The Remarkable Visit of Komitas to the Village of Vardablur

This story known to all the inhabitants of the village of Vardablur and containing remarkable details on the visit of Komitas has been passed from generation to generation.

Komitas was accompanied by a student of the Etchmiadzin Seminary and later Professor Avetik Ter-Poghosyan, a native of the village of Vardablur.

They knew that the local peasants had a special ritual for cultivating their lands. The ritual involved phrases and songs, and one peasant knew the traditional melody particularly well.

Komitas was invited to the peasant’s house. It is believed that in the evening, Komitas asked the peasant to sing, but the latter categorically refused.

The reason for the refusal was unclear for Komitas. In the morning, when the peasant was whistling the melody while taking his ox out from the barn, Komitas, without flustering, immediately wrote it down.

Then, he asked the peasant why he had refused to sing in the evening. The peasant explained that in the evening, the ox would return from the field tired, and had he sang, the cattle would have thought it was already morning.

Arshaluis Zurabyan