DETROIT — It is said that music transcends cultures, colors and nationalities. But with the Armenian American community, music has transcended continents and traveled through generations to symbolize the survival of the culture from war, massacres and estrangement.   

Armenian American musician Ara Topouzian, who plays the qanun, a flat string instrument, will produce a documentary to archive the history of Armenian music in Detroit.

Topouzian said the idea for the documentary came after he received a grant through the Kresge Foundation, which allowed him to present at Art X Detroit. 

“I wanted to pay homage to the Armenian musician and the Armenian folk music that played in Detroit,” he said. “I had a lecture presentation, followed by a concert. We were a small group and played traditional Armenian music. I thought this would be a great documentary.” 

Topouzian applied for the Detroit Knights Arts Challenge and received a $12,000 matching grant to finance his project. The matching grant means that Topouzian has to raise the same amount in donations to receive the full $12,000 from the Knights Foundation.

He is partnering with the Miami Foundation to secure the matching funds.

 The musician said he would like to present the documentary on public television. 

“It would be a perfect PBS type of program,” he said. “Also, the concert at Art X was recorded live. I want to release the CD of the concert at the same time as the documentary starts.” 

Topouzian.

Topouzian said there existed only a few thousand Armenians in Metro Detroit at the turn of the last century. But as Armenians fled a genocide committed by the Ottoman empire in 1915, they escaped Turkey for places all over the world.

“A lot of them came to Detroit because of the auto industry,” he explained. “They settled and made a families, but one of the elements that would remind them of their homeland was music.”

Topouzian added that in the absence of tape recorders, music was passed vocally through the generations. 

“Musicians from the old country would whistle, hum, sing Armenian songs to the younger generation, and they brought it to this country,” he said. “Some of the young musicians and the older ones came here as well. There was a strong desire for this culture to be established and created here in Detroit.” 

Thousands of Armenians lived in Highland Park and Delray, which is now a part of Detroit. But in the early stages of the 1900’s Armenian music was only heard at weddings, according to Topouzian. 

By the late 1940’s, clubs started playing Armenian music on some evenings to draw in the Armenian immigrants. 

“Local musicians would go and play, and the Armenians would flock there because there was nowhere else to hear this stuff,” he said. “The younger generation, now in their 70’s or 80’s, and some have passed, would play on Armenian nights.” 

Toupozian said most of the clubs where Armenians first started playing their own music in Detroit no longer exist. 

He added that a typical Armenian band at the time constituted of a clarinet, drum kit, oud and sometimes a qanun or a violin. 

“Guitar did not come until the 60’s with rock n’ roll,” he said. “The early bands were very traditional, a small ensemble of four or five pieces.”

Topouzian added that Armenian musicians during that time performed with other ethnic groups, including Arabs, Greeks, Jews and Turks. 

“They had a musical connection that they could all relate to, so they could all play together,” he said. “You don’t see a lot of that today, especially with the political climate. All of our music is somewhat similar. We have similar instruments, similar scales and a similar background of growing up into the music.”

The musician said that as different music traditions evolved, belly dance music became a common bond between Arabic, Greek and Turkish music.

He added that Armenian music is more universal and open to incorporating aspects of other musical cultures.

“Armenians would take the first two minutes of a Fareed al-Atrach or Um Kalthum song, improvise and turn it into a dance song,” he said. 

Topouzian said he mostly plays traditional Armenian music but tries to add a Jazz spin to it, making it more appealing to younger people.

He says he feels responsible for preserving the music and passing it to the next generation.

“In Detroit, the music scene isn’t what it used to be in terms of getting out there and performing on a weekly basis, in parts because of the size of the population. There are 30,000 to 40,000 Armenians in Metro Detroit. There were more in the past,” he explained. “A part of my duty as a musician is to pass the music somehow. I am trying to do what I can to preserve it. I hope the documentary will help.” 

Topouzian said he mostly learned how to play the qanun by watching and listening to other musicians. 

“Nobody in my family plays music. I learned by watching bands. The music was fantastic. Qanun is not a very popular Armenian American instrument. I would travel to the east coast for concerts. There was a qanun player called Jack Chalikian. I would stand over him and watch,” he said.

He added that Chalikian would take him to his room to practice for a few hours and call him from the crowd to stand behind him to watch how the instrument is played during concerts.

Topouzian said his neighbor also played the oud and would take him on prolonged car rides to listen to classical Middle Eastern and Armenian music.

“I was exposed to that. His advice to me was to listen as much as I can,” he said.

To contact Topouzian or contribute to the project go to: www.aratopouzian.com.

After finishing the documentary, Topouzian is hoping to complete a “tough” project to celebrate the survival of the Armenian people and music.

“2015 is the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. There’s nothing happy about that occasion whatsoever,” he said. “But what one can derive from this is the fact that Armenians survived, and the culture survived, and the music survived. I would like to present an evening of Armenian music — the lively songs, happy songs, party songs — at an American venue in Detroit to show the other side of the tragedy.”