Twelve Duos

Twelve Duos Petros Shoujounian, an Armenian/Canadian composer has written Twelve Duos for Trombones based on the folksong collection of the Armenian priest Komitas, known as the founder of the Armenian national school of music and one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology. Below are comments from the composer about his inspiration in writing these Twelve Duos for Trombones. My interest in the collected works of Komitass ethnographical songs was aroused when I was introduced to Bela Bartoks similar works followed by Alan Hovhanesss huge creative world. Bartok completed his project having at his disposal a large collection of ethnographic music, while Hovhannes studied the wealth of Komitass music with great interest. It is difficult to say to what extent the Armenian underpinning of Hovhanness works is nurtured by Komitass musical world, but his classical interpretation of the Armenian ethnographical music created a huge interest in the listener. Needless to say, there is also Aram Katchaturians legacy, which at its core has the ardent presence of the Armenian spirit, nurtured by Komitass very existence. Komitas has left a collection of about 3,000 cleaned versions of the ethnographic song and dance pieces, of which 1,700 have reached us and about 400 of which have been activated. I believe that in those beautiful musical fragments reside the power to be revived, once we enrich them with colorful musical instruments and unbounded polyphonic imagination. This is the motivation behind my own work and these Twelve Duos for Trombones: to make the essence of our ethnographic music accessible through Komitas. These Twelve Duos are appropriate for advanced performers. The collection contains duets to be performed on Alto, Tenor, and Bass Trombones.