Armenian society finally got a chance to hear the versions of the national anthem composed by the aspirants. The Ministry of Culture spent a lot of time and put in a lot of effort-from declaring a contest, accepting applications, forming a committee, discussing all the choices (where there were many non-professional and unworthy compositions) all the way to putting up with the accusations among authors and the clash of ambitions.
The Ministry still hasn’t finished its work. Out of the five choices, the ministry has to choose the most influential and most impressive song. After the first hearings last week, the opinions of most people can be summed up the following way: “There were good songs, but we can’t imagine how any one of them will become the national anthem.”
Was it really that important and urgent to change the national anthem? Many citizens of Armenia don’t understand why that has become a big issue. But on the other hand, they understand that becoming the author of the new national anthem is a longed for honor and that’s why a contest was declared. As a result of some surveys, it turns out there is no preference to any song-someone says he didn’t like the lyrics, someone else didn’t understand the lyrics at all, while the third is against the synthesis of the lyrics and the music. The choices (besides Yervand Yerznkyan’s version and Ararat B’s version0 were rather difficult to listen to and it’s hard to imagine how the chosen anthem will penetrate into the souls of the Armenian people, get them to stand up and sing the anthem along with the choir. Although the author representing himself with the false name Ararat B (rumor has it that he is writer Razmik Davoyan) strived to be simple, however the song didn’t really get approved by many: most people thought that the simple lyrics just didn’t go along with the music. The people were really in favor of composer Tigran Mansuryan’s version of the anthem with lyrics from poet Yeghishe Charents’s “Yes Im Anush Hayastani” (My Sweet Homeland) poem. Every Armenian has learned this poem in school and it has been instilled in their minds ever since. Mansuryan managed to fit the words into the song, but that version wasn’t appraised by everyone. You couldn’t understand the music besides the last line “Yes Im Masis Sarn em Sirum” (I love my Mount Masis). People wanted to hear an anthem where you can actually remember the song starting from the first couple of notes.
“The anthem must be composed in a way so that every first-grader or soldier can sing it,” say many. During the first hearings, you could sense that there were some “promotional teams” among the crowd who were giving strong feedback. Composer Robert Amirkhanyan’s promoters were clapping and listening with pleasure to the anthem composed by Amirkhanyan and Ludwig Duryan, but they weren’t clapping as a whole after hearing Tigran Mansuryan’s version. As for the fans of Arsen Soghomonyan, who wrote the lyrics under the music composed by composer Aram Khachatryan, they were convincing their friends that this version was the best because the lyrics went along with the song. Singers and musicians didn’t wish to make any comments so that they wouldn’t get on anyone’s “bad side”. In contrast to them, citizens were ready to listen to and express their opinions about the anthems.
What will the new national anthem symbolize?
As a rule, each country’s anthem is about the same thing-the great love towards the Homeland, the sacrifices for the Homeland, freedom, justice and brotherhood. An anthem usually symbolizes the memory of the past and the waiting for the future. In the Armenian versions “death”, “ruins”, “dark clouds” and “strong children” are the symbols, while the future is “bright” and “saint”. But this was the same approach in the last anthem too. What has changed today for it to be structured differently? The state symbols-the name of the state, the flag, the emblem and anthem always change whenever there is some kind of change in the given country. The most significant anthems of the world were created based on the conditions of the given historical period and during the national liberation or revolutionary movements. The anthems of France and Italy were composed during the turning points in the histories of both countries respectively. They were composed during a time of war and revolution and now almost everyone knows those words. The U.S. national anthem was composed during the Anglo-American war and the author of the lyrics was an average soldier, who had decided to compose an anthem for the U.S. without a request or a contest. That song became an anthem after it was heard and the people liked it. It has remained as the U.S. national anthem for two centuries now. The Chinese anthem was composed during the war between the Chinese and Japanese. In the 1980s, there was a chance for Armenia to change its anthem, but that didn’t happen. The calls for mobilization, uniting and reigning supreme didn’t inspire composers to compose the music for a national anthem. Armenians were left without a national anthem. Now the government is trying to prove to everyone that Armenia has gone through so many changes that it’s time to change the national anthem. It’s hard to believe that the people have united as one and there is a desire to stand up as a nation. It’s also hard to believe that the new anthem will inspire the Armenian people. The high-quality music and the comprehensive lyrics are not what make the anthem an anthem; rather, it has to become the symbol of Armenia and that symbol has to correspond to the dreams of a new Armenia. We must sing what we dream of. We must ask for what we are waiting for. For the time being, it seems as though nobody is dreaming of something beyond the limits and is leaving it all up to the committee to decide.
The word “hymn” translated from Greek means prayer. The ancient Greeks used to communicate with God through that song-prayer and the prayer always ended with pleading. Now, we can consider the hymn as a civil request/prayer, which should be in the interest of everyone. There is a line in the Italian hymn that reads: “We are ready for death, the Homeland is calling us”. Perhaps when we will be ready to unite as one, that is when we will have a good anthem. But for now the new anthem is simply going to be either a good or bad song. In fact, if the government doesn’t make a choice, then it will assign one or two composers to compose the hymn. It turns out that that is an alternative.