Five Musical Moments for Brass Quintet by Petros Shoujounian is a work of contrasts. Each movement inspired by Armenian folk song is unique and different from the others, yet they have an integrated feeling when performed as a whole work.

The work is about 11 minutes in length and appropriate for advanced performers.

Here is what the composer says about this work:

My interest in the collected works of Komitas's ethnographical songs was aroused when I was introduced to Bela Bartok's similar works followed by Alan Hovhaness's huge creative world. Bartok completed his project having at his disposal a large collection of ethnographic music, while Hovhannes studied the wealth of Komitas's music with great interest. It is difficult to say to what extent the Armenian underpinning of Hovhannes's works is nurtured by Komitas's musical world, but his classical interpretation of the Armenian ethnographical music created a huge interest in the listener. Needless to say, there is also Aram Katchaturian's legacy, which at its core has the ardent presence of the Armenian spirit, nurtured by Komitas's very existence.

Komitas has left a collection of about 3,000 cleaned versions of the ethnographic song and dance pieces, of which 1,700 has reaches us, about 400 of which have been activated.

I believe that in those beautiful musical fragments reside the power to be revived, once we enrich them with colorful musical instruments and unbounded polyphonic imagination.

This is the motivation behind my own work and these Five Musical Moments for Brass Quintet: to make the essence of our ethnographic music accessible through Komitas

Petros Shoujounian

Click here to download the score