened to the Armenian people, yet they ultimately praise its rebirth without making a clear statement of a “just” outcome for the Armenian Genocide. Some twenty years later, a new generation of Armenian-American artists took a different, somewhat darker, and angrier approach to Genocide remembrance.
In the intervening twenty years the fate of the world, and the Armenian people, changed radically. Most significantly, the host country that provided a relative “peace” for the Armenian nation collapsed in 1991. As the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was disintegrating in the late 1980s, the Armenians found themselves in an ethnic war with neighboring Azerbaijani Turks, reliving the last conflict with ethnic Turks in 1915. Turkey’s consequent blockade of Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan reinforced the mood among the new generation of Armenians that the 1915 Genocide had never ended. This anger and disillusionment was very evident in the music of this new generation which marked departure from the earlier patterns.
In 1996 jazz composer Gregg Bendian released “After Chomaklou Was a Desert (Threnody To The Victims of The Armenian Genocide)” in a free-form style of jazz. Chomaklu was a rural Armenian community near Evereg-Fenesse. Chomaklu did not survive the period of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and essentially was razed to the ground. Bendian chose to write a lament for the loss of his ancestral village.
Bendian presents a world that was traumatized and never resurrected. He is angry. There is no resurgence, no survival to remember. The dragging of chains over his drums and the bowing of his cymbals that end his piece are symbolic of this decimation of the village and of his heritage. Bendian identifies the last section of this piece to be a “Death March, Drone/Threnody”:
“Here, the bass soloist represents the mournful voice of the people of Chomaklou (and the Armenian people as a whole) sobbing in the desert as they contemplate the aftermath of this largely unrecognized human tragedy.”
In 1998 alternative hard rock music group System of a Down, whose band members are all Armenian-American, released “P.L.U.C.K” or “Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.” Serj Tankian wrote the song with the music provided by Daron Malakian.
The first stanza of the song is similar in aspects to all the other works mentioned in that it acknowledges the Genocide, a necessary step in ending self-denial. This is also explored later in the song:
The plan was mastered and called Genocide,
(Never want to see you around)
Took all the children and then we died,
(Never want to see you around)
The few that remained were never found,
(Never want to see you around)
All in a system, Down
The line “The few that remained were never found” is reminiscent of Bendian’s bleak outlook both on “Chomaklou” and on the current state of Armenian affairs. The implication is that the loss is unrecoverable. There is no mention of the heroic survival and cultural resurgence as seen with Aznavour and Hovhaness. Morever, System of a Down goes a step further by demanding a “just” outcome for the Armenian Genocide, unlike Aznavour, Hovhaness, and Bendian. The following stanza is a true departure from the earlier works because it signals a new direction in Genocide resolution vis-à-vis Armeno-Turkish relations:
Revolution, the only solution,
The armed response of an entire nation,
Revolution, the only solution,
We’ve taken all your shit, now it’s time for restitution.
Recognition, Restoration, Reparation,
“P.L.U.C.K.” epitomizes Kübler-Ross’s transition from a state of denial to a state of anger. System of a Down chooses, in “P.L.U.C.K.,” to advocate a “revolution” through an “armed response” in order to resolve the lingering legacy of the Genocide. In addition, “recognition, restoration, reparation” outlines the necessity not only for acknowledgement but also for recovery and recompense. With respect to Kübler-Ross, this denotes potential progress towards the bargaining state yet the song as a whole remains imbued in violence. While the musical genre of alternative hard rock has the reputation of espousing violence, System of a Down has been a relative exception by advocating for the disenfranchised in works such as “BOOM,” which is an example of an anti-war song. Yet violence is integral to “P.L.U.C.K.” and exemplifies a state of anger.
Clearly this differs from Aznavour, Hovhaness, and Bendian who never address an Armeno-Turkish resolution to the conflict. System of a Down grapples with this topic and offers a violent solution. That the musical group had the willingness, and ultimate success, in using a forceful, traditionally “non-Armenian” hard rock style to further an Armenian political cause has its roots in the current irreconcilable state of Armeno-Turkish relations.
Musical perspectives from 1975 to 1998 mirror the Armenian struggle spanning the last thirty years over the legacy of the genocide. The perspective in the 1970’s was one of cultural survival and revival. It signified a time when the collective Armenian consciousness was able to admit that it was victimized, ending self-denial. Songs like “Ils Sont Tombés” and “Norahrash” served to acknowledge the traumas of the Armenian people yet also sought to celebrate its survival and cultural resurgence.
The next thirty years, in fact, would see no resolution, and in fact an exacerbation, of the Armeno-Turkish conflicts. Recurrent Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide and Turkey’s military support of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia have created a new generation of diasporan Armenian musicians whose songs display a certain anxiety that the Armenian legacy will not survive. The “just” resolution of the Genocide appears equally bleak. It then comes as no surprise that the late 1990’s differed from the earlier, more hopeful, period by mostly recognizing loss and demanding action, even violence if needed, to right the wrongs visited upon the Armenian people.
The trauma of the Genocide will resolve itself along the pathway delineated by Kübler-Ross. This applies both to the victim and the perpetrator. By embracing the various Armenian works in the Western musical styles over a thirty-year period, the Armenian people demonstrate how they have progressed beyond self-denial into anger followed by bargaining through a call for action. This development likely has been fueled by the Turkish nation itself. In contrast Turkey, seen as the perpetrator, has regressed further into self-denial of its complicities by refusing to take responsibility for the Genocide and continuing to impose economic hardships on Armenia. The unfortunate divergence of these two nations will likely mean that the musicians of the next generation will have a ready audience for their songs.
posted by JDS | 5:51 PM
|
0 comments
