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About the Score

Alto and Piano

Alto and Guitar

Soprano or Tenor and Piano

The Swallows is based on the poem by Gourgen Mahari, as translated from the Armenian in English by James Russell. The Armenian poet Gourgen Mahari, who died in the USSR in 1969 is lamenting his many compatriots who were exiled, dispossessed and killed in 1915. This song with its slow limping 7/4 evokes the tiredness of the swallows (who represent the Armenian nation) trying to make their way home and the fact that they may never reach it. This version for tenor and piano has not been performed as yet so the sound sample is an electronic preview. However, the version for alto and piano can be heard on the video shown here.

== The Swallows == Far in the distant Nile Valley down down nameless highways unknown, where the Dead Sea`s gloomy ripples break, straining on their way unfinished home, with a song in their hearts, the swallows died, unable to return. Far in the distant Nile Valley down down nameless highways unknown. They never came back to adorn the Spring with heady song, to chant with the winds the green meadow, rebuild abandoned nests. They died on distant mountains, plains afar, unable to return. Far away. Can they subsist with the love of our hearts or our gardens` blossoms gay or our joyous vernal rains? They who died on the way unfinished home. Far in the distant Nile Valley. Unable to return.

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