Popular Armenian Tunes On The East Coast U.s. /candada In The 40's

[Vayri7X]

I'm making a much beloved 75 year -old relative a homemade compilation cd. I am trying to put together popular Armenian songs heard on the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada from the 30's -late 40's and 50's. Especially in New York and Ontario/St. Catherine's.

 

Any suggestions?

[vava]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't have any idea what they would have been listening to at that time. But when you're finished your compliation, please post the track list here - I'd be interested in what you come up with....

[Vayri7X]

OOH! I found a bunch of Armenian musicians at this site, CAlifornia folk music.

 

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowperf.html

 

 

Now, how do I rip/get these songs and burn them to cd? Aren't they in the public sphere now?

 

 

akh.,

[rostom]

OOH! I found a bunch of Armenian musicians at this site, CAlifornia folk music.

 

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowperf.html

Now, how do I rip/get these songs and burn them to cd? Aren't they in the public sphere now?

akh.,

 

Good find....though I haven't listened to the songs yet as my headphones are broken.

 

You can download the songs to your computer by simply right clicking on the MP3 or WAV link and selecting "Save Target As..." To burn them as data files you can do this very easily if you are using WinXP (drag and drop). However if you want to make an audio CD (i.e. to play on a regular CD player) then you'll need to use some special software (i.e. Windows Media Player 10, Nero, etc.)

 

In regards to copyright, that info can be found on the Library of Congress website at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowcpyrt.html. I believe you should be fine if you are making the CD for your own listening pleasure. If you plan on distributing the CD then you'll probably want to read that copyright verbiage carefully

[neko]

I'm making a much beloved 75 year -old relative a homemade compilation cd. I am trying to put together popular Armenian songs heard on the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada from the 30's -late 40's and 50's. Especially in New York and Ontario/St. Catherine's.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Just look at what was being recorded onto records at the time. The more plentyful the surviving records the more popular that song must have been.

[aghzar]

I'm making a much beloved 75 year -old relative a homemade compilation cd. I am trying to put together popular Armenian songs heard on the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada from the 30's -late 40's and 50's. Especially in New York and Ontario/St. Catherine's.

 

Any suggestions?

 

This post was over a month ago so I imagine you've probably done this little project already, but if i were you i wouldnt use those things from library of congress. Theyre very interesting from a research standpoint but i mean did you even listen to them they have pretty awful sound quality. They were home-made records from the 40's.... i mean, regular 1940s records usually don't sound that good, let alone home made records of Armenian music made for the WPA.....

 

That being said, the style of Armenian music popular in the U.S. back in the forties would have been what we like to call the "kef time" style...still popular in this country depending on what Armenian community you live in. Even more specific to the 40s and 50s would have been a group like the Vosbikian Band, who jazzed up the Armenian folk music with saxophones etc....

 

I'd say get your relative a copy of Vosbikian Band Vol 1

 

http://www.arpmusic.com/arpshop/index.php?...31257dd43abd352

 

i know it says recorded in 1976, but this group got there start in the 40s and most of these songs are the same ones they were playing back then, in the same style. I can attest to this, because i have their 78 rpm records which actually are from the 40s. There are also several other vosbikian albums still available.

 

You can't go wrong with the "Fabolous Vosbikians", Armenian-American grammas love them!!

 

Richard Hagopian would be a good choice as well, but a lot of his records are getting into more of the Turkish music. Cds would be Kef Time, Kef Time Detroit, Kef Time Hartford etc.

 

good luck!!!

[nairi]

Try this guy: http://www.armenianmusicarch.com/contact.html

 

He might be able to help you further.

[gamavor]

Here, "Heengala" very popular in the East Cost in mid 50-60-70-80, etc. performed awfully on this video by St. Nersess students.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3fzDPYQOvgI

Edited February 19, 2007 by gamavor

[kumkap]

are you interested in armenian songs, or music that was popular with armenians back then? if it's the second one, you don't even need to make a cd. just get them this one:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Armenians-8th-Avenue...s/dp/B0000031GC

 

the armenians living in those areas back then were almost all from areas in turkey today and their music was whatever was popular in the cities and towns they came from. back then, there were numerous night clubs in new york and hotels in the catskill mountains where armenians, turks, and greeks played together, all the same kind of music, mostly sung in turkish. the instruments were mostly kanun, ud, violin, clarinet, darbukka, def. i don't think they even used duduk, which in reality is an eastern armenian thing. the melodies were based in the makam/mugham system of scales, and there were no synthesizers, drum machines, electric or bass guitars like in tata's russian polka music, hayko's wannabe r&b eurovision song, or any other garbage that passes for armenian music nowadays. popular musicians besides the vosbikians were marko melkon, udi hrant, artie barsamian. later came richard hagopian, chick ganimian, hachig kazarian, onnik dinkjian, john berberian, who are still popular on the east coast today.

Edited May 15, 2007 by kumkap

[aghzar]

yeah but that armenians on 8th ave. cd is completely all turkish songs. personally i come from that old line community and im not morally opposed to turkish music on principle like some ppl, but i and i think most ppl prefer it to be more armenian songs. the point of that 8th ave cd was to show armenians singing turkish songs for those who didnt know about that. im sure a lot of those artists sang some armenian songs too, but they are not on there at all. thats why vosbikians are a better choice for "popular armenian tunes of the 40s". if nothing else, most ppl in that generation speak armenian but not turkish. their parents, the immigrant generation, spoke armenian and turkish. thats who those turkish songs were geared toward. as the younger generation grew up by the 50s and 60s they translated some of the more popular turkish songs into armenian. (for example "finjan" became "mi kavat oghi"). they are still doing that, at ACYOA sports weekend just recently the bands sang "halvaji halva" translated into armenian quite a few times.

 

btw i wouldnt consider "heengala" a popular song of that era. its more of a folk song, singalong type song children might learn in armenian school, similar to what is shown in the video. noone dances to "heengala" or probably even listens to it on record.