KRUNK – Armenian Secular Music Lilit Tonoyan, Davit Melkonyan, André Meisner, Giuseppe Mautone

• Traditional: Es arun:
• 1Es arun03:01
• Alagyaz & Khnki tsar:
• 2Alagyaz & Khnki tsar04:30
• Avetis:
• 3Avetis01:01
• Goghtan mankti & Bostan em der:
• 4Goghtan mankti & Bostan em dre03:38
• Sayat Nova (1712 - 1795): Blbuli hid (Chka qizi nman):
• 5Blbuli hid (Chka qizi nman)04:57
• Traditional: Akna oror:
• 6Akna oror02:56
• Habrban:
• 7Habrban02:06
• Tsirani tsar I:
• 8Tsirani tsar I02:59
• Tsirani tsar II:
• 9Tsirani tsar II02:02
• Sayat Nova: Nazani:
• 10Nazani03:31
• Traditional: Krunk:
• 11Krunk03:33
• Bari luso:
• 12Bari luso01:45
• Gabriel Yeranyan (1827 - 1862): Kilikia:
• 13Kilikia03:54
• Traditional: Janiman:
• 14Janiman02:15
• Vaspurakan: Taltala:
• 15Taltala04:07
• Traditional: Akna krunk:
• 16Akna krunk02:32
• Yerangi:
• 17Yerangi03:21
• Amran gisher:
• 18Amran gisher03:38
• Es gisher ashnan gisher:
• 19Es gisher ashnan gisher02:52
• Keler tsoler:
• 20Keler tsoler02:34
• Loutki & Lorke:
• 21Loutki & Lorke03:39
• Mush:
• 22Mush03:14
• Bari luso:
• 23Bari luso01:40
• Total Runtime01:09:45

Info for KRUNK – Armenian Secular Music

Armenian Secular Music: With her latest album KRUNK, violinist Lilit Tonoyan delves into the world of Armenian folk music. The centrepiece and namesake of the programme is ‘Krunk’ (The Crane) - a pilgrimage song that can be considered one of the best-known folk songs for Armenian-speaking people. She interprets her own sensitive arrangements of traditional folk songs in various formations - together with cellist Davit Melkonyan, duduk player André Meisner and percussionist Giuseppe Mautone.

With her latest album KRUNK, violinist Lilit Tonoyan delves into the world of Armenian folk music. The centrepiece and namesake of the programme is ‘Krunk’ (The Crane) - a pilgrimage song that can be considered one of the best-known folk songs for Armenian-speaking people. She interprets her own sensitive arrangements of traditional folk songs in various formations - together with cellist Davit Melkonyan, duduk player André Meisner and percussionist Giuseppe Mautone.

The selection of folk songs for this recording consists largely of the songs notated by Komitas and from the repertoire of the singer Hayrik Muradyan. The arrangements were written by Lilit Tonoyan herself, who has been intensively involved with the village folk music of her native Armenia for several years.

‘Krunk’ occupies a prominent place in the genre of Armenian medieval pilgrim songs and was most likely composed by a medieval Gusan whose name remains unknown. The gentle melody in improvised form embodies an emotional, tragic story that reveals the inner turmoil of the author. This song is an outstanding example of syncretic music writing, whose poetic and musical components form an organic whole. It proves that this song probably did not originate in a village setting, but rather came from a ‘professional’ troubadour, spread among the people and ultimately established itself as a folk song.

Lilit Tonoyan, violin
Davit Melkonyan, cello
André Meisner, duduk
Giuseppe Mautone, percussion

Lilit Tonoyan
With the Armenian violinist Lilit Tonoyan, two musical cultures are combined in a special way. With the violinist Lilit Tonoyan, who was born and raised in Yerevan/Armenia, two musical cultures are combined in a special way: Influenced by the diverse traditional music of her homeland, the artist has been intensively involved with Armenian vocal and instrumental music since studying the Western music canon in Germany. In 2008, she founded the Cologne World Jazz Ensemble, which mainly combines traditional Armenian music with jazz and improvisation. With the band, she won a special prize at the Citroën Music Competition in 2012 and was a finalist at Creole NRW in 2013. With her newly founded band WeltenBaum, she plays world music, improvisation and jazz for children.

Since 2015, Lilit Tonoyan has been intensively involved with the sacred music of Armenia. Since there are hardly any instrumental versions of these works to date, she has dedicated herself to the task of arranging selected sacred songs from the early Middle Ages for violin, sometimes in duo with violoncello. Cellist Davit Melkonyan has been involved in the project since the beginning of 2017. In juxtaposition with selected pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, both musicians recorded these arrangements for the Kaleidos label under the title Amen Hayr Surb. The recording was released in spring 2018 and has received numerous press praise.

Lilit Tonoyan is currently completing a master's degree in historical instruments with a focus on baroque violin under Prof. Richard Gwilt at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.

Lilit Tonoyan came to Germany from Armenia in 2007 with a DAAD scholarship and studied at the Cologne University of Music and Dance in the classes of Prof. Ingeborg Scheerer and Prof. Albrecht Winter; she completed her master's degree there in 2012. She also received decisive inspiration from Professors Anthony Spiri (chamber music), Dirk Mommertz (chamber music), Richard Gwilt (early music) and David Smeyers (new music).

Tonoyan has won numerous awards at competitions, such as the Khachaturyan Competition in Armenia and the Henri Marteau International Violin Competition. She has received scholarships from the Wagner Foundation, the Günther Wand Foundation and currently the German Chamber Academy Neuss. In 2015, the violinist won the Neuss City Art Prize for her arrangement of an Armenian sacred song (Ter voghormea) and her interpretation of a Bach sonata.

Booklet for KRUNK – Armenian Secular Music