To listen is to feel, and to play is to live. This statement is highly representative of the Armenian interaction with their famous instrument, the duduk. A culture riddled with hardships due to a collapsed country, the Armenian people utilize their music to connect themselves with their culture no matter where they are (Shelemay). For the Armenian people, the duduk historically creates two sentiments; it represents the nation’s perseverance through history, specifically through the recent genocide, and it is a reminder to the diaspora community of the home they left behind (Shelemay). Despite the duduk moving over the course of the last century from a rural instrument to a popularized instrument played in movie scores, such as Gladiator and …show more content…
While the melody remains stepwise, it is noticeably lower in pitch, and the notes at the conclusion of each phrase tend to descend to lower pitches than where the phrase began. The polyphonic texture continues in this section, though neither the higher duduk nor lower duduk continues to play long flowing notes. Instead, the duduk playing the higher melody finds a rhythm where two low extended notes frame a succession of quick notes, while the duduk playing the lower melody plays a quick, succession of disjunct notes. The juxtaposition of the lower and higher duduks creates an uneasy feeling for the listener, which one could easily describe as solemn. This section repeats twice, ending first at 0:44 and then at 1:08. During both these endings, a high-intensity, long note rings in the higher melody, while the notes in the lower melody keep their rhythm but slowly become less intense. The persistence of this low, sad sounding note at the culmination is a reminder of Gasparian’s opinion on the modern duduk: The instrument represents the Armenian people’s difficult …show more content…
To start, the slower, “awakening” segment at the beginning of the piece presents Armenia’s ancientness. From there, the Armenian struggle becomes apparent, as they constantly face conflict and despair, only to rise up triumphantly and claim the nation in which they find pride. Though not all Armenians reside in Armenia, when listening to a piece like this, it is extremely apparent that this piece invokes feelings of both pride and a deep-seated sadness, which is all too relevant to modern Armenians. The understanding of the history of Armenia along with the history of the duduk provides Djivan Gasparian an endless canvas, upon which he paints “Kale Kale, Haberban” to show Armenia’s solemn pride to the