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By Edward Manukyan
A speech given at the California State University, Los Angeles. December 18, 2006.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!

I am here to talk about folk music and it's use to composers. I'd like to focus on a question I often hear from my friends and colleagues. Namely, “If you don’t use folk themes in your works, then what exactly is your association with folk music?”

Let me touch on this subject very briefly, since there isn’t much time left, and maybe expand a little more onto discussing folk music from a more scientific perspective.

I generally don’t use folk melodies in my music, both in terms of presenting them in direct quotations and “dressing them up” by colorful orchestration or other techniques. I still consider myself a composer who is heavily based on folklore traditions, because I use the very minimal elements of folk music, which, to me, provide greater wealth, than the mere incorporation of any specific melodies.

In order to give a more accurate idea of how I apply the elements of national music to my own works, I have to provide a few words that unfold my aesthetic philosophy regarding folk music. By studying the folk songs I discovered for myself that understanding the meaningful simplicity in music may be the best strategy for achieving higher goals as a composer. And a composer, who is in search for more and more “depth” and often vastly preoccupied by compositional techniques, may easily leave unnoticed a simple and beautiful idea, the understanding of which could have become his greatest success. Of course, I am far from speaking in disfavor of intellectualizing the process of music composition. Quite the opposite, I firmly believe that a “scientific” approach to understanding the essence of music is of great benefits. But I believe that a great amount of attention should also be directed towards experiencing what has been called “meaningful simplicity” in folk music.

For example, take this simple rhythmic motif - a dotted eighth note, beamed to a sixteenth note and an eighth note, and three eighth notes beamed together, as a six/eight pattern. This motif is widely used in Armenian folk music and in most countries near the Caucasus region and further east and south. I couldn’t believe the potentials of this minimal unit when I began analyzing the extent of its use! It becomes clear, upon close observation, This small cell can explode into millions of potential melodic and rhythmic ideas in the hands of an inspired composer. It could be argued that any motif may be used as such a cell and that it perhaps makes no difference what that motif actually is. Sure, a master composer can turn anything into gold; we can all marvel endlessly at what Beethoven was able to do with a simple four-note motif in his fifth symphony, for example. But it can't be denied that the motifs, extracted from folk songs, possess an even greater potential. It is not surprising at all, if you notice that the most common motifs in folk music have certain characteristics that are appealing even by themselves, out of any context. For example, that six/eight motif I just referred to is capable of providing some kind of a comforting feeling that seems to set itself in motion and go in circles - comparable to a feeling an unborn baby may experience in its mother’s womb as she walks. Apparently, its appeal had been recognized by people, generations after generations, ultimately becoming an inseparable part of Armenian folk music. Folk musics from other nations have characteristic elements that are similar to this.

The evolutionary explanation of folk music - the fact that songs created by peasants pass through a long process of filtering and refinement before they establish themselves as “folk songs” - is of profound importance to me. Although I am barely scratching the surface, I am still happy beyond measure that my interests in sciences have helped me understand the little that I do about the nature of folk music. Thank you for your attention.

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