Sheram: Songs with music notation in Armenian and transliterated English lyrics

It is with great pleasure that we announce the publication of one of Armenia’s most important ashoughs’ works in transliterated English for the first time in history. Ashough Sheram is one of the most prominent Armenian traditional ashoughs (bard singers). Having been born in 1857 in Aleksandropol (currently Gyumri) as Grigor Talyan, he received “Sheram” as his musical avatar for weaving beautiful melodies.

More than 100 songs of Sheram are included in this book, each with a music notation and Armenian lyrics transliterated into English. The reader also gets a deeper understanding of Sheram’s ability as a poet of love by reading around thirty of his songs translated into English for the first time.

There are five chapters in the book: Love Songs, From the Sad Past, Satirical, Dances, and Appendix. The first four chapters of this book contain transcriptions of songs written by Sheram’s son, composer Vardges Talyan circa 1948. There are also transcriptions of several songs by another scholar, musicologist Aram Kocharyan.

This book ends with transcriptions of the most popular songs of Sheram, as performed by two of his greatest interpreters, Araksya Gyulzadyan and Ofelia Hambardzumyan.