Vagharshak Shahinian | Van
28/09/2021 (Last modified: 28/09/2021) - Translator: Simon Beugekian
Editor's note
This page is dedicated to a collection of traditional songs, mostly from Van. Most of the recordings feature the singing of Vagharshak Shahinian, as well as other members of his family. The majority of the songs were recorded in 1958, in New Jersey, in the home of Vagharshak’s son, Antranig, and his wife, Alice/Siranoush (nee Zemanian).
Vagharshak and his wife, Shoushanig (nee Tohaftjian), were born in Van. They had five children: Antranig/Andrew/Andy, George, Arpin, Arshalouys, and Virginia. Both in Van and later in the United States, singing, dancing, and family feasts were a staple of life in the Shahinian household. The songs presented here were often performed during family gatherings. In this way, these cultural treasures were passed down to younger generations automatically.
The preparation of this page required extensive, collaborative efforts. The most important contribution was made by Armen Shahinian, Antranig and Alice’s son. He was the one who assembled the family photographs. He also performed the extensive work of collating and digitizing the songs, their histories, and the recordings of performances. Armen was also our main source of information on the family’s history. In this, he was assisted by many other members and friends of the Shahinian family, each of whom played a crucial role in reviving these unique musical heirlooms. We are grateful to all. We are also grateful to Houshamadyan’s Turkish and Kurdish friends, who gladly transcribed the Turkish and Kurdish songs performed by Vagharshak. Their contributions add to the uniqueness of this page, as it was inter-ethnic collaboration that brought back to life this shared cultural legacy.
Preface
Author: Armen Shahinian
As I look back on my childhood with the benefit of what I now know about the history of my grandparents Vagharshak and Shoushanig Shahinian, I am amazed by the joy and zest with which they lived. Both were from Van – Shoushanig from the city and Vagharshak from its more rural surroundings. Both had lost their mothers and other family members during World War One. But they had survived and refused to live their lives languishing in grief. They did not speak of their losses, at least not to their grandchildren. One would never know that their lives had been partially defined by the tragedies they had experienced. They lived with a joy that I just do not see among my contemporaries.
Back then, family gatherings were an occasion for singing and dancing. During the 1930s and 1940s, my grandparents lived in the Bronx, one of the boroughs of New York City. I am told that their home was a regular meeting place for friends on Friday nights and on the weekends. I have photographs and old films documenting their lives during those years. They are a chronicle of smiles, food, crowded dining room tables, singing, and dancing. It seems like visits from family and friends almost always evolved into celebrations featuring the songs and dances of their native Van.
I am lucky to have been old enough, having been born in 1949 to their son Antranig and his wife Alice, to remember our family dinners of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which featured so much singing. Of course, larger family gatherings would also feature much dancing. Perhaps this exuberance is explained by the fact that my grandparents’ lives were mostly spent in the pre-television era. But it was much more than that. As my cousin Michael Manoogian recalls, while family and friends socialized, someone would start humming a tune and then all the others would join in, many often breaking into dance. The tradition undoubtedly had a connection to what my grandparents had lost, but this connection was celebrated with joy, rather than being mourned with sorrow.
Luckily, my father, who was very much in the mold of his parents, had the foresight to record some of the old Vanetsi songs that my grandparents sang, largely in recording sessions which took place in our home in River Edge, New Jersey, in 1953 and 1958. The 1953 recordings coincided with my brother’s, sister’s, and my christening. I am afraid that we, the children, were disruptively noisy, so those recordings are not being utilized by Houshamadyan. But during the sessions of 1958, the “kids” (I am one of five siblings born between 1947 and 1958) seem to have been put to bed, and the recordings were made in a quieter household. Many of these songs are now preserved on the Houshamadyan website.
For me, listening to these old recordings has been a trip down memory lane. I remember the joy and enthusiasm with which the singing was performed. Some of my grandfather’s homemade wine may have helped, but he was not a big drinker and did not need the wine to enjoy himself. It was in his nature to be spontaneous and start the fun. And his wife, my grandma Shoushanig, joined in whenever she could between her trips from the kitchen to the dining room table, around which much of the singing occurred.
I do not speak or understand Armenian (other than the household commands I used to hear from my grandmothers – “wash your hands,” “go to bed,” etc.) and did not know what most of the songs were about. But the sheer joy and enthusiasm with which they were sung left an indelible mark. The singers’ joy is passed on through these songs.
My father, Antranig (“Andy”) Shahinian, was also always singing. He was an active participant in the family festivities of the 1940s and 1950s, either joining in on his violin or playing the dumbeg, which he also plays in these recordings. Years after Vagharshak’s passing, I would invite friends to our family home. It was “party central,” due in no small measure to the hospitality of my parents who would host barbecues for my friends. That was particularly true with respect to our home on the New Jersey shore. There was a tradition among my Armenian-American friends, with whom I had worked as a counselor at AGBU Camp Nubar in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to visit our family home in the last week of each August. This tradition lasted through the 1970s. In the evenings, my brother Paul would play the guitar and we would sing the American songs we knew. This would prompt my father to begin singing the Vanetsi songs with which he had grown up. Although none of my friends knew the songs or even spoke Armenian, aside from a few phrases osmotically learned from their grandparents, they would join in when there was a particularly easy chorus. Khaniman Jan Iman comes to mind. When that song would end and the Kurdish song with which it was always paired would start, there would be a very long “hooo” in-between, which went on until our breaths gave out, at which point my father would start the Vanetsi Kurdish song, interrupted as he directed with our “hooos.” Our “hooos” would also be interspersed within other songs he would sing, whenever it was necessary for him to catch his breath between verses.
I hope that these songs, most of which were sung by my grandfather, Vagharshak Shahinian, clearly convey the spirit of joy with which he sang them, even though they were not recorded in the jovial atmosphere in which they were usually sung. The recordings of his singing during family gatherings are, unfortunately, unusable due to the background noise of children and the general merriment of the participants.
You can also read the captions of the photographs displayed in the video by clicking here.
Erin Verin (First Version)
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by his son, Antranig. Antranig also plays the dumbeg (darbuka, dumbelek). Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Man es kalis erin verin Man es kalis koocha koocha Toon yeler es gertas bakhchen Too yeler es gayner es toor Man es kalis koocha koocha Too nusder es luvatsk ganes | You come and go, up and down You come and go street-by-street You’ve upped and gone to the garden You’ve upped and stood in the doorway, You come and go street-by-street You sit doing the washing, |
Erin Verin (Second Version)
This is an alternative version of Erin Verin. The main vocalist is Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig and Shoushanig Shahinian. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Toon yeler es gertas bakhchen | You’ve upped and gone to the garden You’ve upped and stood in the doorway, You sit doing the washing, |
Sareri Hovin Mernem [I Would Die for the Air of the Mountains]
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied in the chorus by Antranig Shahinian, who also plays the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Sareri hovin mernem Yerek ore chem desel Aghchig anoonut Mahi Kez bes Nazani aghchig Aghchig gayne gamurchin Kuna asa zokanchin Sareri hovin mernem Yerek ore chem desel Sari ( ???) Kez bes nazani aghchig Saren goo ka tsiavor Chardakhavor im yarn e | I would die for the air of the mountains I haven’t seen him/her for three days, Girl, with the name of Mahi, A beautiful girl like you, Girl, stand on the bridge, Girl, tell your mother, I would die for the air of the mountains, I haven’t seen him/her for three days, [?] of the mountain, A beautiful girl like you, A rider comes from the mountain, My sweetheart has a chardakh, * A chardakh was a wooden structure built on the roofs of homes where household members slept on hot summer nights. – ed. VAGHARSHAK: And you go on as long as you want, it’s a long song… |
Hooo Ko Rako and Orn Er Oorpat [The Day Was Friday] (first version)
The first of these songs is in Kurdish, and the second is in Armenian. As Armen Shahinian writes in his foreword, both in Vagharshak’s and Antranig’s repertoire, Hooo Ko Rako was always followed by this version of Orn er Ourpat.
In the recording, Vagharshak adds this detail about the Kurdish song: “When this song was sung, small groups would link arms and dance in a circle.”
Uğur Adsız informed Houshamadyan that this song is an example of the musical genre called Berîte. It is a conversation between two groups in the form of a song. The song is unique to the Goyan Kurdish tribe, who had their own dialect of Kurdish. We are grateful to Uğur Adsız for the transcription of the song’s Kurdish lyrics.
As for the Armenian song, it was one of the most-performed songs in Vagharshak’s repertoire. Ourn er Ourpat was a comedic song, and it was often performed during gatherings of the Shahinian family. Various versions of the song and its lyrics exist.
Both songs are sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg, who also joins in with vocals occasionally. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Hooo qo rako talla raqo tallasdiko tirseneko Hooo qo rako talla raqo tallasdiko tirseneko Hooo qo rako talla raqo tallasdiko tirseneko Hooo qo rako talla raqo tallasdiko tirseneko |
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Orn Er Oorpat [The Day Was Friday] (first version)
(??) usav khagh mel oonem | […] said I’ve got another song, |
Orn Er Oorpat (second version)
There was a second version of this song, which appeared in Fresno’s Ardzvi Vasbouragan [Eagle of Vasbouragan] periodical (January-February 1954, year 3, number 4). The song, as it appears in the periodical, is signed M. D. Margosian. Vagharshak and Shoushanig Shahinian were among the subscribers of Ardzvi Vasbouragan. We present the lyrics here in their entirety:
Oorpat ardoo mootin oo lyusoon -Asdzoo parin Dikran agha Bazar arin karsoon kooroosh Garmurvora djanpakh purnets Egank khasank Peoroza kar Nefes gudrav el chugurtsav Mi khaghk arir oo khaydarag |
Orn Er Oorpat (recitation)
This is a recording of Vagharshak Shahinian simply reciting Ourn Er Ourpat as a poem. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Orn Er Oorpat (third version)
This is yet another version of the song Orn Er Ourpat. This recording was made after Vagharshak’s passing, most probably in Yerevan, specifically in the home of Kapriel Khanoyan, in 1978. The occasion was the Shahinian family’s visit to Armenia to bury Vagharshak’s remains in a special grave adjacent to the Sardarapat Monument. The first of the singers is Misakian (first name unknown). He is then joined by Shoushanig Shahinian, Antranig Shahinian, and Dikranouhi (Vagharshak’s sister). Dikranouhi lived in Sochi (on the shores of the Black Sea, in Russia). Presumably, she had traveled to Yerevan to participate in the family gathering.
Elek Desek Vov E Gerel [Go and See Who Ate It]
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
According to Vagharshak: “This song is a very old one. People would sing it together and dance. They would leap about as they sang it. When we were very young, we went to a wedding. The young men were singing this song and jumping in the air. I still remember that scene. It’s a very long song… They would sing it and dance to it…”
Yelek desek vovn a gerel mer oor | Go and see who has eaten our vine shoot. Go and see who has eaten our goat, Go and see who has eaten our dog, Go and see who has eaten our wolf, Go and see who has eaten our bear, Go and see who has eaten our pig, Go and see who has eaten our gun, |
Lalookhan
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig and Shoushanig Shahinian. Antranig also plays the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Pobig mi kele Lalookhan | Don’t walk barefoot, Lalookhan, Let’s go to a small village, Lalookhan, Let’s go to Ererin, Lalookhan, Let’s make my sweetheart happy, Lalookhan, Let’s go to a small village, Lalookhan, |
Vaveler Zoolon
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Vaveler Zoolon vaveler, toy | Vaveler Zoolon vaveler, toy, Behind our home are barley fields, The horses neigh in them, Let her beat her chest and her knees, [Hamen mrchan] pears and eggplants, Vaveler Zoolon vaveler, toy, Behind our home is a hazelnut tree, I’ll take Zoolo into the box with me, Vaveler Zoolon vaveler, toy, Behind our home is a cabbage field, Let us make up an excuse, Vaveler Zoolon vaveler, Vaveler Zoolon vaveler, toy, |
Makroohi Djan
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Yelank danik top kelitsink | We gathered up on the roof, We rolled a red apple, Makro wasn’t home, we sat and cried, The caravan came, jangling along, There was a mule in our caravan, On the mule’s back was a box, In the box was a small case, In the small case was a sheet, Inside the sheet was another sheet, Inside the sheet was a girl, Girl, girl, what is your name? Head over heels, what’s your problem? Listen to my advice, he will kill you, The stream flows between the neighborhoods, This song’s over, I’ve got another, Curses upon anyone else who sings. |
Turkish song
A Turkish song. Presumably, sung by Vagharshak Shahinian. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958. We are grateful to Deniz T. Kilincoglu, Samiye Demir, and Zeynel Demir for the transcription of the lyrics.
O çini mavi çini Bahçalarda arik [erik] var Adana’da tantane (?) töktürmüş [döktürmüş] birer tane [2x] |
Bedirkhan Bey
A Turkish song, sung by Vagharshak Shahinian. Accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg. Recorded in 1958, in Antranig and Alice’s home in River Edge (New Jersey). We are grateful to Uğur Adsız, Samiye Demir, and Zeynel Demir for the transcription of the lyrics.
The protagonists of the song are Bedirkhan Bey, Osman Pasha, and Khan Mahmoud. Bedirkhan Bey was the emir of the Kurds of the Botan area, and the ruler of his own principality within the Ottoman Empire until the middle of the 19th century. Khan Mahmoud was one of the bey’s principal allies. In the mid-19th century, the Ottoman authorities sent the army, under the command of Osman Pasha, to subdue Bedirkhan and to subject him to central rule. The song describes the moment of the arrival of Osman Pasha’s forces to arrest Bedirkhan Bey after the latter’s capitulation.
Bedirhan Bey dedi hey kapı kapı Amaneeyyyy Osman Paşa dedi hey şaşkın ahmak Amaneeyyy Bedirhan bey dedi Amaneeyyy Osman Paşa dedi |
Anedzk
A duet, performed by Shoushanig and Vagharshak Shahinian. The song was composed, and the lyrics written, by Ashough [Minstrel] Pilo (Kasbarian), who was born in Yerevan in 1893 and died in 1932. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Ges kisher yes oo yarus miasin | It was midnight, my sweetheart and I, together, But why was my sweetheart so sad that night? Suddenly my sweetheart looked at me with tearful eyes, I trembled all over, like a leaf With a pained heart, I cursed my sweetheart, May your road dry up and turn to rocks, |
Chem u Chem
The first part of the song is sung by Antranig Shahinian. Vagharshak Shahinian and Dikranouhi (Vagharshak’s sister) join in later. Recorded in Yerevan, in 1963, during a family gathering in the home of Kapriel Khanoyan. This song, with its lyrics and notes, appears in Mihran Toumadjan's work (Hayreni Yerk ou Par, volume 4, Yerevan, 2005). This work also includes other songs from Van, which Mihran Toumadjan learned directly from Vagharshak and Shoushanig.
girl: | (Girl) (Boy) (Girl) (Boy) (Girl) (Boy) (Girl) VAGHARSHAK: That’s the rest of it… Mentions the shirt… |
Kharmirn Nusder Er Atorin [Kharmir Was Sitting on the Chair]
Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Shoushanig Shahinian (at very end of the song). Antranig Shahinian accompanies on the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958.
Orn er oorpat looys giragi Klookhn arin pacha geran | The day was Friday, before Sunday, [Dukhvan] got up and went to the city, One said, let’s beat him and trounce him, Let’s neither trounce him nor blind him, Let’s take him to the Mosque, make him convert, Kharmir is sitting on the chair, They dragged [him?] off to the [?] cave. They cut off his head and made pacha with it. |
Takvor Inch Perem Ko Nman
This was a wedding song dedicated to the groom, or the takvor (takavor, king) of the day. Sung by Dikranouhi and an unidentified man. Dikranouhi was Vagharshak’s sister, who lived in Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea. She had traveled to Yerevan to participate in a family gathering during which this recording was made – in 1978, in the home of Kapriel Khanoyan. The occasion was Vagharshak Shahinian’s family’s visit to Armenia to bury his remains in a special grave adjacent to the Sardarapat Monument.
Takvor inch perem ko numan Takvor inch perem ko numan | King, what could I compare you to? King, what could I compare you to? King, what could I compare you to? The clove flower that blooms, |
Dolama Geymişem
A Turkish song. Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958. We are grateful to Deniz T. Kilincoglu, Samiye Demir, and Zeynel Demir for the transcription of the lyrics.
Amaney… Amaney… Amaney… Amaney… Amaney… Amaney… Sensin Lalo Lalo can Lalo |
Bayburt’un Ince Yolunda
This is a Turkish song about the city of Bayburt/Papert. Sung by Vagharshak Shahinian, accompanied by Antranig Shahinian on the dumbeg. Recorded in Antranig and Alice’s home, in River Edge (New Jersey), in 1958. We are grateful to Deniz T. Kilincoglu, Samiye Demir, and Zeynel Demir for the transcription of the lyrics.
Bayburt’un ince yolunda yolunda Bayburt Kalası’nda fesi mi kaldı [2x] Bayburt Kalası’nda püskülüm kaldı [2x] Ergen kızlar alsın bizim [benim] kadami |
Front row, left to right: Isgouhi Tohaftjian (nee Arsenian; Shoushanig Tohaftjian-Shahinian’s mother); Shoushanig Tohaftjian (later Shahinian); Garabed Tohaftjian (Shoushanig’s father); Zarmair Tohaftjian (Shoushanig’s brother); Ohannes Arsenian (Shoushanig’s maternal grandfather); Paul Arsenian (son of Vartan Arsenian and his wife Zarouhi; sitting on Ohannes’s lap); Vartan Arsenian (Isgouhi’s brother); Marina Arsenian (later Chobanian; Vartan and Zarouhi’s daughter); and Zarouhi Arsenian (nee Haroutunian; Vartan’s wife).
Back row, standing, left to right: Haig Teokmanian (husband of Isgouhi’s sister, Zarouhi) and Garine Krikorian.
- 1. Van, circa 1914. Left to right: Kevork Shahinian’s wife (seated; name unknown; died during the First World War during the journey from Van to the Caucasus); Antranig/Andreas (standing; front row; died in Baku around 1918); Dikranouhi (standing, back row); Kevork (seated); and Siroon (standing; later Mangurian). The family’s original surname was Kevorkian. During the war and the ensuing deportations, it adopted the name Shahinian. Antranig, Dikranouhi, and Siroon were Kevork Shahinian’s children. Kevork’s other son, Vagharshak, does not appear in this photograph.
- 2. Vagharshak Shahinian, Shoushanig Shahinian, and their son Antranig/Andy, circa 1920, probably in Constantinople. The photograph was taken before Vagharshak left for the United States. Later, the rest of the family would join him there.
- 3. From left to right: Vagharshak Shahinian, Antranig Shahinian (Vagharshak’s son), and Kevork Shahinian (Vagharshak’s father). Photograph probably taken in 1933, in the Bronx, New York.
1. Papken Melkonian, 2. Diane Arabian, 3. Virginia Shahinian Melkonian, 4. Shake Shahinian, 5. Shoushanig Shahinian, 6. George Shahinian, 7. Alice Zemanian, 8. Vagharshak Shahinian, 9. Armen Zemanian, 10. Angel Gozigian, 11. Carl Gozigian, 12. Filor Zemanian, 13. Levon Dickran, 14. Jack Arabian
A nielloed silver tobacco box, manufactured in Van. On one side is an engraved image of a female figure representing Armenia, sitting amidst ruins, with Mount Ararat in the background. On the other side is an engraving of Saint Vartan Mamigonian. This item is part of the Shahinian family collection.
Antranig Shahinian’s dumbeg (darbuka, dumbelek), which he often played during festive family gatherings. Photographed by Brenda Shahinian.
