Հայ երաժշտական իրադարձությունները Փարիզում XIX դարավերջին (ըստ «Անահիտ» հանդեսի հրապարակումների)

The article highlights the work of Armenian musicians in Paris at the end of the 19th century and reflections on their efforts to disseminate Armenian art published in the famous “Anahit” magazine. The article presents details of performance activities of Armenian musicians Grigor Galfayan, Nadezhda Papayan, Vahram Svachyan, Poghos Yeghiazaryanz, Stephan Elmas, which may complement the creative portraits of these musicians in the history of Armenian music.

Դոդեկաֆոնիայի դրսևորումները Առնո Բաբաջանյանի ստեղծագործության մեջ

Dodecaphony, or twelve-tone system, which was one of the composers’ technical directions in the 20th century western music, was employed in Armenian music, too, particularly, in Arno Babajanyan’s work. The study of theoretical principles of dodecaphony in the composer’s works in accordance with the categorization, accepted in European and American researches, showed that when weapply the western model of analysis, the uniqueness of Babajanyan’s style becomes even more apparent.

Կոմիտասին և հայոց ցեղասպանությանը նվիրված Տիգրան Մանսուրյանի երկերը

Among the works, dedicated to Komitas and the Armenian Genocide, the oeuvre of the outstanding contemporary Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian (born 1939) holds a special position. T. Mansurian addressed this topic back at the end of the 1960s. Most notable are, however, his large-scale compositions, created over the past decade, such as Concerto No. 4 for cello and string orchestra, "Where is thy brother Abel?" (2010), Requiem for soloists, mixed choir and chamber orchestra (2011), Sonata da chiesa for viola and piano (2015). The musical language and stylistic peculiarities of the above works testify to the fact that T. Mansurian is a direct successor to Komitas' creative traditions and an innovator, too, whose works have largely enriched contemporary Armenian music, imparting a new quality to the Armenian compositional thought.

Armenian Music in Transylvania – The Musical Heritage of the Cantor Bálint Ákos

"The author of this study is deeply preoccupied with the culture and music of an ethnic group in Transylvania that us on its way to extinction: Armenians. During our research in documenting the archives and libraries of the Armenian-Catholic parishes in the area, some materials of special value were discovered that had not yet been catalogued, representing proof of an effervescent musical life, demonstrating a rich liturgical activity, a religious life experienced deeply, in which music constituted an indispensable part of the life of the Armenian community in Gheorgheni. At the same time, these musical materials remind us about the close-knit relationships among various Armenian communities in Transylvania (Gherla, Gheorgheni, Frumoasa, and Dumbrăveni), and about the mutual influences between the ethnic cultures that coexist within the Transylvanian communities: Romanian, Hungarians, and Armenians. Keywords: Armenian, Transylvania, Bálint Ákos, liturgical music, sharakan"

Komitas – An Icon in Armenian Music

Although the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Armenian composer, Komitas – celebrated with great respect in Armenian communities everywhere – took place last year, we believe that the importance of the work of this icon in Armenian music deserves and must be mentioned in any period. The author of this study has been concerned with the issue of Armenian music for a long time. During the in-depth studies in the field, the conviction of the need to talk about Armenian music – very little known in Europe – and about its famous representatives, of which the most important was and still is Komitas, was strengthened. At the same time, studying the life and work of this outstanding composer, the similarity of his life and career with that of Bartók Béla, sometimes even surprising, arose several times, despite the great geographical distance that separated them. In this article we will try to briefly present the biography and creation of the great Komitas, as well as some parallel elements in terms of life, research and works of the two composers, musicologists and ethnographers. Belonging to the same generation of musicians, they dedicated their lives to collecting, researching and processing authentic folk music, being concerned not only with the folklore of their own nation, but also with the music of neighbouring peoples. The activity and research of the two present remarkable similarities, and through their compositional activity they both succeeded in opening new perspectives, decisive for their descendants, the generations of composers of the twentieth century.

On the Issue of the 16-Mode System in the Theoretical Treatises on Music by Grigor Gapasakalian

На протяжении своей истории церковная певческая практика и песнетворчество постоянно выходили за рамки, установленные церковным каноном Восьмигласия. Это отчетливо прослеживается при анализе мелодических образцов самых различных гимнографических национальных традиций. Статья посвящена 16-ти ладовой системе, упоминаемой в музыкально-теоретических трактатах видного константинопольского армянского музыканта-теоретика Григора Гапасакаляна (1740-1808) Книжка, называемая Музыкальное собрание , Книга о музыке и Книга Восьмигласия . Изучение этих трудов показало, что речь идет о некоем расширенном каноне , включающем 4 основных, 4 плагальных, 4 медиальных и 4 фторальных лада, что соответствует 16-ти ладам асмы в теории византийской церковной музыки. Проясняется сущность и назначение 16-ладовой системы, существовавшей и у греков, и армян, что свидетельствует о ней, как о сложной, разветвленной и многоярусной оригинальной модальной системе, не исчерпывающей тем не менее ладового многообразия живого певческого искусства. Throughout its history, church chanting practice and chant writing has constantly gone beyond the framework established by the ecclesiastical canon of the Octoechos. This can be clearly seen in the analysis of melodic samples of the most diverse hymnographic national traditions. The article is dedicated to the 16-mode system mentioned in the theoretical treatises on music by the prominent Armenian music theorist from Constantinople Grigor Gapasakalian (17401808) the Small Book Called Music Collection, the Book on Music and the Book of Octoehos. The study of these writings showed a presence of an extended canon that included 4 essential, 4 plagal, 4 medial and 4 phtoral modes, these corresponding to the 16-mode system of the asma in the byzantine theory of church music. This clarifies that the essence and purpose of the 16-mode system existed both among the Greeks and Armenians. And that testifies it as a complex, ramified and multi-tiered original modal system, which nonetheless does not exhaust the modal variety of living chanting art.

Remembering Armenian music in Bolis: Komitas Vardapet in transcultural perspective

This article explores the relationship between music, memory and transcultural processes in late Ottoman Istanbul by studying the writings of the Armenian composer and musicologist Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935). It describes the changing political and intellectual landscape in which Komitas and his contemporaries redefined the collective musical memory of the Armenian people through a process of secularisation and internationalisation. I argue that there was a shift from local transculturalism, in which musical memories were to some extent shared between different ethnic and confessional groups in the Ottoman Empire, to a more global and modern transculturalism, in which consciously differentiated and often antagonistic national musical memories were constructed and disseminated across non-local spaces through new media and discursive strategies. In the process, rural music practices were appropriated from their local and unofficial contexts by urban, cosmopolitan elites and purposefully inscribed as monuments of Armenian cultural memory which have endured to the present.