Komitas movie

Source: "Hairenik" monthly (Boston) 7 May 1924, pp 84-86.  Komitas wrote the autobiography in June 1908 at Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia.  Translated by Hratch Tchilingirian from the original Armenian. 

 

Komitas Vardapet Soghomonian - Autobiography (1908)


I was born in 1869, on September 26th, in the city of Kutahia (Kotahia) in Asia Minor. They baptized me on the third day [after my birth] and named me Soghomon.

My father, Gevork Soghomonian, was a native of Kutahia, and my mother, Takuhi Hovhanissian, was a native of Bursa. Both were Armenians.

My parent's family was naturally gifted with [good] voice. My father and uncle, Harutiun Soghomonian, were well-known cantors in our city's St. Theotoros Church. The melodies and lyrics composed by my parents in the Turkish language -- a few of which I wrote down in 1893 in my native land -- are still sung by the older folk of our city with great admiration.

My mother died in 1870, and my father in 1880. After my parents' passing, my paternal grandmother, Mariam, took great care of me, an orphan, and

Komitas Vardapet

Soghomon Gevorki Soghomonyan - Komitas Vardepet (also Gomidas Vartabed) (September 26 1869 in Kütahya, Ottoman Empire - October 22 1935, Paris, France), was an Armenianpriest, composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music teacher and musicologist, known as the founder of modern Armenian classical music.[1]

He was born into a family whose members were deeply involved in music and were monolingual in Turkish. His mother died when he was one and ten years later his father died. In 1895 he became a priest and obtained the title Vardapet (or Vartabed), meaning a priest or a church scholar.

He established and conducted the monastery choir till 1896 when he went to Berlin, to the Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm University. Here he studied music at the private conservatory of Prof. Richard Schmidt. In 1899 he acquired the title doctor of musicology and returned to Echmiadzin. He traveled extensively around the country, listening and recording details about Armenian folk songs and dances performed in various villages. This way he colle

YEARS OF STUDY

Komitas, a.k.a. Soghomon Soghomonyan, was born on September 26, 1869 in Anatolia, Turkey, in the town of Koutina (Ketaia). His ancestors had moved over there from the village Tskhna of Gokhtan province in the 17th century. Komitas’ father – Gevorg Soghomonyan was a shoemaker but he also composed songs and had a beautiful voice. The composer’s mother – Tagui - was also singled out for her vivid musical abilities; she was a carpet weaver. “The members of our family had great impressive voices. The father was a well-known tarist and the uncle was a sazist. My father and my uncle – Haroutune Soghomonyan were the singers in our church until their death. The songs of my mother and father, composed in Turkish and in Turkish motifs (some of them being recorded by me in 1893) are still sung in our town”, Komitas wrote.
Joyless and full of deprivations was Komitas’s childhood. He lost his mother when he was less than a year old, and because of his father’s business, his grandmother took care of him. At age 7

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