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Vartabed -
Վարդապետ
A MONK APART
Gomidas forever transformed Armenian music while preserving
its legacy
 
 The
founder of the modern Armenian compositional school, Gomidas (Soghomon
Soghomonian) wasa man of prodigious diversity. Hewas a composer
and an instrumentalist, a documentor, poet, musicologist,
singer, conductor, and teacher. Born in Kutahya, Turkey, in
1869, Gomidas was orphaned at an early age. In 1881 he was sent
to the Kevorkian Lyceum in Ejmiatsin, where his beautiful voice
and musical aptitude gained him specialattention. Under the
tutelage of Sahak Amatuni, he studied Armenian
liturgical music and notated
ancient spiritual melodies. A decisive factor in Gomidas’growth
as a
musician was his daily connection
with the folk songs of the Armenia’s Ararat Plateau, a large
number of which he documented at
the outset of his career. He began composing in the early 1890s,
writing songs and choral music to the poetry of Avetik Isahakian
(a younger schoolmate) and others, as well as arrangements for
traditional and folk songs. After graduating from the Lyceum in
1893, Gomidas was appointed teacher at the school and choral
conductor of the Ejmiatsin Cathedral.
The following year he was ordained
a coenobite, being renamed after the 7th century poet, musician
and catholicos Gomidas. In 1895 he was ordained a monk and
thereafter was known as Gomidas Vardabet. That year Gomidas took
a short course in harmony under Makar Yekmalian, in Tbilisi,
then traveled to Berlin, where he enrolled in the private
conservatory of Richard Schmidt and studied at the
Friedrich-Wilhelm University. In these prestigious institutions,
during 1895 and 1896, Gomidas studied compositional theory,
music history, psychology, and philosophy. He also took
intensive voice lessons and was trained as a pianist, organist,
and conductor. Gomidas had an instrumental role in the creation
in 1899 of the International Musical Society (IMS).
 At
the Berlin chapter of the IMS, he he delivered lectures on
Armenian music and presented his own arrangements of Armenian
folk songs, in live performances with a German quartet.
Returning to Ejmiatsin in 1900, Gomidas continued researching
and teaching, wrote the “Anush” opera (based on Hovhannes
Tumanian’s eponymous poem), and concretized with the Lyceum
choir in Ejmiatsin, Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Baku.
In 1906 he presented, with the
choir of the French L’amouriot Ensemble, his arrangements of
Armenian liturgical hymns and folk songs in Paris. The
following year he delivered a lecture on the material at Paris’
R. Rolland School of Higher Sciences. In addition, Gomidas gave
concerts and lectures throughout Switzerland and at the
Mkhitarian Monastery in Venice. In 1910, seeking a more open
milieu for his work, he left Ejmiatsin for Istanbul, where he
founded the 300-member Gusan Ensemble (renamed ArmenianGusan
Ensemble after 1912).
The press of the day noted the
seminal significance of Gomidas’ art, not only for Armenians
but several Middle Eastern and other cultures. In 1913
Gomidas himself published a pivotal and brilliant essay
in“Azatamart” on the uniqueness of\ Armenian music, and in
1914 delivered lectures on Armenian folk and spiritual music
at the IMS Congress in Paris. The famous Austrian
musicologist E. Wellesch, having heard Gomidas’ music at the
Congress, later called him a rare master of harmony and
polyphony. While living in Istanbul, Gomidas contributed to
Turkish cultural life as well.
He maintained friendships with
Turkish poets, wrote music to the poems of Mehmet Emin, and
served on several musical boards and committees. On the
invitation of the prestigious Turkish Hearth cultural center
in the Payazit quarter, Gomidas delivered keynote lectures
during celebrated musical soirees on April 2 and 3, 1915,
when he also sang solo and presented his compositions with
his choir.
 The
Genocide of the Armenians,which began to be carried out only
weeks later by the Turkish government, cut Gomidas’ work
short. Deeply traumatized by the mass killings and
deportation of his compatriots, Gomidas experienced a
protracted mental breakdown, of which he never recovered. He
was hospitalized in Paris beginning in 1919. He died there
in 1935.
The turn of events also claimed
Gomidas’ considerable body of papers and scholarly
possessions, which included manuscripts, research findings
on the Armenian khaz (neumatic) notation system, as well as
his library.
As a composer, Gomidas was at
the vanguard of 20th century music. In many of his works, he
employed wholly unique, cutting-edge devices and his own
inventions — particularly in terms of harmony, polyphony,
and pietistic composition. He made music through a careful
synthesis of Armenian folk convention and Western
compositional techniques, producing spiritual works,
particularly the male a cappella “Divine Liturgy,” that are
of enormous importance. Gomidas’ creative methodology opened
wide horizons for the development of modern Armenian
composition, bringing it to par with the evolution of world
music. Gomidas’ influence is also considerably felt in the
development of modern Eastern musical schools.
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