Komitas
Komitas, born Soghomon Gevorgi Soghomonyan, was an Armenian composer, musicologist, folklorist, singer, choral conductor, and cleric of the Armenian Church. He was born on October 8, 1869, in Kütahya, then part of the Ottoman Empire. His parents were singers and composers. After his mother died in 1870 and his father in 1880, he was raised by his paternal grandmother.
In 1881, Soghomon was selected to study at the seminary in Etchmiadzin. He initially did not speak Armenian, but learned the language quickly. He became a monk in 1890, completed his seminary studies in 1893, and was ordained a priest, taking the name Komitas. He taught music at the seminary, formed a choir and an orchestra of folk instruments, arranged folk songs, and began researching Armenian church music. In 1895, he received the rank of archimandrite.
That year, Komitas went to Tiflis and studied harmony with composer Makar Yekmalyan. He later moved to Berlin, where he studied at Richard Schmidt’s private conservatory and attended lectures at the University of Berlin on philosophy, aesthetics, general history, and music history. He also pursued music criticism and lectured on Armenian sacred and secular music in comparison with Turkish, Arab, and Kurdish music.
Komitas returned to Etchmiadzin in 1899, where he changed the seminary’s music teaching, formed a small orchestra, and developed the choir’s performance. He travelled through Armenian communities, collecting and arranging songs, and researched Armenian folk and sacred melodies, musical notation, and modes. His work included recording more than 4,000 peasant songs. He also lectured and performed Armenian music internationally. In 1910, he moved to Constantinople, where he formed the 300-member mixed choir Gusan and gave concerts as a soloist and conductor.
Komitas’s major works included Patarag (Liturgy), written for male choir. He also worked on the opera Anush, begun in 1904, and planned a musical epic based on Sasna Tsrer. His concerts and lectures introduced Armenian music and notation to audiences in Paris, Berlin, and elsewhere. Musicians including Vincent d’Indy, Gabriel Fauré, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Claude Debussy admired his work.
In 1916, Komitas’s health deteriorated, and he was admitted to a psychiatric clinic. He spent nearly 20 years at a clinic in Villejuif, France, where he died on October 22, 1935, of an infectious inflammation. His remains were transferred to Armenia in 1936 and buried in Yerevan. His research and efforts to preserve Armenian musical traditions inspired Armenian musicians and other creative artists.