My Komitas… The most poetic incarnation of the Armenian soaring soul…
Embracing the gurgling of the springs, the smell of the wildflowers, and the purity of morning dew, he is laughing and yearning in an unfinished song of the
scattered raindrops…
The significance of Komitas as the founder of Armenian classical music cannot
be overestimated. He cultivated truly fertile soil from which the Tree of Life of
modern Armenian classical music blossomed and thrived…
Giants live beyond time. At the stroke of a pen, Komitas joined the unending
procession of Narekatsi, Roslin, Momik, and others, a succession occasionally
interrupted in the turmoil of history. Komitas brought the principle of proportions typical for Armenian culture in its medieval Golden Age by drawing a border between the rational and emotional. Like the masterpieces of the Armenian Renaissance, every composition of Komitas has been through the purgatories of aesthetics.
Komitas’ principle of “fewer means of expression, more of expressiveness,” reflected in his piano music and done so with exceptional precision, is surprisingly consistent with the creative mind frame of Weltanschauung of 20th-century Europe. Each and every sound, each and every pause, is absolutely precise in the extremely translucent texture of Komitas’ music. The composer takes special care in making intonation meaningful and talks with every ornament. His attempts to imitate the sounds of folk instruments paint the “European” piano with the colors of the Orient.
Completing the second edition of “Dances,” Komitas confessed in a letter dated 1916: “I’m finally happy with my work because I eventually succeeded in getting rid of redundant ornamentation.” The “Dances” are so elegant and unembellished, so natural and delicate, and infused with such a lightness that accompanies absolute perfection!
“Seven Dances” is anchored on an arrangement of folk dance songs “Manushaki,” “Yerangi,” “Ounabi,” “Marali,” “Shushiki,” “Yet u Araj,” and ” Shoror Karno,” picked from various provinces of Armenia. It is simply impossible to describe the joy I experienced while penetrating the depths of Komitas’ music. I seemed as if I was witnessing the pure layers of the composer’s soul unfold in front of me, painting the canvas of my homeland’s nature, the cosmic soul and imagination, rituals and traditions, the life and history of my people.
Komitas’s works are often described as jewels taken out of a magic box. His vocal pieces are like splendid melodies framed in an exquisite accompaniment. His choral music is as if a carpet of sounds. What hues! What a fusion of colors! Every Piece is a picture, an emotion, a confession.
At first glance, in Komitas Reticent’s music space, every gesture and every detail is breathing and telling something one can feel with particular depth in his brilliantly written Divine Liturgy, where the importance of its content is represented on an entirely new level. The Divine Liturgy written for a male choir is the only one of its kind. Don’t you hear Narekatsi’s “Book of Lamentations” subtly echoing through the Divine Liturgy?
I deliberately do not want to unveil the dark pages of the composer’s life, believing that one who has carried out his mission with such genius would have liked to bequeath to his followers a story of a happy man.