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Al. Spendiaryan Qanon Ensemble: Traditional Armenian Qanon Music

Summary

Al. Spendiaryan Qanon Ensemble performs music on the qanon, a string instrument played in much of the Middle East, Maghreb, West Africa, Central Asia, and southeastern regions of Europe. This concert is presented in association with the 2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Event Date

June 26, 2018

Notes

• Founded by musician and educator Tsovinar Hovhannisyan, the Al. Spendiaryan Qanon Ensemble was created to encourage Armenian girls and young women to take up an instrument traditionally played by men. The Ensemble has gone on to produce virtuosic musicians, sparking a "gender revolution" in their wake and bringing fresh energy to concert stages around the world. The qanon is a large zither with a thin trapezoidal soundboard. It is related to the santur and the hammered dulcimer, and is thought to trace its origins back to Assyria, where an ancestral homologue might have been used in Mesopotamian royal courts and religious ceremonies. The name derives from the Arabic word qanun, meaning "rule, law, norm, principle."

Related Resources

American Folklife Center: https://www.loc.gov/folklife/

Running Time

56 minutes 18 seconds

https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8550