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Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
1
From Charles Aznavour to System of a Down:
Western Musical Perspectives of the Armenian Genocide
Jack Der-Sarkissian, M.D.
So. California Permanente Medical Group, Los Angeles Medical Center
“Ils Sont Tombés” (1975)1
They fell without knowing why.
Men, women, and children whose only wish was to live,
Fell heavily, like drunken people.
Who were mutilated, massacred, while their eyes were full of fear.
They fell while calling upon their God,
At the threshold of their church or doorstep.
Herded through the desert, staggering together,
Crushed by thirst, hunger, weapons, fire.
P.L.U.C.K.
(Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.) (1998)2
Elimination, Elimination, Elimination.
Die, Why, Walk Down, Walk Down.
A whole race Genocide,
Taken away all of our pride,
A whole race Genocide,
Taken away, Watch Them all fall down.
“Ils Sont Tombés” and “P.L.U.C.K.” are two songs that frame a roughly three-
decade retrospective of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by American and Western
European musical traditions. While both songs powerfully grieve a catastrophe that
occurred to the Armenian people, each utilizes the lament genre differently. These
musical perspectives mirror the Armenian struggle spanning the last thirty years over the
legacy of the Genocide. The perspective in the 1970's was one of a cultural survival and
revival suggesting a population coming out of self-denial. The next thirty years would
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
2
see no resolution, and in fact an exacerbation, of the already tense Armeno-Turkish
relations. It comes as no surprise that the late 1990's differed from the earlier, more
hopeful, period by mostly recognizing loss, displaying anger, and demanding action, even
violence if needed, to right the wrongs visited upon the Armenian people.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, wrote On Death and Dying which
describes the steps experienced by those confronted with death.3 Her theories
subsequently have been expanded to explain reactions to disasters in general.4 Kübler-
Ross states that the initial reaction to a disaster is shock and denial, a point from which
many people never progress. If the denial is overcome, it is replaced by anger, making
decisions difficult because all of one's energy fuels the emotion. Subsequent steps are
bargaining, depression/grief and, finally, acceptance. A study of how Armenian
musicians utilized Western music and developed their media from 1975 to 1998
demonstrates Kübler-Ross’s theories about overcoming denial and progressing into
anger, mirroring the collective Armenian struggle.
Starting in 1965 Armenians in the then Soviet Republic of Armenia started the
process of addressing and protesting the outcome of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.5 This
event marked the first collective step Armenians took towards breaking down their self-
imposed denial of the Genocide.6 This episode, along with the recent warming of the
“cold war” that separated the Diaspora from the Armenian homeland, was an important
step in galvanizing Armenian self-consciousness, which ultimately was directed towards
achieving international recognition of the Genocide.7
If this was the time for Armenian and Turkish communities to have an
opportunity for reconciliation, it soon was marred. First the Turkish government
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
3
successfully petitioned to delete references to the Armenian Genocide in a 1974 United
Nations article which had sought to characterize the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman
Empire as “The first Genocide of the twentieth century.” Similarly the United States
Congress, under pressure from the U.S. State Department, failed to pass a resolution to
designate April 24, 1975 as a “National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to
Man.”8
Since Western societies and institutions in the 1970’s had distanced themselves
politically from the Armenian Genocide, ethnic Armenians themselves decided to lobby
their own cause. In addition to the regular methods of communication, the Armenian
cause was also able to explore the Genocide using literature, fine art, dance, and music.
The Armenian musical perspective in Western societies was born in this era and reached
its first mass audience, both within and outside of Armenian societies, with a song
entitled "Ils Sont Tombés" or “They Fell”, initially released in French, but later also in
English.
French-Armenian vocalist and lyrist Chahnour Varenagh Aznavourian, popularly
known as Charles Aznavour, released “Ils Sont Tombés” in 1975 on the 60th anniversary
of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. “Ils Sont Tombés” is a song written and sung in the
Western “pop” music style. At the time of its release Aznavour was the foremost
ethnically Armenian musician in the West. He released his song at a time when dormant
issues regarding the Genocide were just beginning to resurface in every way within world
politics. These trends mirrored Aznavour’s willingness, and ultimate success, in using a
traditionally “non-Armenian” musical style to further an Armenian political cause.
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
4
“Ils Sont Tombés" ultimately is an exploration of the legacy of the Armenian
Genocide by an ethnically Armenian man born and raised in France. While the work has
the features of a lament, there are differences which mark it as a song of protest.
Aznavour makes his disapproval quite apparent in the following stanzas:
No one objected in a euphoric world
While a people decomposed in their blood.
Europe was discovering jazz,
The noise of the trumpets was masking the cries of children.
They fell silently,
By thousands, and the millions, while the world remained silent.
In the desert, their bodies looked like minuscule red flowers,
Covered by a sandstorm, which also concealed their existence.
The protest movements then becoming evident in Western music are evident in
these stanzas. Azanvour, possibly reacting to the recent overtures by World leaders to
Turkish deniers, lashes out to the uncaring world of 1915. He points to a global denial,
and possibly an Armenian self-denial, with his allusion to an existence “covered by a
sandstorm”.
Aznavour is upset, upset at the apathetic world, yet makes no obvious demand of
a just resolution beyond awareness. He treads his ground lightly within his host country
by attributing his people’s survival to their courage, but also to the benevolence of others.
He softens his general criticism by acknowledging the host countries that took in the
survivors of the Armenian Genocide:
They fell while naively believing,
That their children would hopefully live a normal childhood,
That they would one day march in a land of hope,
In open countries where people would welcome them.
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
5
I, myself, am of this race which now sleeps without a resting place,
Who chose to die rather than relinquish the faith,
Who never bowed their heads even in the face of insults,
Who survives despite everything without ever complaining.
SONG: “Ils Sont Tombés”
Album: aznavour live, OLYMPIA 1978, released 1978, track # 4.
Aznavour proclaims his ethnic heritage with this song and conjures up heroic
images of survival, with honor, despite an attempt at annihilation. He is ready to
complain for Aznavour is breaking the wall of self-denial surrounding this traumatic
event. By embracing this song, the Armenians likewise were ready to admit that they
indeed had been victimized and were ready to move forward.
In 1976, the Diocese of the Armenian Church commissioned classicalist Alan
Chakmakjian, better known as Alan Hovhaness, of Scottish-Armenian heritage, to
compose music in remembrance of the Holy Armenian Martyrs of 451 AD. Hovhaness
composed “Khorhoort Nahadagats - Mystery Of The Holy Martyrs Op.251”.9
In 1996 reviewer Kenneth LaFave, with George Mangigian, wrote:
The ‘holy martyrs’ of the title are the more than 1000 Armenian Christians
slaughtered in 451 AD. Armenia had been Christianized 150 years before and the
nation’s Persian conquerors saw the religion as an impediment to their absolute
rule. Instead of subduing the Armenians, however, the mass-murder intensified
Armenian Christianity and unified the nation against Persia. The third entry in
Hovhaness’ suite is a reference to this transcendence of genocide by spiritual and
cultural solidarity: ‘Norahrash’, meaning ‘new miracle’.10
SONG: “Norahrash,” third entry of the suite entitled “Khorhort Nahadagats.”
Album: Alan Hovhaness, Mystery of the Holy Martyrs Op. 251 & Symphony No. 3
Op. 148, released 1996, track #6.
The commissioning of “Khorhoort Nahadagats” by the Armenian Church was
likely a reaction to the world’s seeming indifference to those who had survived the
Genocide. This was not lost upon Hovhaness, who used the themes of survival and
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
6
resurgence in his work, again a basis for ending Kübler-Ross’s self-denial of a traumatic
event.
Hovhaness had explored the Armenian Genocide previously in his first
symphony, Exile, Symphony No. 1, Op. 17, No. 2, in 1936, and, indirectly, again with St.
Vardan in Symphony No. 9, Op. 180 in 1949.11 Both symphonies celebrate the
deliverance of and hope for the persecuted. While Hovhaness may personally have
explored the impact of the Genocide some years before Aznavour’s song, it was his
commissioned and therefore communal work “Norahrash” in 1976 which stands with “Ils
Sont Tombés” as providing an uplifting tribute to a people's survival, a celebration of
revival, and an end to self-denial of the Genocide.
Both Aznavour and Hovhaness acknowledge that a catastrophe happened to the
Armenian people, yet they ultimately praise its rebirth without making a clear statement
of a “just” outcome for the Armenian Genocide. Some twenty years later, a new
generation of Armenian-American artists took a different, somewhat darker, and angrier
approach to Genocide remembrance.
In the intervening twenty years the fate of the world, and the Armenian people,
changed radically. Most significantly the host country that provided a relative “peace”
for the Armenian nation collapsed in 1991. As the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
was disintegrating in the late 1980s, the Armenians found themselves in an ethnic war
with neighboring Azerbaijani Turks, reliving the last conflict with ethnic Turks in 1915.12
Turkey’s consequent blockade of Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan reinforced the
mood among the new generation of Armenians that the 1915 Genocide had never
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
7
ended.13 This anger and disillusionment was very evident in the music of this new
generation which marked departure from the earlier patterns.
In 1996 jazz composer Gregg Bendian released "After Chomaklou Was a Desert
(Threnody To The Victims of The Armenian Genocide)" in a free-form style of jazz.14
Chomaklu was a rural Armenian community near Cesaria/Kayseri and Develi/Evereg-
Fenesse. Chomaklu did not survive the period of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and
essentially was razed to the ground.15 Bendian chose to write a lament for the loss of his
ancestral village. What temporarily survived was the Chomaklu Compatriotic Society,
mostly an educational foundation, yet even this organization was eventually dissolved,
sealing the fate of this one community.
Bendian’s profound sadness and anger become evident in this piece. A
September 1996 review by Robert Iannapollo in the jazz magazine Cadence states:
Its initial theme consists of a baleful melody…. While a funeral mood permeates
much of the piece, midway through a series of crescendoing
ascending/descending phrases and a speeding up of the tempo give the piece a
powerful mood of defiance and affirmation. The final section returns to an
uneasy quiet as the piece draws to its conclusion with Bendian dragging chains
over his drums and bowing the cymbals.16
SONG: excerpt from "After Chomaklou Was a Desert (Threnody To The Victims of
The Armenian Genocide)"
Album: Greg Bendian Project, Counterparts, released 1996, track # 3.
Bendian presents a world that was traumatized and never resurrected. Bendian is
angry. There is no resurgence, no survival to remember. The “dragging chains” which
end his piece are symbolic of this decimation of the village and of his heritage. Bendian
identifies the last section of this piece to be a “Death March, Drone/Threnody”:
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
8
“Here, the bass soloist represents the mournful voice of the people of Chomaklou
(and the Armenian people as a whole) sobbing in the desert as they contemplate
the aftermath of this largely unrecognized human tragedy.”17
In 1998 alternative hard rock music group System of a Down, whose band
members are all Armenian-American, released "P.L.U.C.K" or “Politically Lying,
Unholy, Cowardly Killers.” The song, written by Serj Tankian with the music provided
by Daron Malakian, has a heading on the lyrics page which reads:
“System of a Down would like to dedicate this song to the memory of the 1.5
million victims of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Turkish
Government in 1915.”
The first stanza of the song, as previously mentioned, is similar in aspects to all
the other works mentioned in that it acknowledges the Genocide, a necessary step in
ending self-denial. This is also explored later in the song:
The plan was mastered and called Genocide,
(Never want to see you around)
Took all the children and then we died,
(Never want to see you around)
The few that remained were never found,
(Never want to see you around)
All in a system, Down ~
The line “The few that remained were never found” is reminiscent of Bendian’s
bleak outlook both on “Chomaklou” and on the current state of Armenian affairs. The
implication is that the loss is unrecoverable. There is no mention of the heroic survival
and cultural resurgence as seen with Aznavour and Hovhaness. Morever, System of a
Down goes a step further by demanding a “just” outcome for the Armenian Genocide,
unlike Aznavour, Hovhaness, and Bendian. The following stanza is a true departure from
the earlier works because it signals a new direction in Genocide resolution vis-à-vis
Armeno-Turkish relations:
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
9
Revolution, the only solution,
The armed response of an entire nation,
Revolution, the only solution,
We've taken all your shit, now it's time for restitution.
Recognition, Restoration, Reparation,
Recognition, Restoration, Reparation,
Watch them all fall down.
SONG “P.L.U.C.K.” (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.)
Album: System of a Down, released 1998, track #13.
“P.L.U.C.K.” epitomizes Kübler-Ross’s transition from a state of denial to a state
of anger. System of a Down chooses in “P.L.U.C.K.” to advocate a “revolution” through
an “armed response” in order to resolve the lingering legacy of the Genocide. In
addition, “recognition, restoration, reparation” outlines the necessity not only for
acknowledgement but also for recovery and recompense. With respect to Kübler-Ross,
this denotes potential progress towards the bargaining state yet the song as a whole
remains imbued in violence. While the musical genre of alternative hard rock has the
reputation of espousing violence, System of a Down has been a relative exception by
advocating for the disenfranchised in other works, such as “BOOM,” which is an
example of an anti-war song.18 19 Yet violence is integral to “P.L.U.C.K.” and
exemplifies a state of anger.
Clearly this differs from Aznavour, Hovhaness, and Bendian who never address
an Armeno-Turkish resolution to the conflict. System of a Down grapples with this topic
and offers a violent solution. That the musical group had the willingness, and ultimate
success, in using a forceful, traditionally “non-Armenian” hard rock style to further an
Armenian political cause has its roots in the current irreconcilable state of Armeno-
Turkish relations.
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
10
Musical perspectives from 1975 to 1998 mirror the Armenian struggle spanning
the last thirty years over the legacy of the genocide. The perspective in the 1970's was
one of cultural survival and revival. It signified a time when the collective Armenian
consciousness was able to admit that it was victimized, ending self-denial. Songs like
“Ils Sont Tombés” and “Norahrash” served to acknowledge the traumas of the Armenian
people yet also sought to celebrate its survival and cultural resurgence.
The next thirty years, in fact, would see no resolution, and in fact an exacerbation,
of the Armeno-Turkish conflicts. Recurrent Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide
and Turkey’s military support of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia have
created a new generation of diasporan Armenian musicians whose songs display a certain
anxiety that the Armenian legacy will not survive. The “just” resolution of the Genocide
appears equally bleak.20 It then comes as no surprise that the late 1990's differed from
the earlier, more hopeful, period by mostly recognizing loss and demanding action, even
violence if needed, to right the wrongs visited upon the Armenian people.
The trauma of the Genocide will resolve itself along the pathway delineated by
Kübler-Ross. This applies both to the victim and the perpetrator. By embracing the
various Armenian works in the Western musical styles over a thirty-year period, the
Armenian people demonstrate how they have progressed beyond self-denial into anger
followed by bargaining through a call for action. This development likely has been
fueled by the Turkish nation itself. In contrast Turkey, seen as the perpetrator, has
regressed further into self-denial of its complicities by refusing to take responsibility for
the Genocide and continuing to impose economic hardships on Armenia.21 The
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
11
unfortunate divergence of these two nations will likely mean that the musicians of the
next generation will have a ready audience for their songs.
Footnotes
1 aznavour live OLYMPIA 1978 1978 EMI Music Holland BV 1998 EMI Music France, Track # 4,
Ils Sont Tombés
2 SYSTEM OF A DOWN 1998 The American Recording Company, LLC./ The American Recording
Company, LLC./2100 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404/ Manufactured by Columbia Records/
550 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022-3211, Track #13 P.L.U.C.K.
3 Kaplan, H, Sadock, B, and Grebb, J. SYNOPSIS OF PSYCHATRY Behavioral Sciences Clincal
Psychiatry 7th Ed, Williams & Wikins, Balitmore-Philadelphia-Hong Kong-London-Munich-Sydney-
Tokyo, pp. 76-77.
4 http://changingminds.org/disciplines/change_management/kubler_ross/kubler_ross.htm
5 Hovannisian, Richard G. THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES, Volume
II, St. Martin’s Press, New York, N.Y., pp. 376-377
6 http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives__Documen/The_Armenians/Denial/denial.html
7 Hovannisian, Richard G. THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES, Volume
II, pp. 419-420.
8 http://www.armenocide.am
9 ALAN HOVHANESS WORLD PREMIERE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY MARTYRS OP.148 &
SYMPHONY NO. 3 OP. 148 1996 Soundset Recordings, LLC16627 North 61st Way, Scottsdale,
Arizona 85254, Track #6 Noraharash
10 ALAN HOVHANESS WORLD PREMIERE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY MARTYRS OP.148 &
SYMPHONY NO. 3 OP. 148 1996 Soundset Recordings, LLC16627 North 61st Way, Scottsdale,
Arizona 85254, Insert.
11 http://www.hovhaness.com/hovhaness.html
12 Hovannisian, Richard G. THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE FROM ANCIENT TO MODERN TIMES,
Volume II, pp.383-387.
13 Ibid. pp.440-441.
14 Gregg Bendian Project Counterparts 1996 Creative Improvised Music Productions, The Cadence
Building, Redwood, New York 13679 USA, Track # 3 After Chomaklu Was a Desert (Threnody To The
Victims of The Armenian Genocide)
15 Galfaian, Aris Ter K. Chomaklou : the history of an Armenian village. /by Aris Kalfaian ; translated by
Krikor Asadourian ; edited and revised, with a preface and afterword by Michael Ekizian. New York :
Chomaklou Compatriotic Society, c1982.
16 http://www.cadencebuilding.com/cadence/cadencemagazine.html
17 Bendian, Gregg. Personal Communication.
18 http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/13/181640
19 http://www.systemofadownonline.com/vid/boom.htm
20 http://www.armeniocide.am
21 http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives__Documen/The_Armenians/Denial/denial.html
Table 1: Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “From Charles Aznavour to System of a Down: Western Musical Perspectives of the Armenian Genocide.”
Charles Aznavour, “Ils Sont Tombés (They Fell),” 1975
French Version (Aznavour/ Garvarentz) English Translation (by Nanor Kabakian) English Version (Aznavour/ Garvarentz/ Kretzmer)
Ils sont tombés sans trop savoir pourquoi
Hommes, femmes et enfants qui ne voulaient que vivre
Avec des gestes lourds comme des hommes ivres
Mutilés, massacrés les yeux ouverts d'effroi
Ils sont tombés en invoquant leur Dieu
Au seuil de leur église ou le pas de leur porte
En troupeaux de désert titubant en cohorte
Terrassés par la soif, la faim, le fer, le feu
Nul n'éleva la voix dans un monde euphorique
Tandis que croupissait un peuple dans son sang
L' Europe découvrait le jazz et sa musique
Les plaintes de trompettes couvraient les cris d'enfants
Ils sont tombés pudiquement sans bruit
Par milliers, par millions, sans que le monde bouge
Devenant un instant minuscules fleurs rouges
Recouverts par un vent de sable et puis d'oubli
Ils sont tombés les yeux pleins de soleil
Comme un oiseau qu'en vol une balle fracasse
Pour mourir n'importe où et sans laisser de traces
Ignorés, oubliés dans leur dernier sommeil
Ils sont tombés en croyant ingénus
Que leurs enfants pourraient continuer leur enfance
Qu'un jour ils fouleraient des terres d'espérance
Dans des pays ouverts d'hommes aux mains tendues
Moi je suis de ce peuple qui dort sans sépulture
Qu'a choisi de mourir sans abdiquer sa foi
Qui n'a jamais baissé la tête sous l'injure
Qui survit malgré tout et qui ne se plaint pas
Ils sont tombés pour entrer dans la nuit
Éternelle des temps au bout de leur courage
La mort les a frappés sans demander leur âge
Puisqu'ils étaient fautifs d'être enfants d'Arménie
They fell without knowing why.
Men, women, and children, whose only wish was to live,
Fell heavily, like drunken people.
They were mutilated, massacred, while their eyes were full of fear.
They fell while calling upon their God,
At the threshold of their church or doorstep.
Herded through the desert, staggering together,
Crushed by thirst, hunger, weapons, fire.
No one objected in a euphoric world
While a people decomposed in their blood.
Europe was discovering jazz,
The noise of the trumpets was masking the cries of children.
They fell silently,
By thousands, and the millions, while the world remained silent,
In the desert, their bodies looked like minuscule red flowers,
Covered by a sandstorm, which also concealed their existence.
They fell, blinded by the sun,
Just like a bird, in flight, which suddenly gets crushed by a bullet.
Only to die anywhere, without leaving any trace,
Ignored, forgotten as they were going into eternal sleep.
They fell while naively believing,
That their children would hopefully live a normal childhood,
That they would one day march in a land of hope,
In open countries where people would welcome them.
I, myself, am of this race which now sleeps without a resting place,
Who chose to die rather than relinquish the faith,
Who never bowed their heads even in the face of insults,
Who survives despite everything without ever complaining.
They fell to enter the night.
Having exhausted all their courage,
Death struck them, regardless of their age,
Their only crime being children of Armenia.
They fell that year, they vanished from the Earth,
Never knowing the cause or what laws they’d offended.
The women fell as well, and the babies they tendered,
Left to die, left to cry, all condemned by their birth.
They fell like rain across the thirsty land.
In their heart they were slain, in their God still believing.
All their pity and pain in that season of grieving.
All in vain, all in vain, just for one helping hand.
For no one heard their prayers in a world bent on pleasure.
From other people’s cares, they simply closed their eyes.
They created a lot of sound in jazz and ragtime measure.
The trumpets screamed till dawn to drown the children’s cries.
They fell like leaves, its people in its prime,
Simple man, kindly man, and not one knew his crime.
They became in that hour like the small desert flower,
Soon covered by the silent wind in sands of time.
They fell that year before a cruel foe.
They had little to give but their lives and their passion,
And their longing to live, in their way, in their fashion,
So their harvest could thrive and their children could grow.
They fell like flies, their eyes still full of sun,
Like a dove, its flight, in the path of rifle,
That falls down where it might, as if death were a trifle,
And to bring to an end a life barely begun.
And I am of that race who died in unknown places
Who perished in their pride, whose blood in rivers ran.
In agony and fright, with courage on their faces,
They went into the night that waits for every man.
They fell like tears and never knew what for,
In that summer of strife, of massacre and war.
Their only crime was life; there only guilt was fear,
The children of Armenia, nothing less, nothing more.
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
Table 2: Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “From Charles Aznavour to System of a Down: Western Musical Perspectives of the Armenian Genocide.”
P.L.U.C.K.
(Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.)
Album: System Of A Down
Lyrics: Serj Tankian Music: Daron Malakian
Musicians: Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian, John Dolmayan
Date: 1998
“After Chomaklou Was a Desert”
(Threnody to the Victims of the Armenian Genocide)
Album: Gregg Bendian Project Counterparts
Composer: Gregg Bendian
Musicians: Gregg Bendian, Mark Dresser, Paul Smoker, Vinny Golia
Date: 1996
Elimination, Elimination, Elimination.
Die, Why, Walk Down, Walk Down.
A whole race Genocide,
Taken away all of our pride,
A whole race Genocide,
Taken away, Watch Them all fall down.
Revolution, the only solution,
The armed response of an entire nation,
Revolution, the only solution,
We've taken all your shit, now it's time for restitution.
Recognition, Restoration, Reparation,
Recognition, Restoration, Reparation,
Watch them all fall down.
Revolution, the only solution,
The armed response of an entire nation,
Revolution, the only solution,
We've taken all your shit, now it's time for restitution.
The plan was mastered and called Genocide,
(Never want to see you around)
Took all the children and then we died,
(Never want to see you around)
The few that remained were never found,
(Never want to see you around)
All in a system, Down......
Down.....Down.......Down.....…
Walk Down...........Walk Down
Watch them all fall down,
Revolution, the only solution,
The armed response of an entire nation,
Revolution, the only solution,
We've taken all your shit, now it's time for restitution.
The plan was mastered and called Genocide
(Never want to see you around)
Took all the children and then we died,
(Never want to see you around)
The few that remained were never found,
(Never want to see you around)
All in a system, Down~
COMPOSER’S NOTES:
Chomaklou was the Armenian village in Turkey where my
grandfather grew up. He fled the village with his parents during
the Turkish aggression of 1915. The Bendian family and the
other villagers were marched out into the desert without food and
water, to die. My grandfather Krikor’s parents were murdered in
the desert and he fled to the US with the help of his brother.
With the music for “After Chomkalou” I wished to put forth,
albeit in a visceral and abstract way, something of the impact of
this nightmarish story.
Although the music for "After Chomaklou" is not intended to be
strictly programmatic in nature, there are definite sections which
are intended to evoke a kind of unresolved five-part musical
form.
I. Opening:
Solo percussion sounds represents the life, laughter and daily
activity of a peaceful and happy village.
II. First melodies:
The strains of these suspended, abstract, but decidedly
Armenian-inflected lines are meant to portray a sense of
contentedness, while gradually moving toward a feeling of subtle
foreboding.
III. Tensions mount:
There is now an inevitability to what will soon befall the people
of Chomaklou. The ensemble’s soloists speak out in turn, as the
melodies become more pensive and desperate.
IV. Conflict/Flight:
The explosion of violence, screams of terror, and the cacophony
of slaughter.
V. Death March, Drone/Threnody:
Here, the bass soloist represents the mournful voice of the people
of Chomaklou (and the Armenian people as a whole) sobbing in
the desert as they contemplate the aftermath of this largely
unrecognized human tragedy.
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
Figure 1: Charles Aznavour, live OLYMPIA 1978 EMI Music, Holland
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
Figure 2: Alan Hovhaness, Mystery of the Holy Martyrs, OP 251, 1996
Soundset
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
Figure 3: Gregg Bendian Project, Counterparts, 1996 CIMP
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html
Figure 4: System of a Down 1998, American Recording
Der-Sarkissian, Jack. “Musical Perspectives on the Armenian Genocide: From Aznavour to System of a Down.”
The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. Ed. Richard G. Hovannisian.
Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, October 30, 2007
http://www.transactionpub.com/title/The-Armenian-Genocide-978-1-4128-0619-0.html