- Udi Hrant Kenkulian
Udi Hrant Kenkulian (1901–
August 29 ,1978 ), often referred to as Udi Hrant ("oud -player Hrant") or as Hrant Emre ("Hrant of the soul") was anoud player ofTurkish classical music , and a key transitional figure in its transformation into a contemporary popular music. He was an ethnic Armenian citizen ofTurkey who spent most of his life in Turkey and wrote most of his lyrics in Turkish. He went to theUnited States of America to have his blindness treated, and performed while in America.As an oud player, he was a major innovator, introducing left-hand
pizzicato , bidirectional picking (the tradition had been to use the pick only on the downstroke),double stop s, and novel tunings (sometimes usingopen tuning s or tuning the paired strings inoctave s instead of to a single note). According to Harold G. Hagopian, he was most respected for his improvisational "taksim ".Born near
Istanbul , declared blind four days after his birth, Hrant as a child sang in the choir of anArmenian Apostolic Church . His family fled toKonya in 1915 to escape theArmenian Genocide ; there Hrant first studied the oud, with a teacher named Garabed. In 1918 the family returned west, first toAdapazarı and then to Istanbul, where Hrant continued his musical studies under some of the leading teachers of the time, includingKemani Agopos Ayvazyan ,Dikran Katsakhian , andUdi Krikor Berberian . Somewhere along the way he also learned to speak French, and was actually accepted at age 16 to aParis -based school for the blind, but he contractedtyphoid fever and was unable to travel.Several attempts (including by doctors in
Vienna ) failed to restore his eyesight, which prevented him from playing in ensembles. He made a modest living playing in cafes, giving music lessons, and selling instruments. There is some question about when he first recorded; he claimed to have made a record as early as age 19, but his earliest known recordings would appear to be from no earlier than 1927, since they used an electronicmicrophone .In 1928, he fell in love with Ağavini, the sister of one of his students, but her parents would not let her marry a musician; they met again by accident in 1937 and married ten years later. In the meantime, he had written numerous songs about his desire for an absent love.
He slowly, but steadily, gained more fame as a musician. Some of his Turkish recordings were released internationally as early as the 1930s, first on
RCA Victor , and later on such labels as Balkan (New York), Perfectaphone and Yildiz (probably, according to Hagopian, a single company, address unknown), and Istanbul (Los Angeles). ComposerŞeirf Içli introduced him toKanuni Ismail Şençalar , in whose group he played for a while, leading to opportunities to perform onAnkara Radio . In 1950, a wealthyGreek American brought him to America for another (unsuccessful) attempt at restoring his eyesight. The trip, however, led to a series of concerts inNew York City ,Boston ,Detroit ,Los Angeles , andFresno, California , playing both Turkish classical music and his own compositions. This tour apparently increased his prestige at home: he began to perform frequently onIstanbul Radio , first as a soloist and later with a chorus he formed. It also recorded in U.S. recording sessions for Smyrnaphon and Oriental Moods. The former, according to Hagopian, are marred by his being "paired... with inferior musicians". The latter were a deluxe set, believed to be the first ever inclusion of an oud with a violin and piano in achamber music setting, issued in an elaborately packaged set withEnglish language titles given to the songs. The recording included both Hrant's originals and classic songs byKanuni Artaki ,Bimen Şen , and others. During his trips to the U.S., he conducted master classes with young Armenian-American oud players such asRichard Hagopian ,John Berberian , andHarry Minassian .His recordings for Balkan, (with
Şükrü Tunar on clarinet,Ahmet Yatman on kanun andAli Kocadine on drum, are notable for the fact that although they were recorded in Turkey, with a mix of Turkish and Armenian musicians, they include lyrics in Armenian; he also did other records with Turkish lyrics with the same line-up. His original songs written in Armenian include "Parov Yegar Siroon Yar," "Siroon Aghchig," "Anoosh Yaren Heratsa," "Khrjit," and "Srdis Vra Kar Me Ga."He toured internationally again in 1963, playing in
Paris ,Beirut ,Greece , theUnited States , andYerevan , then the capital of theArmenian Soviet Socialist Republic . He recorded again in the U.S. at this time, but according to Hagopian the recordings are "inferior... for small labels and record producers eager to capitalize on the 'belly-dance craze'".His last performance was in Istanbul in April 1978, at which time he was already suffering from the cancer that would kill him that August.
Recordings
The only Udi Hrant recordings currently in print would appear to be:
* "Udi Hrant", Traditional Crossroads CD (1950 New York recordings)
** "Udi Hrant",Kalan Müzik CD (1995 reissue in Turkey) out of stock [http://www.kalan.com/english/scripts/album/dispalbum.asp?id=127]as of 2007
* "Udi Hrant, Early Recordings, Vol. I", Traditional Crossroads CD (1995)
* "Udi Hrant, Early Recordings, Vol. II", Traditional Crossroads CD (1995)References
* Harold G. Hagopian, notes to the CD "Udi Hrant: The Early Recordings, Volume I", Traditional Crossroads CD 4270.
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