"Loosin Yelav" as sung by Georgia All-State Choir, dir. by Jeffery Ames

I just wanted to share a recent performance by the Georgia All-State Intermediate Mixed Chorus of my piece "Loosin Yelav", a beautifully expressive Armenian folk song about the rising moon. This piece was commissioned by my friend Mary Alice Stollak and is in two voicings- SA/piano and SATB/violin/piano. What you'll see in the video is a clarinet taking the place of the violin, which is just fine with me. Thanks to the very talented Jeffery Ames of Belmont University for choosing this song for this festival- he's also used it at other recent festivals.

(Dr. Jeffery Ames)

I think this piece makes for an unexpected change of pace from the usual multicultural tunes out there. I also think this performance is excellent considering the ages of the kids in this choir- these are NOT high school singers. Oh and yes, there is a baby or two in the audience- you gotta love all-state audiences with their abundance of supportive moms, dads, aunties, uncles and itty-bitty siblings!

The piece is published by Santa Barbara if you are interested in ordering a perusal copy or if you might want to go ahead and order it for your choir (SA version is cat. SBMP679; SATB is SBMP698). I would be thrilled if you did. Sales for this piece have remained steady over the years- which is unusual these days when most publishers have no idea how to do anything but hawk their new releases. I think what happens when sales stay steady or even grow for a piece is that word of mouth among directors takes over and makes up for the lack of promotional savvy that the publishers suffer from. Okay, now I will shut up and stop bashing publishers- haha!




Here is the text and a translation- and, by the way, learning the Armenian is easy!

TEXT

Loosin yelav ensareetz saree partzaer gadareetz shegleeg megleeg yeresov paervetrz kedneen loosnidzov. Jan a loosin Jan ko loosin Jan ko gaelor sheg yereseen. Xavarn arten tchaekatzav oo el kedneen tchegatzov oosni loosov halatzvadz moot amberi metch maenadz. Jan a losin Jan ko loosin Jan ko gaelor sheg yereseen.

The moon has risen over the hill, over its summit, its red, rosy face brilliantly illuminating the earth. O dear moon, with your dear light and your dear round and rosy face. Before darkness reigned covering the earth; but now the light of the moon has chased it away into the dark clouds. O dear moon, with your dear light and your dear round and rosy face.