Komitas - Armenian Divine Liturgy
Mit der aufwendigen Produktion dieser Doppel-CD möchten wir uraltes armenisches Liedgut vor dem Vergessen bewahren und einem internationalen Publikum nahe bringen. Deshalb haben wir weltweit über 700 CDs an Musikzeitschriften, Bibliotheken, Phonotheken, Kirchen, Universitäten und andere Institutionen versandt. Die CD ist bei Amazon Marketplace (www.amazon.de) für 16,99 € (zuzügl. Versand) erhältlich.
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With the production of this extensive release (double cd, 48-paged booklet) we want to achieve this masterpiece of Armenian musical tradition not to fall into oblivion and to introduce it to an international audience. Therefore we realised a worldwide promotional shipment of more than 700 pieces to music journals, libraries and music libraries, churches, universities and other organisations. The release is available at amazon marketplace (www.amazon.de) for 16,99 € (plus shipment costs).
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performed by the Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia
(www.hoverchoir.org)
The Holy Patarag (Divine Liturgy) is the central ritual of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church, analogous to the "Mass" or "Eucharist" service in other Christian churches.
The word Patarag is of Pahlavi origin, meaning "a gift, offering". Today it is understood as sacrifice: the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of humankind.
The Patarag is based on the mystery of the Eucharist or sacrament of Holy Communion. This service commemorates the Last Supper when Jesus broke bread and shared wine with his disciples and instructed them to "do this in memory of me". In the course of the Patarag various episodes of Jesus Christ’s life are symbolically remembered in the ritual and processions in the church.
The ritual of the Armenian Divine Liturgy is based on the heritage of the universal church fathers, with later adoption and adaptation of practices from other Christian traditions. However, the Armenian Divine Liturgy has many unique features owing to the rich contributions of Armenian Church fathers including St. Gregory, the Illuminator, St. Sahak Partev, St. Hovhannes Mandakuni, St. Hovhannes Odznetsi, Khosrov Andzevatsi, St. Grigor Narekatsi, St. Nerses Shnorhali, St. Nerses Lambronatsi, and Fr. Khachatur Taronetsi.
The Armenian Divine Liturgy has four main parts: the Preparation, Liturgy of the Catechumens (or the Midday Service), the Eucharist, and the Dismissal. Each part consists of a careful sequence of prayers, litanies, psalms, and hymns, some of which are chanted aloud and others said in private by the priest.
The Armenian Divine Liturgy is highly interactive. At the center of the ritual is the priest or celebrant, who offers bread and wine at the altar. The deacon assists the celebrant as servant at the Holy Table (altar) and is a coordinator of the service, guiding the congregation through the liturgy with instructions, litanies and readings. The choir, along with the congregation, sings responses, hymns, prayers and odes in close coordination with the actions of the priest and deacon. The music presented on this disk is predominantly the choir or congregation's part of the Divine Liturgy.
Musical Structure of the Holy Patarag
The text and music of the Armenian liturgy are a coherent whole that evolved over the centuries. Although largely of medieval provenance, various portions of the Armenian liturgy can be traced to the earliest apostolic practices and tradition.
Armenian sacred music flourished during the millennium from the 4th to 16th centuries, and the Patarag evolved accordingly. The early Patarag was simple. As the Patarag was further edited and compiled, it became a multi-movement work of significant scale. The credit for much of this belongs to St. Nerses Shnorhali (12th century). In the late middle ages, the singing of the Patarag underwent further development, as did Armenian sacred music generally, resulting in diversity and local variations.
In the nineteenth century, Armenian musicians began to standardize spiritual music and notation, committing to writing the sacred melodies from medieval times. By the end of the nineteenth century, many of these were arranged by Armenian composers and became part of the more general Armenian musical legacy.
The work of N. Tashjian who published the Patarag first in 1874 at Vagharshapat, followed by a new edition published in 1878, deserves special attention. Tashjian’s notation is important as it reflects the way in which Armenian sacred music of that time was performed by a contemporary authority and master – Gevorg IV Catholicos of All Armenians. The two primary harmonizations of the Patarag in use today are based on his notations.
The first of these harmonizations was Makar Yekmalian’s (1855-1905) Patarag, which he arranged for men’s, women’s, and mixed choirs. The Yekmalian Patarag is the first to include instrumental accompaniment. With few minor precursors during the late nineteenth century, in 1895 Yekmalian’s Patarag became in fact the first harmonized work to be officially sanctioned by the Church.
The Armenian priest, composer and ethnomusicologist Komitas Vartapet, while holding the work of his teacher Makar Yekmalian in high esteem, believed that hamonizations of Armenian traditional melodies ought not to be based on European music principles.
The Komitas Patarag for male choir
Komitas Vartapet (Soghomon Soghomonian, 1869-1935) is a towering figure in Armenian classical music. His polyphonic arrangement of the Patarag for male choir is presented in this recording.
Komitas’s legacy includes settings of the Liturgy for mixed choir as well. In the course of his creative life he produced a wide range of music for church services. The earliest extant sections of the Komitas Patarag date between 1899 and 1901, and the last were written from 1910 to 1915. Armenian sacred music and the Patarag specifically were traditionally performed by male voices, primarily clergy and monks, as reflected in Komitas’s 1907 and 1914-15 renditions. However, Komitas also enthusiastically arranged this music for mixed choirs, in particular, around 1910 for his Gusan Choir of about 300 singers in Constantinople. Nevertheless, due to the circumstances of their composition, Komitas’s arrangements of the Patarag in 1907 and 1914-15 were for men’s choir.
His arrangement of the Patarag for male-voice choirs in 1907 was prepared in less than a week for the funeral of Khrimian Hayrig, Catholicos of All Armenians, to be sung by the seminarians and clergy of Etchmiadzin. Unfortunately, only fragments of this Patarag have survived.
The Patarag harmonization from 1914-1915 was Komitas’s second arrangement for male choir. He prepared it on short notice, on the eve of World War I. His large mixed chorus had been disbanded due to the draft of young men into the military, so his task was to produce a version that could be sung by a small group of male singers. The Komitas Patarag was first performed on Easter Eve, April 17, 1915, and the following day, during the Easter Service. However, the performance scheduled on May 2, 1915 did not take place, because Komitas, along with Armenian cultural and community leaders of Constantinople, had been rounded up on April 24, 1915: the Armenian Genocide had begun. Komitas was tortured and exiled. However, the story of the Komitas Patarag did not end here.
After the Armenian Genocide, because of Komitas’s deteriorating health, his students and colleagues, as well as a special commission, took up the task of organizing and publishing the partially preserved pieces of the great composer’s heritage. Through the efforts of Komitas’s student, Vardan Sarxian, the Komitas Patarag was edited and published in Paris in 1933.
The Komitas Patarag is a masterpiece for the concert stage as well as for liturgical purposes. In 1997, the musicologist Robert Atayan published in Armenia a critical edition of the Komitas Patarag, with variations and fragments.
For Komitas, the Patarag was an evolving passion of his creative live. We will never know how he might have continued to develop the Patarag, but for the cataclysmic impact of the Genocide on his life and the life of the Armenian people. However, he left a highly polished gem of Armenian music, which to this day, speaks to worshippers and classical music audiences alike.
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