Singer, choir conductor, flautist, and teacher...
Komitas is the founder of Armenian national school of musical composition.
He freed Armenian music from foreign influences and was the first
to prove the Armenian nation have its own music. Being a profound
expert of national music, Komitas created an original synthesis
of Armenian monodic (one-voice) thinking and European polyphony
that has endured to the present. He collected and wrote down thousands
of folksongs, studied church and folk music considering them to
be “siblings”. Komitas also made a research of Armenian
khazes (symbols used in the old Armenian system of musical notation),
and authored Patarag (Liturgy) of the Armenian Church.
Unfortunately, the prolific way of consciousness and creativity
of the brilliant composer was short. Komitas shared the fate of
his compatriots during the Genocide of 1915. He was appallingly
shocked by the tragic events, which subsequently fatally affected
his mental condition.
Today, in the year of the great classicist’s 135th anniversary,
we can boldly say, “Komitas arrived from the depths of the
centuries-old history of life and spiritual culture of the Armenian
nation and soared up, his face towards its new developments.”
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