Armenian Church Music: genres, modes, and notation issues
Armenian Church Music: genres, modes, and notation issues

Summary/Abstract: This article covers some essential elements of liturgical Armenian music, startingfrom its historic evolution, up to the presentation of some essential genres, church modescharacteristic to Armenia and unique and specific medieval musical notation with khazes.The article describes in detail the formation and evolution of the most important Armenianmusical liturgical genre, sharakan, enumerating its characteristics as well as outstandingcomposers of the genre. It also presents a modal system characteristic to Armenian music,comparing it with Byzantine and Latin modal systems from the same period. The article alsoconsiders a widely discussed chapter of the history of Armenian music, the use andunderstanding of Armenian medieval neumes, called khazes, the research carried out in thefield and their results.

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