Arno Babadjanian: An Armenian Beat in Soviet Time

The new monograph on the life and work of Arno Harutyunovich Babajanian is a valuable contribution to Armenian musicology. In addition to many completely new, hitherto unknown facts about the life and work of one of the most outstanding musicians in Soviet reality, the book attracts with the universality of its content. Here one can find many chapters that once again prove the unique antiquity and richness of the history of the Armenian people, especially our musical culture. Of particular importance are the sections devoted to an in-depth description of the socio-political and creative environment that surrounded Babajanian (starting with his mentors, colleagues and friends both in the USSR and beyond). Of considerable interest are the pages in which the author of the book, an outstanding multifaceted cultural figure in her own right, describes episodes from her life, oftentimes directly related to Babajanian’s music and indicating its strong influence on her development as a professional musician. Particularly pleasing is the soundness of the general view of Soviet reality, a quality rather rare, especially among Western authors. As the first English-language study, this book has every chance of being more widely distributed than previous Babajanian publications in Russian and Armenian.