Narses the Armenian - Epic Byzantine Music

Music arranged by Farya Faraji, vocals by Farya Faraji. Please keep in mind that this isn’t reconstructed Byzantine music, only modern music with a thematic idea of the Byzantine empire. Narses, along with Belisarius, was one of the great generals of Justinian and Theodora’s era, fighting for the reconquest of the Italian peninsula along with many other battles. An Armenian, he was born in a region known as Persarmenia, then under the control of the Sasanian Empire, and he himself was from the Kamsarakan family, linked genealogically to the House of Karen, one of the seven great noble houses of the Parthians. Agathias Scholasticus says of him “He was a man of sound mind, and clever at adapting himself to the times. He was not versed in literature nor practiced in oratory, but made up for it by the fertility of his wits,“ and as “small and of a lean habit, but stronger and more high-spirited than would have been believed.“ Narses entered the court of Justinian and rose through the ranks. At one point, Justinian changed a law which barred eunuchs from accessing the high position of patrician, just so that Narses, himself a eunuch, could become a patrician. From there, Narses would serve Justinian as one of his greatest generals amassing many victories, the most important ones being in Italy. After the reconquest, he would oversee renovation projects in Italy as well as the city of Rome, and importantly, he was the last general of Roman history to ever receive an official triumph within the city of Rome itself. A strongly religious man, he held a specific devotion to the Virgin Mary, and supposedly never went into battle without her consent. This is a composition I based around folk melodic motifs from the region of the Armenian highlands in eastern Anatolia played on the duduk, an Armenian instrument commonly found in Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish music of the region. I wanted to capture the essence of Armenian music from the Armenian highlands, and therefore used the duduk, an instrument that I generally can’t stand in most soundtracks and “epic style music.“ The duduk represents for me the apex of the West’s disinterest with understanding the music of the East: any time a film in the West is set in the Middle-East or in some ancient era like Rome or Greece, it’ll automatically use the duduk, because after the film Gladiator, the duduk has cemented itself into Western minds as “that ancient/eastern“ sounding instrument. There’s loads of videos with millions of views on YouTube called “ancient Egyptian music,“ that use the duduk, an Armenian instrument from the Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia, because as far as pop-culture is concerned, it’s such some vague Eastern sounding instrument and all Eastern music is the same anyway--it would be like having Italian mandolins in a song about Vikings because “whatever they’re both in Europe it’s all the same music anyway.“ Supposedly Arabic themed music set in Morocco will use the duduk if the music is written by Westerners. Soundtracks about ancient Rome also have an automatic fixation on the duduk, and Rome 2 Total War’s soundtrack for example utilises this Armenian instrument unrelated to Rome to represent the concept of the Roman Empire, because that strong association has cemented itself ever since Hans Zimmer’s use of the instrument in his soundtrack (one of my favourite soundtracks by the way, I’m not criticising his use, only the secondary effect it generated in pop culture). I want to stress that my use of the instrument here is a calculated one, and though you’ve probably heard it in hundreds of other epic music pieces with a historical theme, those tend to randomly use it in inappropriate contexts such as Iranian, Arabic or Indian-themed pieces, or even Roman, based on that general lack of knowledge of Eastern and ancient music and this general attitude of “whatever it sounds vaguely Eastern and ancient, good enough for me.“ If you’re reading this, please keep in mind that the duduk is more than some vague instrument that can be applied randomly in every ancient and eastern context: it’s a specific instrument with Armenian roots, with a specific use geographically in Eastern Anatolia, the Southern Caucasus and parts of Northern Iran, deeply linked to Armenian music with presence in other neigbouring cultures of the area also. I added a saz, a Greek lauto, davul drums and an oud to the instrumentation, with all these instruments being found both in Greek and Armenian music except for the lauto, only found in Greece. The lyrics are a prayer to the Virgin Mary, since I wanted to reflect his strong devotion to her, with the form of Armenian found here being an archaic one. The pronunciation is the Iranian dialect. English translation of the lyrics: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.