There was some very good news in the New York Times yesterday. I usually do not post articles, but, I thought this was special. Meline is Armenian and is a freelance writer who has a deep knowledge of music. To my absolute surprise, she attended the same Armenian Camp (Camp Hayastan) as many of us back in the late 1980's. I think her piece in the NYT was fantastic and she should be commended.

Timely Hymns to a Timeless City
By MELINE TOUMANI
New York Times

Published: March 7, 2004

In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, the transformation to a free
market can practically be measured in days. Thirteen years after the
end of the Soviet Union, high-end boutiques, fancy foreign restaurants
and Internet cafes are among the more obvious signs of change. But
these novelties are superficial. Just as the Soviet era failed to
homogenize Yerevan - which, at 2,700 years, is one of the oldest
cities on earth - the forces of the free market will have a tough time
remaking it.

For proof, listen to the music of Lilit Pipoyan, a Yerevan native and
one of the most beloved artists in Armenia today. A vocalist, pianist
and guitarist, Ms. Pipoyan sets ancient Armenian texts to original
music, sings elegant interpretations of coarse village songs and
writes new lyrics and music inspired by these traditions. Her voice -
heady in both the musical and the metaphorical sense - has the ringing
perfection and acrobatic flourish of opera and the warmth of a mother
singing a lullaby.

Ms. Pipoyan's album "One Day of the City" (available from
armenianmegastore.com) leans more modern than her previous work, but
modern in a way that reflects Armenia's consuming sense of its
antiquity. In this tiny country in the Caucasus, writers who have been
dead for centuries are discussed as though they came to dinner last
week, and conquests from the Byzantine era are mentioned almost as
current events. Yet Ms. Pipoyan's amalgam of traditional and
contemporary idioms also has an interpretive freedom that speaks
volumes about the newly unencumbered society in which it was created.

The album begins with three songs about a city in transition (Yerevan,
clearly). In "One Day," Eastern-tinged arpeggios on guitar are joined
by light, syncopated percussion, which gives energy and motion. Here
and in other songs, a flute's embellishments and a cello's plaint lend
the characteristic pathos of Armenian folk music.

Ms. Pipoyan maintains a consistent sound, distinguished above all by
her brilliant, ornate vocal interpretations. She saves her dreamiest,
most capacious compositions for early lyrics, as in "Far From You" and
"My Beloved," with texts from the 14th and 18th centuries. Her
interpretation of the village song "Cold Waters" is spirited and
graceful. Depending on the tune, Ms. Pipoyan can sound like an Eastern
answer to Edith Piaf or Joni Mitchell.

While Ms. Pipoyan's odes to Yerevan provide a thoughtful framework,
the real soul of the album is the traditional "Cilicia." The mournful,
patriotic lyrics embody a fantasy about returning to Cilicia, a patch
of land in modern-day Turkey in which Armenians took refuge in the
12th century. Since that resettlement at Cilicia is considered the
origin of the Armenian diaspora, the song evokes strong feelings for
far-flung Armenians, many of whom have never actually seen Cilicia or
Armenia itself.

Ms. Pipoyan's rendition may annoy purists, but others will love her
lilting way with the heavy words and her guitar picking, which has the
tinny staccato of a music box. They may never want to hear "Cilicia"
belted around a dinner table again.

Meline Toumani is a writer based in New York.