Track Listing

1. Groonk
2. Oor Es Mayr Eem
3. Siege
4. Something in your Heart
5. Ancient History
6. Need to be Remembered
7. The Dance
8. Mothers and Sons
9. Yeraz
10. They will take my Island
11. Ani
12. His Land was Lost
13. Final Stand
14. Silent Witness
15. Call to Action
16. The Power to Imagine
17. How Did He Die?
18. Return to Ararat
19. All that is Sacred
20. The Ghost of my Father

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193762 in Music
• Released on: 2009-01-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Original language: Armenian, English, French, German

Album Description
Ararat by Mychael Danna

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Amazon.com
The ongoing collaboration between composer Mychael Danna and film director Atom Egoyan has yielded numerous soundtrack gems, but Ararat ranks among their very best. Egoyan's complex film-within-a-film revolves around the Armenian genocide of 1915. Not surprisingly, regional folk instruments and choral singing play a dramatic role on this effort. Danna and Egoyan recorded much of the Armenian music on location, in a sixth-century stone church with no electricity, but it blends in perfectly with the composer's more sophisticated orchestral arrangements. This is dark, moody, and minor-keyed (not to mention gorgeous) music. By focusing on the plaintive sounds of a solo trumpet or duduk (Armenian flute) and the occasional choral track, Danna has created a truly haunting and mysterious score. A wonderful soundtrack. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

One of the best film scores to come out in a long time.
The score for "Ararat" is one of the better film scores to come out in several years. While some of it definately "sounds like movie music," a lot of it is original sounding and could easily make the leap to the concert platform with a few tweaks (or if you got some Armenian folk musicians to sit in!)

Composer Mychael Danna incorporated Armenian folk & sacred music into the more traditional score for western orchestra. The results are absolutely spellbinding. The duduk (somewhat similar to an oboe, but that's just to give an idea) and the kanune combine well with orchestra, and at times take on a "concerto-like" relationship to the orchestra.

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian's voice is spellbinding (her solo CDs are also amazing and worth picking up.) At times, her voice, combined with Danna's music make it hard to choke back the tears. The music is just that powerful in places.

Most of the music is somber, yet hopeful...but one would expect somber music from a movie dealing with such a tough subject.

Music bursting with emotions, Reminisence of The Gladiator
Spectacular ! There are two reasons why I will recommend this CD. First, as it is related to my heritage, Armenian, this soundtrack does a wonderful job of representing Ararat, a movie about how Armenian Genocide performed by Turks affected an Armenian family whose members are trying to come to terms with their painful past in their own ways. The music is so emotional and passionate that it almost tells a story by itself, it's hard not be captured by it.

Those of you who are fond of the legendary movie The Gladiator and its music will appreciate this CD as it has the same instrument (it's called duduk) that makes the wind voice and shares certain characteristics. Also, there are other instruments that orchestral and convential of Armenian heritage, all of which are quite soothing.
If you loved the Gladiator music, you'll love this too !

Fantastic
This album offers the best mix of orchestral and ethnic Armenian music I've ever heard. Mychael Danna did a superb job in composing this soundtrack. Soundtracks, in my opinion, are what make or break a movie, and in this case, it made a very well done movie even more outstanding.

What makes this album even more special is the use of ethnic instruments along with orchestral ones, plus a choir. The sound quality is remarkable. It's so good, in fact, that I was surprised when I read that the choir recording was actually done in a 6th century stone church in Armenia under poor conditions.

Both movie and soundtrack were very well done. My most sincere appreciation to both Mychael Danna and Atom Egoyan.

If you haven't seen the movie or bought the soundtrack, what are you waiting for?