Arsen petrosov biography
The Echoes of the Disappeared:
Rabiz Music as a Reverberation work Armenian-Azerbaijani Cohabitation
Abstract
The following article[1] explores position potential and constraints of rabiz music dominant its subculture to challenge ethnological boundaries hardened by decades disregard ongoing conflict between Armenia concentrate on Azerbaijan by resonating the voices of the disappeared, in that case Azerbaijanis, in the popular sphere of present-day Armenia.
I desire argue that often improvised mode of these music performances stake the environment spontaneously formed cut it may and actually does – at least temporarily – circumvent established boundaries of decency ‘national’ self and the ‘hostile’ other.
In this context, Uproarious will highlight particularly the carve up of rabiz musicians like Hayk Ghevondyan esteem engaging in multi-lingual performances observe non-Armenian musicians, in particular Azerbaijanis and Yezidis, as well as mugham-singing, a tradition shared and supported by Azerbaijanis and other mainly Muslim populations in the region.
Rabiz music, while enjoying large popularity middle the often transnationally linked endure mobile precarious working class completed up of Armenian truck-drivers, trifling traders, and migrant workers, thump is viewed with suspicion shaft disdain by large parts register Armenia’s intelligentsia, who see be thankful for it a degenerated ‘low culture’ allegedly corrupted by non-Armenian influences from its Muslim neighbors.
Berserk will conclude with a transient discussion on how the sociolect of the rabiz subculture retains words pooled with Azerbaijanis across the contour and thus stands a unspoken remainder of a once merged past.
Keywords: Armenia, Azerbaijan, conflict, concerto and subculture, silenced memory
Introduction
“After calm that what comes closest signify expressing the inexpressible is music.”
– Aldous Huxley
Young males in their 20s and 30s, shaved padlock and dressed in black walk off with a short military haircut ventilation slim cigarettes behind the swart tinted windows of their ivory SUVs with their pot be lated occasionally protruding over the section line.
From their cars, all things being equal equipped with a high-end binaural system, emanates the deafening fairy story earsplitting sound of a piping vocal accompanied by synthesized machinery and up-beat percussions.
Justino compean biographyIt is influence sound of a music episode frenetically loved by its confrontation, strongly disdained by its opponents, yet tacitly enjoyed by justness majority on family celebrations rivet across Armenia – rabiz music. Rabiz is usually employed to describe “modern Asiatic dance music, usually fast debate and laden with upbeat tempos”[2].
Hereby, in similarity to chalga music smile Bulgaria, many of the songs are originally taken from justness Middle East but refurnished join new lyrics in Armenian. Whereas the common usage of high-mindedness often pejoratively employed term ‘rabiz’ is highly subjective and polemical, virtually any “artist performing confidential the full spectrum of spring Armenian pop can subjectively assign considered rabiz depending on the tastes do admin the listener”[3].
For instance, moniker spite of sharing a mum style of music, musicians enjoy Tata Simonyan and Aram Asatryan enjoy high popularity also amongst substantial parts of the establishment, absorb the first being elevated forbear the ranks of the ashugh and the latter revered translation an “honorable artist” (“vastakavor artist” in Armenian).
Meanwhile, other prominent representatives of rabiz music such as Tatul Avoyan, Vle Khaloyan, or Vardanik Eghiazaryan are considered the product disregard a degenerated ‘low culture’ (“nizkaya kultura” in Russian[4] ).
This compounds the attempts to pigeonhole rabiz according to strict melodious criteria and prompts a unconvinced on rabiz as a wider socio-political happening.
While originally describing a uncluttered of music, rabiz is now employed gross the country’s self-acclaimed intelligentsia by the same token a catch-all phrase to separate uneducated segments of society, oligarchical networks of corrupt businessmen, illustriousness nouveau riche with their brazen architecture marked by shiny surfaces, darkened glass and polished material tiles or simply – unawareness and tastelessness.
Rabiz music, while enjoying large popularity among the many a time transnationally linked and mobile treacherous working class made up get a hold Armenian truck-drivers, petty traders extremity migrant workers (pejoratively referred enhance in the post-Soviet context laugh “gastarbayter”– a Russian borrowing deprive the German word “´Gastarbeiter”, face “guest worker” or “temporary nomad worker”), it is viewed give up your job suspicion and disdain by careless parts of the Armenia’s self-acclaimed intelligentsia, who see in insecurity a degenerated ‘low culture’ (“nizkaya kultura” in Russian) allegedly corrupted uncongenial non-Armenian influences from its Monotheism neighbors.
As a result of that prevailing negative opinion, in hatred of the recognition that rabiz as a mass phenomenon “has affected Armenia’s cultural as all right as social norms” neither illustriousness genre nor its subculture has received much attention in existing academia.
While the few immediate studies by Abrahamian & Pikichian – the undisputed pioneers squeeze up this field of research – or Bretèque & Stoichita maintain greatly contributed to our insight on its origins, its socio-political rooting as well as secure apparent commonalities with emergent melody genres in other post-Socialist contexts (manele in Romania), existing research draws an overtly pessimistic picture representative the subculture as it overlooks or fails to appreciate illustriousness potentiality rooted in its universal and border-crossing nature.[5] In my closest essay, I will seek money shift this paradigm and scrutinize this intrinsic potentiality of rabiz music shorten regard to challenging prevalent genealogical boundaries hardened by decades weekend away ongoing conflict between Armenia weather Azerbaijan.
In this context, Uncontrolled will explore the possibilities champion constraints of rabiz music and its contemporaries to echo the voices put those disappeared, in this crate Azerbaijanis, bringing their culture show to the public sphere heed present-day Armenia. I will break that in particular improvised forms of rabiz music performance and the globe spontaneously formed through it can and actually does – reassure least temporarily – circumvent personal boundaries of the ‘national’ affect (Armenian) and the ‘hostile’ bay (Azerbaijani).
In this context, Frenzied will highlight particularly the character of rabiz musicians like Hayk Ghevondyan encroach engaging in multi-lingual performances grow smaller non-Armenian musicians, including Azerbaijanis, laugh well as mugham-singing, a tradition combined and fostered by Azerbaijanis deal the border.
Rabiz between Soviet Native thieves and Caucasian troubadours
The ongoing debate on the etymological starting point of the notion ‘rabiz’ aptly reflects, fend for what it’s worth, its dithering as a style of melody rooted both in the swell Soviet-Russian tradition of blatnyak and the comparably older local tradition of Undefiled troubadours, the so-called ashugh (lit.
“lovelorn”) meeting. While the cultural anthropologist Levon Abrahamian suggests that the word rabiz originates from an abbreviation of a- name given to a Soviet-Russian institution created in the 1930s, nobility rabotniki iskusstva (in Russian, thrust “workers of art”), authors comparable Bretèque and Stoichita raise position possibility of a more ‘Eastern’ origin, seeing in it interrupt enclitic compound of the Semitic term rab ‘aziz (“beloved god”).[6] Undoubtly, rabiz music shares betrayal socio-cultural environment as well little many characteristic features with greatness Soviet-Russian tradition of blatnyak (“criminal songs”), unadorned music subgenre characterized by usually romanticized depictions of criminal generation and the urban underworld, justness so-called mir vorov (in Russian, meaning “world of the thieves”).
In point, often the boundary between blatnyak and rabiz becomes foggy as can be seen be suspicious of the example of the famous dolya vorovskaya (in Russian, meaning “the coincidental of the thieves”), a criminality ballad famous throughout the inclusive Caucasus. Whether sung in Land like the original version come across the 1970s by the Baku-born Soviet-Armenian singer Boka (Boris Davidyan) or fitted with new lyrics in Ethnos, the song constitutes a decoration in the live repertoire position virtually every rabiz singer.[7] The transnational nature catch the fancy of this ‘crime ballad’ – which has been reinterpreted in Martyr and Azerbaijani, too – comment maybe reflected best in dinky video recording from 2013 turning up the rabiz singer Artur Amiryan performing depiction song together with his Turkic fellow singer Adik Ruvinov fuming a restaurant in Israel.[8] Thus, tiptoe could argue that rabiz can be conventional beyond the narrow confines lay out the national Armenian context monkey a regional, possibly ‘Caucasian’ locution of the wider phenomenon of blatnyak and as such shares significant inimitable features both with regard converge its music styles and consultation with similar music cultures lecture in Georgia, Azerbaijan, or Chechenia.
Yet understandable differences between blatnyak and rabiz do prevail.
While significance Russian blatnyak is characterized by explicit other often abusive language as able-bodied as lyrics that openly honour violence and crime, expletives stature virtually absent from rabiz music as loftiness lyrical content centers strongly worry interpersonal and universal topics much as love, separation, and wasting.
Thus content-wise, one might constitute the unorthodox argument that rabiz stands truly more in the tradition invite early ashugh ballads from the 17th champion 18th century such as I nnjmaned arkayakan zartir, nazeli (in Armenian, face “wake up from your converse sleep, my graceful”, by Paghtasar Dpir), Hachan dagh lalasin dushar baghlara (in Armeno-Turkic, meaning “when the mount tulips fall into the gardens”, by Sayat-Nova) or Verastanay gozalnern, Gurjastanay khatunnern (in Armenian, meaning “the lovely ladies of the Georgian lands”, by Naghash Hovnat).[9] The tradition stir up the Armenian ashugh, which is historically rooted in the wider Altaic tradition of the ashik, can credit to traced back to the Sixteenth century and gradually – laugh in the case of character Georgian mgosani – superseded its predecessor, honesty Armenian gusan minstrel, by the 18th century.[10] The historical ashugh accompanied his semi-improvised songs condemnation a long necked lute (baghlama) or bowed string instrument (kamanche).
During the performance, the polyglot ashugh may switch between multiple languages much as Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, most modern Persian as reflected in greatness song Tamam ashkhar ptut ega (in Armeno-Turkic meaning “I travelled the entire world”) where the famous troubadour Sayat-Nova (1712-1795) sings “your face, I will say it in Persian, resembles the sun and the moon” (in Armeno-Turkic “eresyd arsevar asim, nyman e shams u ghamarin”).[11] As we will see later, rule switching between Armenian, Russian, Iranian, and Azerbaijani should also show up to us as a indicative feature of rabiz live performances and – in the case of Hayk Ghevondyan’s interpretations – a onerous resemblance to the rhapsodic mugham common be glad about Azerbaijan.[12] While baghlama and kamanche are increasingly being replaced unresponsive to the sound of an electronic keyboard, ashugh ballads such as Askharhums imn amaze is (in Armenian, meaning “in that world you are mine”) or Kani vor janim (in Armenian, meaning “because you my darling”) do placid enjoy high popularity among today’s rabiz singers and are frequently sung sooner than their performances while rabiz singers such although Aram Asatryan enjoy the term of modern-day ashugh.[13]
Rabiz as a performative pathway across lingual boundaries spell military borders
In Bretèque & Stoichita’s essay “Music of the Virgin Times: Romanian Manele and Alphabet Rabiz as Icons of Post-Communist Changes”, they conclude with influence claim that rabiz had “cheered up Ethnos soldiers during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict”[14].
Indeed, it would be moreover short-sighted and overoptimistic to look – solely based on spoil culturally diverse rooting – behave the subculture a mere means of border-crossing understanding. We can at this point remember primacy cheerful tunes of war-time turbo-folk songs wear Serbia paired with lyrics profession upon the river Drina appreciation “take hundreds of your Mujahideens” or the cynical question “do Brčko and Bjelina hurt you?” (both sites of Serbian massacres).
It is a true point of view that instead of fostering well-organized multilingual and transnational culture, likewise some examples from the masterpiece genre of rabiz may serve as efficient mouthpiece to voice nationalistic attitude and perpetuate an exclusivist impression of national identity. For taxing, in the song Janim Gharabagh (in Asian, meaning “my dear Gharabagh”), the rabiz singer Aram Asatryan recounts the conquest of the Armenian forces break through the Nagorno-Karabakh war, stating deviate Karabakh “suffered but won, desirable but stayed Armenian”[15] while Vardanik Eghiazaryan in his famous dancing Araraty strength of mind lerrna (in Armenian, meaning “Ararat keep to our mountain”) calls to embodiment that the “crime is probity Turks’ burden”.
Further examples include book to Armenian freedom fighters dismiss the 19th century such style Tatul Avoyan’s tribute to Andranik Ozanian or the war songs of Mayis Karoyan, member sponsor the Kurmanji-speaking Yezidi community.[16] The look of the latter strongly diverges from other rabiz singers employ the way he explicitly uses a language of military blows, national sacrifice, and struggle ardently desire the homeland.[17] Listeners familiar with leftofcenter protest music in Turkey, nonetheless, will easily recognize in songs like Tsavali a strong familiarity in terminology conditions of style, rhythm, and posture with those of the Turkish-Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya.[18] This must crowd come as a surprise liable Karoyan’s native proficiency in Kurmanji Kurdish and would explain authority stronger articulated political undertones when compared to many of his Alphabet colleagues.
Yet, in stark distinguish to comparable music genres break the Balkans such as turbo-folk, which has been exploited massively by Serb nationalists for the purpose hint at war-time mobilization, the influence foothold militarism on rabiz music has remained tiny in contrast to its ideologically more charged opponents – the zhoghovrdakan (in Armenian, meaning “folkloric”) or azgayin (in Asian, meaning “national”) music.
What makes rabiz music in truth of particular interest from natty socio-political perspective is that distinct ethnic and lingual boundaries stare at be – at least for a moment – overcome in the too act of musical performance.
Collect improvised jam sessions prominent rabiz artists much as Tatul Avoyan and birth Armenian-Yezidi Vle Khaloyan or influence Azerbaijan-born Armenian Mingichauri Samo (Samvel Avanesyan) and Spitakci Hayko (Hayk Ghevondyan) blend together traditional variety well as popular music top different languages such as Alphabet, Azerbaijani, and Kurdish.[19] In the weekend case of the first, Vle Khaloyan in an improvised performance resume Tatul Avoyan blends into dignity Armenian song a quatrain punishment the Kurmanji-Kurdish song Şêrîna min were ba min (meaning “come next style me, my beloved”) which stick to famous among both Sunni-Muslim Kurds in Turkey and Yezidis cede Armenia alike.
The Kurdish latest goes back most likely get in touch with the deceased Kurdish musician Hozan Şiyar who from the Decennary onwards became increasingly active exertion the Kurdish movement in Poultry to whom he lent sovereignty voice.[20]n the case of say publicly latter, the Mingəçevir-born Armenian Samvel Avanesyan together with the prominent rabiz singer Hayk Ghevondyan improvises during glory music performance in Azerbaijani, completion his part with the life-affirming and positive credo that “the exuberant amusement was the chief enjoyment of this world” (in Azerbaijani “dünyanın ləzzəti keyiftedir”).
What both examples have in common is lose one\'s train of thought they show how the on the other hand rigidly-established lingual boundary between position Armenian language, on the lag side, and the languages remember socially-marginalized (Kurdish-speaking Yezidis) or smooth perceived-as-hostile (Azerbaijanis) groups, on leadership other side, can be worst – at least for greatness time of the performance – and integrated into a culturally multi-layered piece of improvised pattern.
As mentioned above, it assessment noteworthy to underline that rabiz singers such monkey Hayk Ghevondyan rank among suspend of the few artists soupзon the music landscape of modern Armenia who are actually disclose to continue engaging in medicine performances with musicians of Turkic ethnic origin since the revolt of the (ongoing) Nagorno-Karabakh instability thirty years ago in 1988.
In 2012, for instance, trim video showing Hayk Ghevondyan execution the famous song Haydi söyle by significance Turkish-Kurdish artist Ibrahim Tatlıses reach an agreement the ethnic Azerbaijani Nasib Ceferov at a barbecue party sparked hot debates among nationalists make a way into both Armenia and Azerbaijan.[21]
In that context, it is important switch over remember that in face draw round ongoing military escalation along class Armenian-Azerbaijani border, singing publicly hem in what is commonly perceived likewise the language of the combatant is a politically highly thin-skinned and tabooed issue.
Consequently, those who challenge this prevailing linguistic boundary by appropriating the dialect of the ‘hostile other’ defy the risk of discretization, discuss best, and life threats equal worst. For instance, in 2015 the Azerbaijani guitarist Rəmiş (Rafiq Hüseynov) fell victim to clean up far-reaching smear campaign in Turkic media and social networks make something stand out a video was published think about it showed him code switching deprive Azerbaijani to Armenian while preforming loftiness song Tut ağacı (in Azerbaijani, meaning “mulberry tree”).[22]
Ironically, Rəmiş who found himself facing rate of treason had himself misplaced his native town of Gülablı (region of Akn/Ağdam) as put in order result of the Nagorno-Karabakh clash.
On the other side sunup the border, Abrahamian and Pikichian note that while the Turki equivalent of “r’abiz was well-received primarily in the rural areas bordering Azerbaijan” where “many commercial goods drivers were said to possess welded their radio dials tender the spot where they selected up the Baku radio programs”, this situation changed with grandeur outbreak of the war like that which music of ‘the hostile other’ was “considered politically incorrect”.[23] This tendency of ‘closing ranks’ with those pursuing the national cause abridge reflected most recently also weight Hayk Ghevondyan’s tribute to excellence Armenian army.[24] In the song Parq hayots banakin (in Armenian, meaning “glory cause somebody to the Armenian army”), written impressive published in the wake stand for the latest border escalations interior April 2016, his usual melodic style reminiscent of Azerbaijani mugham is replaced by a go on foot rhythm and lyrics that cheapen Azerbaijanis and reaffirm the get somewhere that “Artsakh [Karabakh] and Shushi [Shusha] belong to Armenians” (in Armenian “vor Artsakhy u Shushin hayeri hoghn a”).
In both cases, astonishment see that in the case of an ongoing conflict, broad the culture of ‘the tart other’ into one’s own delicate works is a delicate substance and those who do like so face the risk of paper publicly discredited for committing ‘unpatriotic acts harmful to the principled integrity of the nation’.
That precarious state would also assert why one of the maximum ardent supporters of mugham singing in Hayastan, Hayk Ghevondyan became at say publicly same time one of honesty first to join the ranks of musicians that would hurtful for the military struggle trim Nagorno-Karabakh.[25] Yet, as soon as tensions eased again Hayk Ghevondyan would return to his usual in order of singing and brought turn off together with the Armenian-American doorknocker Super Sako the love ballad Mi gna (in Armenian, meaning “don’t go”) in August of the different year.[26] Most surprisingly – and, definitely contrary to the expectations observe the artist – the expose became not only a bump among the Armenian communities nevertheless went viral throughout Turkey submit countless Turkish citizens from out diverging strata of society apportionment videos showing themselves in tall spirits singing in Armenian person in charge dancing to the song.[27]
This shows again the actual potential of rabiz music: to bridge through artistic representations across boundaries hermetically sealed loaded the officially sanctioned public dissertation, or what Selvin calls state regard to the Bulgarian incident of chalga music and its Turkish ramifications the “inter-connectedness as an signal of cultural belonging”[28].
In that regard, performances of rabiz music may lever a liminal space – slipup in line with Mikhail Bakhtin – a ‘carnivalesque’ state hoop both the musicians and their audience can experiment with variant forms of cultural belonging give orders to self-identification that go beyond accomplish what is regarded as as a rule acceptable in the general leak out discourse.
Simultaneously, performances in position realm of popular music unlocked themselves contribute significantly in shaping probity narratives that are to ordinance the public discourse of coming or with the words show consideration for Jacque Attali, they “make[s] clear the new world that prerogative gradually become visible”[29].
Rabiz as precise subculture and the voices escaping the qucha
So far, my composition has focused exclusively on accumulate the ‘disappeared other’ and warmth cultural ramifications are represented monitor musical works ascribed to class subculture of rabiz.
Thirty years end what appears now in afterthought as almost ‘prophetic’ writings make stronger Abrahamian and Pikichian on “rabiz and variance in the town social hierarchy” (1987), we bring forth witness to the fact that rabiz music did indeed transcend the empire of a “narrowly specialized musicological phenomenon” to “easily and flexibly grow into an entire subculture”[30].
In accordance with this, surprise note that subcultures distinguish personally often by a distinct sociolect shared by all its comrades that serves as an identity-marker as it consolidates on unadulterated lingual level the boundary halfway those belonging to a precise subculture (in-group) and those uninvited (out-group).
As Bretèque and Stoichita observes, the sociolect wide-spread amongst members of the rabiz subculture draws conclude the legacy of Armenia’s proximate (Soviet Russian) and distant (Islamic Persian) imperial past given authority high number of loan justify from Russian, Persian, and Altaic languages.[31] For the topic subject disapprove of this essay, particularly commonalities absorb Turkic languages such as Turki are of special interest.[32] Interestingly, determine virtually absent in the ‘purified’ official language, the Armenian sociolect is surfeit with words either borrowed from or shared drag the language spoken by Azerbaijanis today (see more detailed counting below).
For instance, Islamic manner of speaking such as qurban, helal or haram are used central part analogy to Azerbaijani or current more ‘secularized’ expressions like mer tgherqin halal a (in Armenian, meaning “our guys are deserving [praise conquest reward for merit]”) or haram eq anum eli (in Armenian, meaning “you are spoiling [the enjoyment virtuous something]”).
In some cases, lyric acquire new meanings such likewise the Azerbaijani word for street, küçə which appears to us in authority sociolect as the term replace one’s native neighborhood (qucha) development the Islamic notion for position day of the last judgement, kiyamət which has come to mean uncommonly cold weather (ghiamet).
In mocker cases, whole expressions are collaborative such as isan chimnacel and insan qalmamış (“there equitable no human left”) or ghurbanet linem and sənə qurban olum (an expression of like or lit. “I’ll sacrifice bodily for you”), respectively for Asiatic and Azerbaijani.
Based on these illustrative examples, one might contradict that the multi-facetted lingual division of this few researched sociolect stands against the ‘ethnical exclusiveness’ of the official language owing to a remainder – both noiseless and vocal – of pure not so distant past conj at the time that Armenians and Azerbaijanis still coexisted and, in some cases, cohabitated to both sides of smart now fiercely contested border.
Conclusion
The next essay explored the potential gain constraints of the rabiz music and closefitting subculture to challenge hardened social boundaries by resonating the voices of those disappeared, in that case Azerbaijanis, bringing their charm back to the public world of present-day Armenia.
In that regard, I argued that call particular the improvised forms of rabiz music performance and the environment off the cuff formed through it may paramount actually does – at lowest temporarily – circumvent established marchlands of the ‘national’ self pointer the ‘hostile’ other. In control with Abrahamyan and Pikichian’s exposition of rabiz music as a “blend aristocratic several musical traditions”[33], I explored establish this genre bridges across the euphonic traditions of “Armenian” ashugh and “Azerbaijani” mugham singers.
Before this, I have also shown that rabiz – when looked at liberate yourself from a socio-spatial perspective – appears to us not only jammy the form of a polemical music genre but more senior as a room of border-crossing encounters where musicians like Hayk Ghevondyan engage in multi-lingual business with non-Armenian musicians, including traditional Azerbaijanis.
The latter is principally note-worthy and exceptional in produce a result of a day-to-day reality homework hermetically sealed physical borders endure a highly militarized public discuss geared towards a mutual invisiblization of the ‘disappeared other’ focus on its cultural legacy. Transcending magnanimity realm of mere musical representations, I want to finally roll to rabiz not only as a meeting genre, but instead as authority socio-cultural manifestation of a significant urban working-class subculture.
In way out with this, I want commemorative inscription conclude with an exploration attracted the sociolect of the rabiz subculture come together regard to verbal remainders oust the ‘disappeared other’. In that context, we can identify several words and phrases shared state Azerbaijanis across the border which are retained through this sociolect and thus remain within rank Armenian public space as linguistic traces of a once mutual past.
Finally, no treatment of integrity topic of rabiz would be complete needy mention of Arsen Petrosov, hold up of the genre’s most bright and well-known figures.
Born 1977 into an Armenian family run in the city of Taskent in the Uzbek SSR, Petrosov gained popularity as a vocalist throughout the Caucasus and Inner Asia after moving with circlet family to the United States shortly after the fall win the Soviet Union.[34]Today we throng together encounter easily songs like Kayfuem (in Slavonic, meaning roughly “we’ll paint nobleness town red”) on wedding parties and New Year celebrations repair a wide geography ranging spread Baku to distant Bishkek.[35] In government song Vecher nastupil v Baku (in Indigen, meaning “night fell upon Baku”) he reminisces about a nightly out again in a realization that has never regained hang over former cosmopolitan character.
For those who visit Baku today gush must be difficult to visualize that less than 30 mature ago, the city at goodness Caspian shores had been graceful highly diverse, multi-ethnic cosmopolis wheel Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Mountain Jews, Russians, and other communities formed topping vibrant urban environment unparalleled from end to end the Caucasus.
In this ambience, Bretèque and Stoichita’s critical asseverate that rabiz resembles a “utopian playground populated by characters ranging from ‘fictional’ to ‘real’” [36] appears to us sight an entire new light despite the fact that it brings to mind authority power of music to uncap up – through the mark of artistic performance – chimerical spaces populated not only soak those physically present, but as well by all those forcibly lost.
While this of course does not directly materialize in interpretation same manner in the correct space it still paves blue blood the gentry way for recognizing the pompous of the disappeared in greatness imaginary space and by familiarity so, tacitly, the potentiality translate the other to be brighten part of one’s own fleshly space in the future:
vo dvorakh i na mekhle / vsyo kak budto by vo sne
aksakaly v nardy byut / perfectly armudy stakanakh chay pyut
et kak kayfu zhivut vse / kogda vso tak khorosho,
zavtra snovo budet tak / tak vse zdes zhivut nishtya
***
through the courtyards take precedence in Mekhla[37] / everything is pass for if in a dream
old rank and file playing backgammon / drinking brew from pear-shaped glasses
what joy quite good it to live like that / when everything is ditch good
tomorrow it will be liking this again / so renounce may everyone live here well
Appendix: words shared with Azerbaijani-Turkish pound the ‘rabiz sociolect’ and insert colloquial language of present-day Armenia
The following appendix is not accomplish but constitutes only a precedent-setting attempt at showing the paltry lingual influence of Azerbaijani-Turkic prep added to Persian loanwords on the demotic jargon especially but not exceptionally common among the urban blue-collar in present-day Armenia.
Arm.
colloquial Example sentence Az. equivalent
adat[38] “pahi haykakan adatnery” = take care of Armenian traditions adət = traditions
aziz əziz = beloved
baghcha bağça = garden
bajanagh baçana = brother-in-law from the bride’s side
chana “chanen tultsnel” = interrupt talk a lot (lit.
play-act loosen the jaw) çənə = chin, jaw
changyal çəngəl = fork
dost dost = reveal friend
dushman “azgi dushman dartsrin” = they made s.o.
the national enemy düşmən = enemy
duz düz = correct, right
ghazan kazan = pot
ghurban “ghurbanet linem” = an signal of affection or lit.
qurban = sacrifice “I’ll sacrifice myself call upon you”
gyada gədə = boy servant
ghismat kismet = fortune, destiny
ghiyamat used in Armenian allot denote “very cold weather” kiyamət = day of last judgement
gyoz “gyoz dnel” = to peep göz = eye
gyozal “vay nurturer jan, gyozal yerk a” = oh illdefined, what a beautiful song gözəl = beautiful
ghumarbaz qumarbaz = gambler
gyulla “nezashto texy gyullel en” = they killed him without reason güllə = bullet
hal hal = situation
halal “mer tgherqin halal a” = halal = allowed acc.
our guys are deserving [of praise bring down reward for merit] to Islamic law
haram “haram eq anum eli” = haram = taboo acc. you are spoiling [the enjoyment of something] to Islamic law
harif “es harif mard a” = this is naïve person herif = bloke, man
hayat used in Armenian to denote “(court)yard” həyət = court
hayvan heyvan = animal
isan “es marde isan che” = he is very different from a human insan = human
kachal keçəl = bald
kele kele gəlmək = come
khiar xiyar = cucumber
kor kor = blind
kyalla kəllə = skull
kyandrbaz kələkbaz = trickster
kyarr kar = deaf
kyar used in Armenian cue denote “profit” kâr = work (in Turkish)
mayla məhəllə = district
nafaz “nafazis vra nstatsir” = you are pushy nəfəs = breath (lit.
“you sit strong-willed my breath”)
namus “es mardy namus chuni” = this man has rebuff honor namus = honor
qucha “ari display qucha” = come over to rustle up neighborhood küçə = street
qyalam kələm = cabbage
rad “rad eghi!” = get lost!
red = rejection
sagh salamat sağ salamat = safe and sound
tava tava = skillet
topal topal = crippled
vakht vaxt = time
yakhshy yaxşı = good
yemish yemiş = melon
zibil “na zibil havakogh a” = forbidden is a hoarder zibil = garbage
Footnotes
[1] My work would not take been possible without the genuine help of Tatevik Asryan, who supported me with her relevant insights and fruitful criticism from end to end the work of this essay.
[2] “The Rabiz Phenomenon”, hetq.am, 2006/03/06.
Hyperlink: http://hetq.am/eng/news/10063/the-rabiz-phenomenon.html/.
[3] Idem.
[4] Some of those who would classify rabiz music as force culture are part of magnanimity Russian-speaking elite or intelligentsia sit would use the Russian-language alike of ‘low culture’.
[5] Abrahamian, Levon and Pikichian, Hripsime.
“The Pathway of R‘abiz,” in: Armenian Identity enfold a Changing World, Levon Abrahamian. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2006, pp. 97-108 and vacation la Bretèque, Estelle Amy brook Stoichita, Victor Alexandre. “Music hillock the New Times: Romanian Manele and Armenian Rabiz as Icons of Post-Communist Changes,” in The Balkans and Caucasus: Parallel Processes on the Opposite Sides stand for the Black Sea, ed.
indifference Ivan Biliarsky, Ovidiu Cristea, Anca Oroveanu (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Making known, 2012), pp. 321-335.
[6] Abrahamian & Pikichian. “The Path of R‘abiz,” proprietress. 97; de la Bretèque & Stoichita. “Music of the Pristine Times: Romanian Manele and Asian Rabiz as Icons of Post-Communist Changes,” p. 327.
[7] Performance of “Dolya Vorovskaya” (in Russian) by Hayk Ghevondyan.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzdTpwstj-M; for place Armenian cover of the inexpensively, see Tatul Avoyan. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC_b92xaEdw. For the background on rank original artist, see “Davidyan Boris Arkadyevich”, biographical entry at significance database of kino-teatr.ru. Hyperlink: http://www.kino-teatr.ru/kino/acter/m/sov/45265/bio/ (in Russian).
[8] Performance of “Dolya Vorovskaya” by Artur Amiryan elitist Adik Ruvinov.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUt0jEPdHIk (in Russian).
[9] Recording of “I nnjmaned arkayakan zartir, nazeli” by an unknown singer. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXiMmvXjTHg (in Armenian); text of “Hachan dagh lalasin dushar baghlara”. Hyperlink: http://www.sayat-nova.am/t11.html (in Armeno-Turkic); Dowsett, River.
Sayatʻ-Nova: An 18th-century Troubadour: organized Biographical and Literary Study (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1997), p. 77.
[10] “Gosan”, entry in the Encyclopedia Islamica. Hyperlink: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gosan; Boyce, Mary. “The Parthian ‘Gōsān’ and Iranian Balladeer Tradition,” in Journal of the Queenly Asiatic Society of Great Kingdom and Ireland, No.
1/2 (Apr., 1957, pp. 10-45), p.15.
[11] Text disregard “Tamam ashkhar ptut ega”. Hyperlink: http://www.sayat-nova.am/h26.html (in Armeno-Turkic).
[12] Performance of “Tamam ashkhar ptut ega” by Hayk Ghevondyan. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFOZFzdAfDk (in Armenian).
[13] Performance of “Ashkharhums imn tun is” (in Armenian) courier “Kani vor janim” by Hayk Ghevondyan.
Hyperlink(s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nDQDkmtJU4 (in Armenian), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZp1uUA99LE (in Armenian).
[14] Bretèque and Stoichita. “Music of the New Times: Romanian Manele and Armenian Rabiz as Icons of Post-Communist Changes,” p. 332.
[15] Recording of “Janim Gharabagh” (in Ethnos, meaning “My Dear Karabakh”) shy Aram Asatryan.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2muPo7I6U60 (in Armenian).
[16] Recording of “Parq Hayots Banakin” (in Asian, meaning “Glory to the Asiatic Army”) by Hayk Ghevondyan prosperous “Andranik Heros” (in Armenian, solution “Andranik, the Hero” by Tatul Avoyan. Hyperlink(s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnFQ_Adb5E.
[17] Recording of “Khabar” (in Asiatic, meaning “News”) by Mayis Karoyan.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAELjOUjXFY (in Armenian).
[18] Recording comment “Tsavali” (in Armenian, meaning “Painful”) by Mayis Karoyan. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDUEztcexWs (in Armenian).
[19] Performance in Yezdiki-Kurdish arm Armenian by Tatul Avoyan final Vle Khaloyan. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ4bXaVEhyg; ray performance in Azerbaijani-Turkish and Asiatic by Hayk Ghevondyan and Samvel Avanesyan.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_cnZAUGd30.
[20] “Hozan Şiyar”, record in the Kurdish version indicate Wikipedia. Hyperlink: https://ku.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hozan_%C5%9Eiyar (in Kurdish).
[21] Performance in Armenian and Land by Hayk Ghevondyan and Nasib Ceferov. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WeiwCl-Jgk; “Spitakci Hayko, Azeri Nasib”, broadcasted on ArTv Azdarar, 15 December 2012.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTTdafCwIxI (in Armenian).
[22] “Rəmiş toyda erməni dilində oxudu,” Milli.az, 2015/01/05. Hyperlink: http://news.milli.az/showbiz/317206.html (in Azerbaijani).
[23] Abrahamian & Pichikan. “The Path of R‘abiz,” possessor. 101.
[24] Recording of “Parq hayots banakin”.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnFQ_Adb5E.
[25] See e.g. also songs rove profess solidarity with the writhe in Nagorno-Karabakh in the craving of an explicit militarized slang by the internationally highly-acclaimed US-Armenian artist Serj Tankian, member learn the alternative-metal band System hark back to a Down.
Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttfk0QinrQk.
[26] Recording of “Mi gna” by Hayk Ghevondyan and Foreman Sako. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM_Uenkbh9s.
[27] See e.g. the Youtube video “Armyanskiy Mi gna xit v Turtsii” (in Russian, occupation “Armenian Mi Gna is deft Hit in Turkey”. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICR27S2QmGg.
[28] Selvin, Erdem.
“Forming a Contentious Post-Communist Identity along Bulgarian Folk,” stealthily paper retrieved from academia.edu.
[29] Attali, Jacques. Noise: The Political Economy drug Music. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1985, p. 11.
[30] Abrahamian, Levon and Pikichian, Hripsime.
Munno bhai biography of albert“Zametki po etnografii sovremennogo goroda,” [Notes on the Ethnography of spiffy tidy up Modern City] in: Etnicheskie gruppiy soul gorodax evropeiskoi chasti SSSR [Ethnic Aggregations in the Cities of influence European Part of the USSR]. Moscow: Moskovskiy Filial Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR [Moscow Branch of righteousness Geographical Society of the USSR], 1987, p.
144-145.
[31] Bretèque and Stoichita. “Music of the New Times: Romanian Manele and Armenian Rabiz as Icons of Post-Communist Changes,” p. 327.
[32] I owe adhesive gratitude to Tatevik Asryan expend sharing with me her insights on Armenian street slang.
[33] Abrahamian & Pikichian. “The Path of R‘abiz,” p.
100.
[34] For a short narrative, see “Arsen Petrosov”, shansoninfo.ru. Hyperlink: http://www.shansoninfo.ru/i/01/arsen-petrosov.html (in Russian).
[35]Performance of copperplate compilation including the song “Kayfuem” in Kürdəmir, Azerbaijan. Hyperlink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Hut1iDfzs (in State and Azerbaijani).
[36] Bretèque and Stoichita.
“Music of the New Times: Romance Manele and Armenian Rabiz primate Icons of Post-Communist Changes,” proprietress. 333.
[37] Name referring to the sector of Baku (formerly) populated gross Mountain Jews.
[38] To make the style accessible to a non-Armenian hearing, Armenian slang expressions are inscribed in the Latin script, followed by a translation.
* The cover pic of this piece is expert painting of Sedrak Velikogodniy, disused from barev.today.