Songs of Exile Vol 1-3

The Naghash Ensemble take their name from Mkrtich Naghash, a 15th-century Armenian poet, priest and painter. Living in the Armenian community in what is now Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey, he was forced into exile and wrote oral poetry about the plight of the wanderer or, in Armenian, ghareeb (a stranger without property or possessions). Composer John Hodian has set all 15 surviving poems to music. As an Armenian living in exile (first in the US and now based in Germany), he identifies with the exile of the poetry and recognises the relevance of the lyrics for the refugees of today.

categorise this music. I’d describe it as Hodian admits it's hard to contemporary classical music drawing on Armenian vocal and instrumental traditions, as well as American minimalism. The music is dominated by intertwining polyphonic writing for five female vocalists and it was soprano Hasmik Baghdasaryan that first inspired Hodian to create these pieces. The voices are backed by string quartet and piano, plus duduk (Armenian oboe), oud and dhol (drum) creating an appropriately transparent texture. Sometimes the texture is minimal – just voice and duduk, as in part of opener ‘Composed in Exile’ – and at other times, the voices feature over busy contrapuntal string lines as in ‘Lamentations for the Dead’. The pieces are mainly devotional. I am not such a fan of the high female vocals that captivate Hodian, but they may well appeal to others. The ensemble has toured extensively and I imagine they make a strong impression live and Hodian certainly has a recognisable musical personality. The three CDs are beautifully packaged with texts and information in English, Armenian, French and German and manuscript illustrations by Naghash.