Every people had their own funeral rites. Most of these rituals are the birth of the notions of life and death that were formed, touched in the given environment, usually in close connection with religious notions and expressed in its worship services.
From ancient times, Armenians have mourned the dead with mourning dances and songs, and funeral rites have been preserved among Armenians for centuries. There is also a memory of 1469: mourning and dancing while burying the victims of the epidemic. War dances were also performed at funerals, especially if the deceased was involved in military life. The persecution of the Christian church against funerals with mourning dances undoubtedly contributed to the dances gradually leaving the funeral rites, and the dances, the songs and the melody were preserved. The former mourning dances are now danced on different occasions and mainly as secular dances. Reflecting on the emotional state of the ancient dancers, the mourning dances of the Armenian people are deeply emotional and dynamic.
There was a time when professional mourning women were specially invited before the burial of the deceased to mourn, to glorify the deeds and to portray the image in the performances presented, to pass on a eulogy. Nowadays this tradition is replaced by professional musicians and most of the time, the duduk players lead the musicians at funeral ceremonies, mainly sacred music, love songs, songs that were turned into hymns after the Armenian genocide, laments, and songs with themes and topics related with the deceased.
The title of this project is named Gorani, which is also a piece in the current program. Almost all of the Gorani dance songs are connected with the stories of death or battle that had a significant impact on the life of the whole society, which was followed by severe tragedies (like drought, battle, epidemic, defeat, the death of a leader, poverty are natural and public disasters.) and many victims.
Laments have always been important as a means of overcoming shocks. As the world is in a big shock now, it needs music that could pass on a eulogy.
The program consists of ancient and medieval, sacred and secular prayers, laments, mourners, sacred music from the Armenian liturgy, and dance melodies that are associated with mourning rituals․ Collected from Armenia and the middle east by the Armenian philosopher and musician G.I.Gurdjieff (1866-1949), by the Armenian composer Komitas (1969-1935) who collected thousands of Armenian sacred and secular songs and dance melodies from Armenian villages at the end of the 19th century, works by Ashough Sayat Nova (18th century) one of the most influential Armenian troubadours in the Caucasus, St. Grigor Narekatsi (10th century) known for his sacred odes and the book of Lamentation, all of the works arranged for the Gurdjieff Ensemble by Levon Eskenian.
The Mourning Rituals Project will be premiered at the Antwerp deSingel Festival on November 21st, 2021.