A heartfelt blessing for Hachig Kazarian’s “Western Armenian Music: From Asia Minor to the United States”

Hachig Kazarian’s heart and soul were in plain view as members of his family and community joined him in a kinetson for his book Western Armenian Music: From Asia Minor to the United States. Kinetson is a compound word with kini, which means wine, and tson, which means to dedicate or consecrate. Passed on from pagan times, it is a ceremony for various purposes, including a book’s debut. Books for and by Armenians have been considered holy and sacred, as they protect our existence. The wine dedication ceremony was held in the St. Sarkis Church sanctuary in Detroit, Michigan, with the participation of Rev. Fr. Hrant Kevorkian, Deacon Garo Balian and Kazarian. Rev. Fr. Kevorkian opened the event with a brief introduction of the meaning of kinetson followed by Kazarian’s presentation. Rev. Fr. Kevorkian sang the sacred selections, including the “Hayr Mer” and “Ee vereen Yerousaghem,” which was followed by the secular folk selections “Hars ou Pesa” and “Pompouri,” among others, performed by Kazarian with his son Michael and George Nighosian. The joyous event ended with the wine blessing. Already in its second printing, the book is available via the website westernarmenianmusic.com. Following is a summary of Hachig Kazarian’s presentation “Western Armenian Secular and Sacred Music” from the day of the kinetson. The relationship between Western Armenian secular and sacred music is built entirely on the modal structure of the scales used in the secular music. Before Armenians adopted Christianity, they sang and danced to secular music as well as worshiped with music from pagan rituals. Upon the acceptance of Christianity, Armenians developed a form of Armenian sacred music by mimicking the sounds of secular music. The melodic modes that were used in Armenian folk music were borrowed to create sacred music for the newly organized Armenian church services. Initially, the pagan custom of utilizing musical instruments during worship, such as drums, trumpets, horns and bells, was eliminated. However, because certain feast days were so popular, cleansing all traces of paganism was nearly impossible. As a result, the church fathers thought it best to keep these celebrations, but to convert a pagan feast day to a Christian feast day by changing the text. For example, the melodies to “Ee vereen Yerousaghem,” “Aravod Looso” and “Christos Ee Metch” were borrowed from the pagan temple, using the same melodies but with Christian words. The musical elements that span both Armenian secular and sacred music are scales, modes and melody types. A scale is a set of eight musical tones, ascending or descending in a series of whole steps or half steps. These whole steps and half steps are represented by the black and white keys on a piano keyboard. A mode is more than just a scale. The notes of a mode may be written out as a scale; however, modal compositions require specific musical elements and methodology in the creation of their compositions. Each mode has its own sound (musical tone, color or aura). Melody types imply the tonal characteristics of each mode. The collective musical phrases, emphasized pitches and various musical motifs that create recognizable or characteristic sounds, become the actual melody types of a mode. The principle of the melody-type tradition in music is one of the major differences between the music of Middle Eastern and Western cultures. The strict adherence to using melody types and monophonic music (single-lined music with no harmony) largely accounts for the absence of the evolutionarily elements in all Middle Eastern music. This is in complete contrast to the Western philosophy of music, which ascribes to originality, harmony and spontaneity. The music of Western cultures consists of major and minor scales (known as the Ionian and Aeolian modes, respectively), yet the music is never monotonous. Western philosophy of composition ascribes to change and originality, as well as harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, free invention and many different types of musical instruments. As a comparison, Armenian secular and sacred music is traditionally monophonic (no harmony), in a modal tonality with complex rhythms. The only element that relates Western and Eastern music is improvisation. Improvisation is the foundation of jazz music, secular Armenian music and all forms of Eastern music. There is a series of eight melodic modes, which came to serve as the eight principal modes used by the Armenian church. The eight melodic modes are called the “Ut Tsayn” system, meaning eight tone system. The organization of this eight tone system was created in the eighth century by Stepanos Siunetzi (685-735). The music of the Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Jews, Indians, Turks and others — some of the immediate geographical neighbors of Armenia — also belongs to this modal tradition. The alphabetical names given to the melodic modes of the Armenian Church serve a dual purpose. First, they identify the specific mode, as in Aip Tsa (ԱՁ) or Aip Gen (ԱԿ). Second, they give direction to the antiphonal method of singing the verses of the “sharagons” (hymns). Two groups of singers alternate each verse of a “sharagons,” one group to the right and a second group to the left, standing in the chancel facing the altar. Although harmony was not considered in Armenian music of that period (12th through 16th centuries), composers embellished their musical language with different scalar patterns and simple modulation, enlarging their musical vocabulary. By the 17th century, the Armenian modal system of “tsayns” had increased to 16 different melodic modes, which are used by the Armenian church to this day. Armenian music has been passed down through history via the oral tradition for many centuries. The importance of the notation of Armenian music is comparable to the importance of the written language in the perpetuation of a nation’s history, culture and traditions. Without a workable system of notation understood by all, music would be a perishable art form, which relies upon rote memory to teach and perpetuate itself.

A heartfelt blessing for Hachig Kazarian’s “Western Armenian Music: From Asia Minor to the United States”

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Harry Derderian

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Harry Derderian

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