The Music Safari's Discovery of the Music of Oaksenham leads to the Music of Armenia and Sirusho!!

So tonight over on the Music Safari I traveled to Armenia, where I found the Prog-Rock band Oaksenham. Since that site is about music and this site is about Social Studies I thought that it would be good to not bore the music folks with geography, but us lovers of geography could find out more about Armenia at this site!
Ok so first let's take a look at where in the world Armenia is!!

If you look closely at this map of Europe you can see Armenia in the southeast corner of the map. The country is landlocked as it is surrounded by Azerbaijan to the east,Georgia to the north and Turkey to the west. This next map shows a close up of the country.

Now on to the country itself - from Wikipedia:

 Republic of Armenia (Armenian:Հայաստանի Հանրապետություն, Hayastani Hanrapetut’yun), is a mountainous country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe,^[9] it is bordered by Turkey to the west,Georgia to the north, the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south.

Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. The Kingdom of Armeniawas established in the 6th century BC, after the fall of Urartu; it became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its religion,^[10] in the early years of the 4th century (the traditional date is 301 AD).^[11] For this reason, Armenia is often called "the first Christian nation."^[12][13] An Armenian principality and later a kingdom, known as Cilician Armenia, existed on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries.Continue Reading

Now the aspect of Armenian culture that I am most interested in is Armenian music.....

 Armenian music is a mix of indigenous folk music, perhaps best-represented by Djivan Gasparyan's well-known duduk music, as well as light pop, and extensive Christian music.Instruments like the duduk, the dhol, the zurna, and the kanun are commonly found in Armenian folk music. Artists such as Sayat Nova are famous due to their influence in the development of Armenian folk music. One of the oldest types of Armenian music is the Armenian chant which is the most common kind of religious music in Armenia. Many of these chants are ancient in origin, extending to pre-Christian times, while others are relatively modern, including several composed by Saint Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet. Whilst under Soviet rule, Armenian classical music composer Aram Khatchaturian became internationally well known for his music, for various ballets and the Sabre Dance from his composition for the ballet Gayane.

The Armenian Genocide caused widespread emigration that led to the settlement of Armenians in various countries in the world. Armenians kept to their traditions and certain diasporans rose to fame with their music. In the post-Genocide Armenian community of the United States, the so-called "kef" style Armenian dance music, using Armenian and Middle Eastern folk instruments (often electrified/amplified) and some western instruments, was popular. This style preserved the folk songs and dances of Western Armenia, and many artists also played the contemporary popular songs of Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries from which the Armenians emigrated. Richard Hagopian is perhaps the most famous artist of the traditional "kef" style and the Vosbikian Band was notable in the 1940s and 1950s for developing their own style of "kef music" heavily influenced by the popular American Big Band Jazz of the time. Later, stemming from the Middle Eastern Armenian diaspora and influenced by Continental European (especially French) pop music, the Armenian pop music genre grew to fame in the 1960s and 1970s with artists such as Adiss Harmandian and Harout Pamboukjian performing to the Armenian diaspora and Armenia; also with artists such as Sirusho, performing pop music combined with Armenian folk music in today's entertainment industry. Other Armenian diasporans that rose to fame in classical or international music circles are world renown French-Armenian singer and composer Charles Aznavour, pianist Sahan Arzruni, prominent opera sopranos such as Hasmik Papian and more recently Isabel Bayrakdarian and Anna Kasyan. Certain Armenians settled to sing non-Armenian tunes such as the heavy metal band System of a Down (which nonetheless often incorporates traditional Armenian instrumentals and styling into their songs) or pop star Cher. In the Armenian diaspora, Armenian revolutionary songs are popular with the youth. These songs encourage Armenian patriotism and are generally about Armenian history and national heroes.

Ok so let's see Armenian folk music incorporates the duduk, a wind instrument, the dhol,a double drum, the zurna, another wind instrument and the kanun a string instrument.and I bet their music  is pretty cool! You can find out more about Armenian music at the Music of Armenia YouTube Channel

Finally I went to MOG to look up the music of Sirusho,Her latest album is titled Havatum Em. Here is Sirusho performing the title track And even though I haven't a clue as to what she is singing - there is no denying her vocal talent!!