KOMITAS' INSTRUMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS


Throughout his creative life, Komitas devoted himself to the study, purification, professional treatment, and revival of samples of Armenian folk art, in the process doing so incredibly much for his native culture. In 1906 Komitas wrote and performed a cycle of dances for piano in Paris. It is an exciting and original composition, where the piano first appears as the Master's main means of performance.
However, it is interesting that, while creating these six bright, colorful pieces, Komitas never thought of any masterly traditions of performance, technical refinement, magnificence of chord texture, or filigree passages. Nevertheless, one cannot help admitting the gorgeousness of Komitas' textures. In this work he appears, first of all, as an ethnographer, whose task is to realize the richness of Armenian folk dances while preserving, as much as possible, the specific timbres of some national instruments.
Louis Laloi, a music critic and professor at the Sorbonne, has said of Komitas' dances, "Armenian dances are as natural and flexible as they are lively and able to express soul movements and intonations through the corresponding bodily movements and harmonic forms... The rhythm is supple and wealthy: live images of natural harmony and melody, which vividly recreate noble sculptured forms. These tunes are harmonized by Komitas with a rare skill and excellent taste".
In the six diverse pieces of the cycle, the composer reveals a magnificent view of the Armenian art of dancing. The title of each piece includes not only the name of the dance itself, but also that of the area from which it originates. With his authorial directions, the composer strove to get both the performer and listener nearer to the setting of the action, as well as the appearance and character of certain dance movements.
The first piece, "Erangi of Yerevan", achieves some of the grace, elegance and tenderness of a woman's dance. There is quite a different kind of melody in "Unabi of Shushi". The composer's direction reads, "Delicately and majestically". Here the extensive sweet melody consists of various changes of two melodic fragments, ably interlaced. In the following two dances, "Marali of Shushi" and "Shushik of Vagharshapat", the timbres and characters of folk instruments are rendered vividly. In the former, Komitas imitates the sound of the "dap", a sort of Armenian tambourine, widely used by peasants as accompaniment. In the latter, the listener can hear imitations of the tar, a plucked string instrument.
"Yet - arach of Erzerum", a men's round dance, is distinguished by its special coloring. The composer skillfully imitates both the shvi and the dhol, Armenian folk instruments. The former is a sort of shepherd's reed pipe and the latter one a kind of hand-held percussion instrument played without sticks.
The worthy finale of the cycle is "Shoror of Erzerum", a heroic men's dance. The author clearly marks that it should be performed "majestically and heroically" as well as with an imitation of the shvi and the dhol, which usually accompanied that dance during folk festivities. This piano cycle of six dances, being an original work of art, is of great scientific and ethnographic interest. Moreover, the pieces have been a source of inspiration for the following generations of composers. "Vagharshapat Dance" in Sergey Aslamazian's treatment for string quartet has been part of the concert repertoire of some quartets for a long time.
Moreover, in a recent piano arrangement by the prominent Armenian composer Arno Babajanian, his "Vagharshapat Dance" has become a prominent example of the art of world music.