Arax

Armenian folk music is the traditional music of the Armenian people, traceable to antiquity and preserved through rich regional styles. It is unified by shared modal systems, vocal ornaments, and poetic song forms that give it a distinctive Armenian character despite local dialects and variants. Typical instruments include the duduk (double‑reed apricot wood oboe), the kamancha/kemenche (spike fiddle), the oud (fretless lute), the zurna and dhol (outdoor shawm and drum pair), the shvi/blul (duct flutes), the kanun (plucked zither), and the tar. Vocal genres range from work songs (horovel) and laments to epic and love ballads associated with the ashugh (bardic) tradition, alongside lively line dances such as kochari, shalakho, and tamzara. In sound and structure it is closely related to other Caucasian and West Asian traditions, sharing melodic types, asymmetric rhythms (e.g., 5/8, 7/8, 9/8), and ornamentation with Georgia, Azerbaijan, and eastern Anatolia, yet retaining unmistakable Armenian melodic turns and cadences.

Duduk is the musical tradition centered on the Armenian double‑reed woodwind of the same name, carved from apricot wood and known for its warm, breathy, and mournful tone. In performance, a lead duduk plays the melody while a second duduk sustains a continuous drone (called the dam), creating a floating, modal soundscape. Its repertoire ranges from laments and lyrical songs to dance tunes and free, improvisatory preludes. The sound has become emblematic of Armenian identity, yet it also resonates across West Asia and, in recent decades, global film and ambient music for its evocative, melancholic color.