Vartan Margosian’s style of music was unique and will probably never again be repeated. He was not a highly trained musician, and he wasn’t even a “master player” in the folk tradition. There were probably any number of Armenians like him, who knew how to play an instrument and who knew the folk songs of their local area. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t great, but one asks oneself how many Vartans we lost due to the Armenian Genocide. Vartan’s special quality lies in two things, as far as this listener is concerned: his near-heroic attempt to document the songs of his native land by printing an incredible amount of records on his own dime, and his irrepressible spirit which shines through in all his recordings and in the surviving photographs, a man who must have been a naturally happy person, subjected to loss and destruction of his homeland and most likely, his parents and extended family. Vartan’s singing verges from deeply, emotionally melancholic to sprightly, happy, and contented, reflecting his and his people’s loss on the one hand and his successful realization of the American Dream and happy family life on the other. The songs included here are mostly from his early recordings and mostly from the second half of 1923 and the first half 1924. 

Armenag Shah-Mouradian is one of the all-time exemplars of Armenian music. Commonly recognized as “the protege of Gomidas Vartabed,” he himself had a huge impact on Armenian music aside from interpreting the works of his famous teacher.

Shah-Mouradian was born in 1878 in the city of Moush, in the heart of Ottoman-ruled Western Armenia. His father, Sarkis Shah-Mouradian, was known as “Tarpin Srko” (Sarkis the Blacksmith). Srko was a gregarious figure and music lover whose door was always open, and was well-liked by the local Armenians, Kurds, and Turks. An amateur player of the boulghari, a small type of saz (long-necked Anatolian lute), Srko knew how to sing ashough (minstrel) songs by heart and local musicians who played the zourna, dap, and damboura (a larger type of saz) often visited the family. 

Noticing young Armenag’s inclination to music and attraction to the boulghari as early as the age of 3 or 4, Srko told his wife to keep the instrument from the boy, so that he wouldn’t grow up to be a “chalghujuh” (derogatory term for a professional folk musician). He did, however, encourage Armenag to sing in church, and asked the local teacher to teach the child liturgical singing at the age of 5 or 6. Shah-Mouradian began to sing at Moush’s St. Marine church at the age of 8, and remembered that his first solo was “Amen Hayr Soorp” in the Second Mode (ԲՁ). His father also asked an older local boy who attended the “United Associations” high school to teach Shah-Mouradian Armenian patriotic songs. After attending the local grammar school, Armenag himself also attended the “United Associations” high school in Moush.

This month’s music presentation features the intersection of so many aspects of the Armenian experience that it lends itself to the question, what makes a piece of music Armenian?

Many are familiar with the debates surrounding the influence of nearby Middle Eastern musical cultures on that of the Armenians, even including the translation of songs from other languages into Armenian. But oftentimes Armenian music held up as “classic” has also been translated from Western European languages, a perhaps lesser known phenomenon.

On August 17, 1940 in the Central Valley of California, the Bedrosian family of musicians, led by Hovsep Joseph Bedrosian recorded four unique songs on the privately owned record label GME Records. The Armenian Museum of America’s Sound Archive celebrates these musicians and their contributions to recorded music.

It was a Saturday in the San Joaquin Valley of California, a typical weekend in the summer, the soil was hot and families had gathered in the farmlands of Fresno. On August 17, 1940, Hovsep Bedrosian was joined by his son Avedis and his cousin Bagdasar Bedrosian for a festive recording session. Much of the information related to these recordings is captured in the grooves of these discs as each song begins with a brief introduction by Avedis Bedrosian in Armenian and English. While Avedis is given the title of “director,” these recordings highlight the musical mastery found within Hovsep Bedrosian and his instrument, the zourna. During these sessions he was accompanied by his cousin Bagdasar on the davoul.

This month’s featured artist from the Armenian Museum of America’s Sound Archive truly embodies the definition of a community servant. For nearly nine decades, Onnik Dinkjian has dedicated his time serving the Armenian community by sharing his remarkable talent, the power of his voice. Onnik Dinkjian’s story begins in Dikranagerd where his biological parents Garabed and Zora Milliyan were both born and raised. The Milliyans settled in Paris, France and in 1929 Onnik was born as Joseph Milliyan. Five years later catastrophe struck the family leaving Onnik and his sister orphaned. Onnik’s godparents Nishan and Oghida Dinkjian would become his adoptive parents. Later in life, Onnik would discover that his birth father Garabed also was a musician, a player of the oud. During Onnik’s childhood the folk singing of his mother Zora and the music of the Armenian church captivated him, these inspirations that would empower Onnik to honorably dedicate his artistic career to creating music to further Armenian culture. In July of 1946 Onnik and the Dinkjian family relocated to the United States, Union City, New Jersey. His musical start would actually begin weeks before their departure from Paris, as Onnik had the opportunity to sing as a soloist at the Armenian Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, in Paris, under the direction of Nishan Serkoian. 

The tar, a long-neck lute, has been a central instrument of Armenian folk music for centuries. The instrument has an hourglass-shaped body carved out of mulberry and covered with a vellum made of cow heart. It usually has between six and eleven strings, and twenty-five to twenty-eight adjustable frets (which determine the notes and scales playable on the instrument).

In the Sound Archive of the Museum are several recordings by two Armenian tar players and entrepreneurs, who recorded and performed extensively on this instrument in the United States. They are George Shah-Baronian and Haig Ohanian. Both operated their own private record labels to publish their works, and both presented the traditional and historical repertoire of the instrument while also modernizing its use in the context of American popular music. 

A stunning and integral part of the Armenian musical tradition in the 20th century is that of Armenian classical singers. Their work extends largely out of the choral tradition of the Armenian Church and highlights a variety of musicologists and composers.

Sopranos, often accompanied by piano or violin, codified and preserved a repertoire of Armenian Church hymns and folk songs as well as works by some of the foremost modern Armenian composers. Several women in this tradition recorded and performed prolifically in the United States, beginning in April 1917 with Zabelle Panosian, whose recording of Groung for Columbia Records was exceptionally popular. 

In his store, Armen sold appliances, radios, record players, and, of course, records. The business had a longstanding relationship with the company RCA for whom they provided services such as tube testing for the devices they retailed. RCA also advertised many promotional activities and services at the time, including an ad campaign in 1932 offering customers a chance to make a recording of their own.⁴ Their contract with RCA provided extensive advertising and by 1934 they had won awards from the company as a notable dealer in New England.⁵ The extent of their record sales in the Armenian community throughout New England is attested to by the large portion of discs in the Armenian Museum collection that bear dealer stickers from the store. Through his relationship with RCA, Armen also operated his own record label called “The Orient”. The Museum’s collection holds 30 different releases on the label, though it is likely that this is only a portion of the recordings they published. Many of the records pressed by the label were reissues of popular music made for RCA, and though these records sold well, they were not the recordings behind which Armen put his more personal and community-minded energy.