Three Arias

The title Three Arias was chosen by Tigran Mansurian to emphasize the vocal character of the viola’s solo part. In fact, he had started working on this composition with vocal sketches.

The melody as a bearer of moods and emotions is central. However, various formal aspects of the classical instrumental concerto (such as three-movement form, cadence, reprise, chaconne or rondo form) cannot be denied.

The basic mood in Three Arias is full of grief and longing, the longing referring to the ancient Armenian sites which are now on the other side of the border on Turkish territory – the mountains of Sassoun (Sason) and the ruins of Ani. Here more than thousand-year-old churches testify the glory of the ancient capital of Armenia, once the most splendid in the world and now abandoned for centuries.

A visible symbol (from today’s Armenia) for the loss and the unattainability is the holy Mount Ararat – hence the subtitle Sung Out the Window Facing Mount Ararat. About the third movement, the third aria, Mansurian says that ‘the orchestral colours reflect, as it were, the ornaments of the architectural monuments.’