Today, we’re revisiting Soviet Armenian recordings through discs produced by the Armenian Progressive League of America, headquartered in New York City. Active from 1938 to 1990, the League was one of many political organizations formed by Soviet-aligned Armenian Americans in the years after 1920, when the First Republic of Armenia fell. In addition to publishing Lraper (The Herald), which reported on news from Armenia, the League distributed reissued material originally recorded in Yerevan. The recordings presented here were published on a label called Yerker Hayastanen (Songs from Armenia). The League ran advertisements for these discs from 1949 into the 1960s, making these titles available to Armenians in the United States. The Armenian Museum of America is fortunate to have a nearly complete collection of the records produced on Yerker Hayastanen. Four songs from that collection are presented here.

Noubar Noubar and Hop Yaro Jan were recorded in Yerevan around 1954 and published on the USSR label, then reissued by Yerker Hayastanen and distributed by the Progressive League in 1956. Noubar Noubar is a slow-paced love song, while Hop Yaro Jan is a popular up-tempo folk dance. Both recordings feature the soloist Lucine Koshyan accompanied by the State Song and Dance Ensemble under the direction of Tatul Altunyan. In 1938 Altunyan founded the ensemble, which toured and recorded extensively, becoming responsible for much of the output on Soviet Armenian recordings. Lucine Koshyan was born April 2, 1921 in Baku and from the age of seventeen performed as lead soloist for Altunyan’s ensemble. In 1961, she went on to work as the soloist for the Armenian Philharmonic and that same year was named as a People’s Artist of the USSR. 

Gharib Bibul was recorded almost a decade earlier and features mezzo-soprano Tatevik Sazandaryan, who served as soloist for the Yerevan Opera Theatre between 1937 and 1961. Her biography parallels Lucine’s, as she also grew up in Baku and began singing quite young. At age sixteen, Tatevik moved to Moscow where she sang with small groups before going on to perform and study opera in the early 1930s. Despite these similarities, the differences in these recordings show different aesthetic priorities within the Soviet Union. While Lucine’s recording is certainly not performed in a rural folk style, the State Song and Dance Ensemble’s agenda  sought to elevate traditional repertoires to a high art status through formal musical arrangements, while retaining their traditional essence. The work of Tatevik, meanwhile, comes straight from the Western operatic tradition, which was highly regarded within Moscow and the cultural elite of the Soviet Union.

In contrast to these three vocal recordings is a solo instrumental recording of Eshkhamed, which is published on side B of the disc with Noubar Noubar. Recorded around 1954 in Yerevan, the recording features Khachatur Avetisyan on the kanun. Khachatur was born in Adana in 1901, but it was in the refugee camps of post-war Echmiadzin where he learned tar and developed an interest in folk music. Usually associated with Western Armenian urban folk music, the kanun is treated here with all the esteem of an instrument from the Western classical tradition. Despite this formalization, the instrument retains its identity in the great range and elegance of its voice. This balance of traditional and high art music is no accident, as Khachatur is both the composer and performer of the work. As a composer he was trained at Yerevan State Conservatory, going on to win medals in prestigious competitions in both Moscow and Berlin. At the same time, Khachatur was firmly committed to studying the folk tradition of his instrument. He went on to establish the folk music department of the Komitas National Conservatory, as well as being credited in 1959 with the composition of the first concerto for symphony orchestra and kanun. 

The spectrum of taste represented by the Soviet-run labels and reissues by Yerker Hayastanen leaves us not only with some examples of excellent musicianship, but also speaks to the immense cultural pride, production, and construction carried out at the height of the Soviet era in Yerevan. 

A special thanks to the SJS Charitable Trust for their generous support of our work to digitize and share our collection of 78 rpm records.