Mike's Oud Forums

Lyrics for "Yarus"

ArmoOudist - 3-13-2021 at 09:11 AM

Hello, does anyone happen to have the lyrics for the Armenian song, "Yarus?"
I'm pretty sure I'm hearing them right to sing, but I just want to double check.
The song is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7uf9t2A-K0

ArmoOudist - 3-13-2021 at 09:24 AM

What I am hearing is this:
"Amen Aravod, Arshalooyseen mod
Akh Usem yes yaris, oor es knoom (2x)

Oonkerut gamar (?)
Achkerut mi zar
Boyut Siroom chi nar, toon im sirahar (2x)

Aghchig Jan Aghchig, shad makhjan (?) aghchig
Mernem ko ach....(word unknown).... anoush yar aghchig (2x)

Akh yes inch aseh
zees mi charchareh
Asa eendzee yarus, toon zeez mi gancheh(?) (2x)

Ganchoom es arnee, yar boyit mernee
Ches kalis.....(words unknown) (2x)

Aree yar ari
Ari doon dari
Yar.....ari.... (line is mostly unknown here) (2x)

John Erlich - 3-16-2021 at 09:43 PM

Quote: Originally posted by ArmoOudist  
Hello, does anyone happen to have the lyrics for the Armenian song, "Yarus?"
I'm pretty sure I'm hearing them right to sing, but I just want to double check.
The song is below.
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7uf9t2A-K0
[/url]

That sounds like a version of "Erev Shel Shoshanim," -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkVfRPftyac - which I've heard Armenian bands perform. Do you know anything about the history of the song "Yaris"?

ArmoOudist - 3-17-2021 at 11:28 AM

Quote: Originally posted by John Erlich  


That sounds like a version of "Erev Shel Shoshanim," -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkVfRPftyac - which I've heard Armenian bands perform. Do you know anything about the history of the song "Yaris"?


"Erev Shel Shoshanim" is the original song. In the 1960s, Armenian singer Bob Tashjian translated the lyrics into Armenian

John Erlich - 3-17-2021 at 09:56 PM

Quote: Originally posted by ArmoOudist  
Quote: Originally posted by John Erlich  


That sounds like a version of "Erev Shel Shoshanim," -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkVfRPftyac - which I've heard Armenian bands perform. Do you know anything about the history of the song "Yaris"?


"Erev Shel Shoshanim" is the original song. In the 1960s, Armenian singer Bob Tashjian translated the lyrics into Armenian


I wondered about that. I was careful, because I know the origins of NE/NA songs can be a sensitive topic. Thanks for the info!

ArmoOudist - 3-18-2021 at 02:44 AM

No problem!
I actually wish for the days when Armenian musicians were a bit more cosmopolitan in their outlook. When you listen to old "Kef" records, sometimes Armenian music is the least represented on the album, compared to Greek/Turkish/Arab/Hebrew, etc. I remember reading an interview with John Berberian when he said that Armenian musicians were actually respected so much in the Middle Eastern music community precisely because they were able to switch between the various styles of music so effortlessly.

That all shifted in the seventies I think. I remember a story when my grandfather played some of his old Kef albums at an Armenian even and there was Turkish music on there. The crowd was not pleased. It's ironic, because many of those Turkish songs were probably composed by Armenians or Greeks, while many Armenian songs we play today (example, Karoon Karoon) are actually in fact originally Turkish or Azeri melodies.

maraoud108 - 3-18-2021 at 12:08 PM

If you're interested in this subject (it's incredibly vast and complicated) check out Sylvia Alajaji's book "Music in the Armenian Diaspora."

Here's a talk about it as well:

https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2020/04/alajaji.html

"Music, at its best, can give us a reason to live. In this episode, Sylvia Alajaji discusses how in the wake of the Armenian Genocide, music not only served this function for Armenians, but also opened up broader questions about how to define what it meant to be Armenian. Drawing from her book Music and the Armenian Diaspora, she traces the Armenian musical cultures that emerged over a century from New York to Beirut to California. On one hand, the diaspora sought to preserve the folk music of Ottoman Armenian communities destroyed and scattered throughout the First World War and its aftermath. Meanwhile, in new homes like Beirut, Armenian artists began to create new musical forms in which the use of Armenian language was more crucial than the particularities of music style. At the same time, the memory of Ottoman Armenian music in the Turkish language that arrived in places like the United States with the first waves of migrant began to fade as the Armenian diaspora grew more distant from its origins in what is modern Turkey. For Alajaji these acts of preservation, creation, erasure, and recovery all are part of what music means to the Armenian diaspora."

ArmoOudist - 3-18-2021 at 02:55 PM

Sounds good, I'll have to look into this.
Thanks!

hartun - 3-19-2021 at 08:32 AM

Yarus is an Armenian version of Erev Shel Shoshanim. However it is not a translation. They are original lyrics written by Bob Tashjian who also sang the song on John Berberian's album "Oud Artistry of John Berberian" released in 1965 and which were alternate tracks from the recordings sessions for "Expressions East" in 1964.

Amen aravod, arshalouysin mod
Akh usem yes im yaris, oor es knoum
(repeat)
Ounkerut gamar, acherut mi zart
Boyut siroon, chinar, too im sirahar
(repeat)

Aghchig jan aghchig sharmagh jan aghchig
Mernem ko achk-oonkin, anoush yar aghchig
(repeat)
Akh yes inch asem, zis mi charchareh
Asa indzi "yarus" too zis mi dancheh
(repeat)

Ganchoom es ari, yar boyit mernim
Ches kalis mookhut mari, yes el inch anim
(repeat)
Ari yar ari, ari doon dari,
Yaro jan shood ari, yars el doon dari
(repeat)

the lyrics are kind of rough because he's kinda mumbling them and he's combining his colloquial Western Armenian with Eastern Armenian phrases that were popular in folk songs of the time. I'm not too sure about the last verse.

hartun - 3-19-2021 at 08:39 AM

Armo Oudist where are you from?
I'm playing oud and singing in the Detroit MI area

By the way not only Armenians but all the ethnicities who escaped from the Ottoman Empire used to sing in Turkish as well as their native tongue be it Armenian, Greek, or Ladino (Sephardic Jewish language). Also some sang in Kurdish. As years went by in the US these groups were playing together and they would learn Greek songs, Hebrew songs, and Arabic songs as more waves of immigration of those groups came to the US. It was also another way to play a fun variety of songs without just being only Armenian or only Turkish all the time. And it was a way to play more Middle Eastern style melodies actually without singing Turkish, I think, as there was backlash against this as early as the 60s, but not as strong as in the late 70s and into the 80s when it basically was banished.

The thing is most Armenian oud players and musicians from that school know all those Turkish songs anyway, even if they never or rarely play them live. Because Richard Hagopian recorded so many on his "Kef Time" albums and everyone listens to those albums and to live tapes of Richard, and Richard sang every Turkish song in the book. Of course, Richard got them from Marko Melkon, Kanuni Garbis and the other Armenian old timers that were born in Turkey but I would credit him mostly (along with Harry Minassian) with a lot of those songs still being well known in the Armenian music community.

Personally I've learned a lot of them and play them when the venue is accepting or desiring of it.

Harry

ArmoOudist - 3-19-2021 at 01:41 PM

I'm from the Providence area (Rhode Island). Oud was something I had for a couple years, but I really picked up in the past year during the COVID pandemic. I have taken a couple lessons from John Berberian, but I am mostly self-taught.
I know much of this is learned by ear, but could you perhaps send me and music or lyrics that you have? I'd always be open to learning new songs!

hartun - 3-19-2021 at 06:01 PM

I know Providence well. My grandfather was born there. I also know John Berberian.

I do have a lot of lyrics but they are mostly on an old computer.
I'm sorry but I don't have any good sheet music. Truly these are things you need to learn by ear. Sometimes you can find sheet music for old Western Armenian folk songs but you have to understand that more than half the time they are written incorrectly because the people that wrote them down had European training and didn't understand Anatolian rhythms. They never write 10/8 and sometimes they can't even get 9/8 or 7/8 right. You'll look at these books and everything is either 6/8 or 4/4 or they write it in some weird way with mixed meter because they didn't understand it. In any case reading music is not the right path unless you are trying to research lost songs or something, which is something I occasionally do but it is not easy!
Even on the Houshamadyan site, what many people have written for the sheet music is not what we are hearing in the recordings.
The exception are Ara Dinkjian's transcriptions of Onnik's songs, which are on Houshamadyan. Those are good. But again, it's better to learn by ear.
As for Turkish songs, you can find them on the Turkish sites. They've written most of them down. Divan Makam has an incredible selection of Turkish songs. TurkuDostlari is also quite good but can be hard to navigate. Again as I say it's better learned by ear. But all the lyrics are there.
As for Eastern Armenian type songs they are easy to find if you know where to look. You have to look in the songbooks published out of Beirut (Shirag Songbook etc.). And from that you can get their lyrics.

ArmoOudist - 3-19-2021 at 06:09 PM

I get what you're saying about learning by ear. That's how I've learned most of what I know.
The most complex thing I've learned so far is the Armenian medley from Hagopian's "Evening at the Seventh Veil"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA6OOGwHl2A
Sometimes, some of the intervals are a bit hard to pick up on, especially with the oud being fretless and all, but all it takes is a bit of practice.

John Erlich - 3-20-2021 at 10:20 PM

Quote: Originally posted by ArmoOudist  
No problem!
I actually wish for the days when Armenian musicians were a bit more cosmopolitan in their outlook. When you listen to old "Kef" records, sometimes Armenian music is the least represented on the album, compared to Greek/Turkish/Arab/Hebrew, etc. I remember reading an interview with John Berberian when he said that Armenian musicians were actually respected so much in the Middle Eastern music community precisely because they were able to switch between the various styles of music so effortlessly.

That all shifted in the seventies I think. I remember a story when my grandfather played some of his old Kef albums at an Armenian even and there was Turkish music on there. The crowd was not pleased. It's ironic, because many of those Turkish songs were probably composed by Armenians or Greeks, while many Armenian songs we play today (example, Karoon Karoon) are actually in fact originally Turkish or Azeri melodies.


Yeah...sadly, there's a lot discourse around "cultural appropriation" nowadays which (I think) often comes from folks who don't really know and understand the broader historical context of NE/NA musics.