Komitas – An Icon in Armenian Music

Abstract

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.