By Caitlin Donohue
Apparently, perusing the “Lullabies of Armenia” Wikipedia entry did not leave me skilled in that particular musical school. No matter how many times I explained that oror means “rock,” to my boyfriend (making repeating the word crucial to any decent sleep-inducing ditty done in grand Armenian style), he was still loath to let me whisper it in his ear ad infinitum. Oror oror oror oror…
There is no accounting for taste. I am willing to allow, however, that there may have been an issue with my tone. Which is exactly why I need Hasmik Harutyunyan’s Armenian lullaby class, which will be held Saturday in Oakland as an opener to an evening of music as soothing as a mother’s womb.
“When I sing, my dreams take wing,” says Harutyunyan of her haunting melodies
Her performances, reinvigorations of the rich Armenian tradition of lullaby, have taken her all over the world. Harutyunyan has staged concerts with Yo Yo Ma and more recently, Kitka, a Bay Area women’s vocal ensemble who will play a concert after her attempts at teaching us mere mortals the skills we need to lull our partners to sleep after long days of Bay Area rat race.
In Armenia, the songs people sing to soothe their children to sleep speak volumes of their life during the day. They’re narratives, expressions of daily goals and traditional folklore. I am told that one well known theme is that of giving one’s child over to suckle at the teat of a mother deer, which I have no grounds for understanding but trust that the message has something to do with earth and nurture.
The recorded versions of the songs are simple and rich affairs with soft accompaniment by wind instruments or strings, whose strums pack even more vibration into the undulating, soaring tones of the singer. Packaged in an language unknown to most of us, this is the perfect slide into dream world.
“I learn what I can, and I remember when I sing.” Harutyunyan seems to have a grasp of one of humankind’s elemental needs; comfort. Good on us, Bay Area, that she’s giving us a chance to share in what she’s learned.
Armenian Lullabies Workshop
Sat/7, 4 p.m. (Kitka concert to follow at 8 p.m.), $15-$25
St. Vartan’s Armenian Apostolic Church
650 Spruce, Oakland
(510) 444-0323 www.kitka.org