# Sheram
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thumb|Sheram on a 2007 Armenian stamp
'''Sheram''' ({{Langx|hy|Շերամ|4=silkworm}}, born '''Grigor Talian'''; 20 March 1857 – 7 March 1938) was an [Armenian](/source/Armenians) composer and bard (''[ashugh](/source/ashugh)'' or ''[gusan](/source/Gusans)''). A native of [Alexandropol](/source/Alexandropol) (Gyumri), the center of the Armenian ''ashughs'', he received no education and was a self-taught musician. He was one of several Armenian folk musicians who introduced simpler and lighter forms of music and lyrics. Many of his songs remain popular to this day.
==Biography==
Sheram, whose birth name was Grigor Talian,{{Efn|{{langx|hy|Տալյան|translit=Talyan}}, [classical orthography](/source/Classical_Armenian_orthography): {{lang|hy|Տալեան}}. Also rendered {{lang|hy|Տալիեանց}}, {{transliteration|hy|Talieants’}} in his lifetime.[{{cite book|title=Ergichʻ Grigor Talieantsʻi kʻnarě|location=Alexandropol|year=1902|script-title=hy:Երգիչ Գրիգոր Տալիեանցի քնարը|language=hy|publisher=Tparan A. M. Malkhaseantsʻi|url=https://haygirk.nla.am/upload/1512-1940/1901-1940/ergich_1902.pdf}}]}} was born in [Alexandropol](/source/Alexandropol) (modern-day Gyumri, Armenia, then part of the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire)) on 20 March 1857.[{{Cite journal |last=Davidjants |first=Brigitta |date=2015 |title=Identity construction in Armenian music on the example of early folklore movement |journal=Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore |issue=62 |page=195 |doi=10.7592/FEJF2015.62.davidjants|doi-access=free }}] His grandfather, Kyamali, was also an ''ashugh''. Grigor's father died when he was ten years old, after which he was apprenticed to various craftsmen. He made his own [saz](/source/Saz_(musical_instrument)) and [tar](/source/Tar_(string_instrument)) and taught himself how to play. He began composing songs at the age of twelve or thirteen. He joined the itinerant trio of the [kamancha](/source/Kamancheh) player Chungur Hago, traveling to [Erivan](/source/Yerevan) (Yerevan), [Tiflis](/source/Tbilisi) (Tbilisi), [Baku](/source/Baku), [Astrakhan](/source/Astrakhan), [Shusha](/source/Shusha), [Kars](/source/Kars) and other cities where Armenians lived. He also started his own music group.[{{Cite book |last=Grigorian |first=Sh. |last2=Manukian |first2=M. |title=Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran |title-link=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia |publisher=[Haykakan hanragitarani glkhavor khmbagrutʻyun](/source/Armenian_Encyclopedia_Publishing_House) |year=1982 |volume=8 |location=Erevan |pages=[https://hy.wikisource.org/wiki/%D4%B7%D5%BB:%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%8D%D5%B8%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%AF%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%80%D5%A1%D5%B6%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%AB%D5%BF%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6_(Soviet_Armenian_Encyclopedia)_8.djvu/484 484]–485 |language=hy |script-title=hy:Հայկական սովետական հանրագիտարան |trans-title=Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia |chapter=Sheram |script-chapter=hy:Շերամ |editor-first=Makich |editor-last=Arzumanian}}]
Sheram lived and worked in a time when Armenian bard-craft was experiencing a revival which, according to S. Grigorian and M. Manukian, abandoned complex forms and measures while maintaining the rich traditions of the art. He and his contemporaries preferred simpler and lighter forms, held to be closer to authentic folk [prosody](/source/Prosody_(music)) and thinking. Grigorian and Manukian write that Sheram "turned to the true foundations of Armenian folk music, whether that of the cities or villages, more boldly than his predecessors and contemporaries, further developing the melodiousness of lyrics and the colorfulness and emotionality of melodies." The notes to the melodies of Sheram's songs were published in 1959 in the volume {{lang|hy-Latn|Yerger}}.