Cynthia Zaven: Madrigal d’Essilio

»Madrigal d’Essilio« is a composition for 6 voices, inspired by Dante’s »Divine Comedy« and Sayat Nova’s poem »Tamam Ashkhar« (The Whole World).

Dante and Sayat Nova were both timeless poets who grappled with the human condition in exile. Both chose the vernacular to write their stories: Dante in Tuscan Italian, Sayat Nova in Tiflis Armenian.

While Dante Alighieri is well-known in the West, Sayat Nova remains largely unknown. Sayat Nova, an Armenian ashough or troubadour, was born in 18th-century Georgia, at a time when national states did not exist. He traveled throughout the Caucasus and was fluent in Eastern Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Persian, and some Arabic. His works are predominantly secular and filled with romantic expressionism.

Both writers experienced exile, both literally and metaphorically. They found a sense of home in their works or in love.