The Naghash Ensemble's Newly Written Christmas Oratorio
The Christmas Oratorio is an evening-length piece based on a combination of ancient and contemporary sacred Armenian poetry about the birth of Christ. The project comprises mostly newly written music and several radical adaptations of traditional Armenian Christmas songs. This work breathes new life into the Armenian Christmas celebrations, a holiday long overshadowed by Soviet New Year’s.
“A unique hybrid of world music and contemporary classical music.” — NAI
Notes from the composer
“After writing, recording, and touring with The Naghash Ensemble’s “Songs of Exile”, I wanted to find a way for the music to be ideally expressed without any limitations. In rewriting for string orchestra what had originally been a string quartet part and then made into a piano part for the sake of the traveling ensemble, I felt liberated to expand upon the many polyrhythms and contrapuntal lines that had been in the original score.”
— John Hodian
