Komitas

Often regarded as the originator of Armenia’s classical music national tradition stands the single-named composer and ethnomusicologist known as Komitas. While Armenians have long held him in high esteem, the twenty-first century has brought his compositions attention from beyond that cultural sphere.

Born Soghomon Soghomonian in Kütahya within the Ottoman Empire’s borders, territory now part of Turkey, the future musician lost his parents early and was dispatched to the Gevorgian Seminary located in Etchmiadzin, Armenia. There he acquired not only religious education but also foundational skills in music. Following his 1894 ordination as a vardapet, or priest, he adopted the name Komitas to honor a medieval Armenian musician of the same designation and has on occasion been referred to as Komitas Vardapet.

The year 1895 saw him journey to Tbilisi, Georgia, where he studied under the church composer Makar Yekmalyan, after which he proceeded to the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin—today known as Humboldt University—to pursue instruction in Western musical traditions. Despite limited funds that forced him to reduce his meals, he persisted with private lessons over subsequent years. By 1899 Komitas had come back to Etchmiadzin, where he commenced teaching and established a personal choir.

For this ensemble he produced extensive musical works that continue to feature in Armenian Orthodox performances. During summer periods he ventured into rural areas to gather folk traditions from Armenia and surrounding regions, authoring the earliest published volume on Kurdish folk music. His lectures on regional traditional music reached wide audiences, leading later scholars in ethnomusicology to acknowledge him among the discipline’s early trailblazers. Songs composed in a distinctly Armenian style also flowed from his pen.

With the onset of the Turkish genocide targeting Armenians in 1915, authorities detained Komitas and transported him under severe circumstances to Çankırı. Intervention by several prominent figures, among them Turkish individuals and U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, secured his release and return to Constantinople, presently Istanbul. The experience nevertheless compromised his psychological equilibrium. Ultimately authorities sent him to Paris, where he remained under psychiatric treatment for an extended time until his death on October 22, 1935.

Primarily recognized within Armenia for many years, Komitas experienced renewed attention to his oeuvre during the twenty-first century. Pianist Steffen Schleiermacher released the album Folk Tunes in 2021, drawing parallels between the music of Komitas and Béla Bartók. In 2023 the duo comprising cellist Mikayel Hakhnazaryan and pianist Lia Hakhnazaryan featured his composition Krunk on their recording Inner World.