Gomidas Vartabed: The Most Distinguished Armenian Musicologist (1869-1935)

I wish to bring up an important case for consideration. Gomidas’ music is and has been all along so authentic that his music excels over and beyond the text and its significance, especially when soloists sing without paying attention to the words and phrases inherited from the past. This means that when they sing from Gomidas, they are always overwhelmed by the music, overlooking the words and the meanings. They concentrate on the music passionately, leaving the words in jeopardy, thus creating incorrect translation of the text, a case that has happened unfortunately.

One example is Gomidas’ famous song Andouni (Homeless) with its unmatched music, one in its kind, melancholic and sensational, expressed with variable half and quarter musical notes. The soloist no doubt sings correctly. However, when reciting the words in their local dialect of archaic villagers, one can easily miss a word or replace another unknowingly, paying attention only to the overwhelming music. Especially when we try to translate the Andouni, we miss the central point and do not see how the poor villager had left his home and went far away, feeling totally homeless. He recalls his house collapsed like his heart is, where inside the broken ceiling wild birds have found refuge.

The second verse refers to a “Black Sea” which we ordinarily take as the one we know from geography. Whereas, the text does not read “the Black Sea,” as most soloists repeat incorrectly, but it reads “a black sea” (Sev dzov me yem deseh,) (I have seen a black sea,) referring to his emigrant’s eye, inundated with storms of tears. The white stormy waves have surrounded the black pupil of the eye, while both colors do not mix with each other, as the song reads.

This follows with the hopeless homeless trying to throw himself in the river to be eaten by the fish. Here again the words are totally misunderstood when singing “I want to take myself and go to the river.” The first word wrongly understood could collapse the whole scenario. The word is “tsi tanem” (take myself) and not “grab a horse, ride on it, and take the suicidal trip with galloping ceremony to the river.” This is what we read in an English published translation. Obviously, the poor homeless and the galloping horse are calculated mistakes from that one word “tsi” (horse), which originally meant “indzi” (myself).

Another example from the famous Holy (Mass), composed by Gomidas, who studied under Makar Ekmalian who had composed his own Holy Badarak much earlier. For more than a hundred years the Ekmalian Badarak is sung by all Armenian Churches up to this day. The Mass by Gomidas has ever since reserved for solemn occasions. If one sings the Soorp Soorp, the holiest part of the Mass, one discovers that the Ekmalian version is more heavenly, with notes gradually climbing high, rather than slowing down as it is with Gomidas, and rightfully so. However, as we continue singing Gomidas, we see some drastic changes instead, as he selects some of the spiritual songs and gives them highest notes in amazing articulation, such as “Krisdos ee mech mer haydnetsav, Hoki Asdoudzo, and Krisdos badarakyal.” This means that Gomidas Vartabed had the choice wherever the high notes were appropriately demanding.

The case is repeated when singing the Lord’s Prayer (Hyre Mer). Ekmalian begins with highest notes to elevate “Our Father” to the highest level possible from the outset which makes a true sense. We sing it every time and we raise our voice to elevate Him to reach the heavens, as the text reads “Our Father who art in heaven”. Whereas, with Gomidas the entire Prayer is sung low key from the start with intermittent touches of higher notes. Obviously, in both cases he has tries to avoid repeating the previous composition and to introduce a different variant.

Famous Testimonies

Here are some internationally famous composers’ testimonies on the music of Gomidas Vartabed:

“If Gomidas had written only the Andouni (Homeless), it would have been sufficient to include him among the famous composers.”  Debussy

“As often as I listen to the Badarak (Mass) composed by Gomidas, I feel spiritually revived. It is a masterpiece. It is beyond imagination and most difficult what Gomidas has undertaken. It requires unending patience, vigor, and work of love. It is a work of a genius, and I wonder if the Armenians realize the greatness of Gomidas’ accomplishments. Luc Andre Marcel

“While listening to the finale of Beethoven’s ninth symphony, I was often reminded of the Gomidas’ horovels.”  Sovetakan Arvest 1969

Further, “Who says that mountains don’t walk, Gomidas’ concert moved  and we saw them.”   Al Ahram Daily, Cairo

Indeed, the Armenian people was enriched by Gomidas’ creative art for generations, who always sang, is singing today, and will sing in the future, those songs wholeheartedly, such as the Groong, the Andouni, the Horovels, Karoun a tziun a arel, Hayasdan yergil trakhdavyre, and many others which made the Great Gomidas Vartabed immortal and ever present in the life of the Armenian people.