Komitas Vardapet is a beginning having no end

“The Armenian people found and recognized its soul, its spiritual nature” in Komitas’ songs. Komitas Vardapet is a beginning having no end.

He will live through the Armenian people, and they must live through him, now and forever”. (Vazgen I, the Catholicos of all Armenians)

Soghomon Soghomonyan was born on September 26, 1869, in Anatolia, Turkey, in the town of Koutina (Ketaia). His 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.

Komitas’s childhood was joyless and full of deprivations. He lost his mother when he was less than one year old, and because his father was too busy his grandmother took care of him. At age 7 Komitas entered the local elementary school.

As soon as he finished school his father sent him to Broosa to continue his education. However, he failed and 4 months later he came home having ultimately become an orphan: his father passed away and Soghomon was only 11 years old…

“He was a frail, weak, pale boy, always thoughtful and kind. He was dressed poorly,” one of his classmates recalled about Komitas.

Soghomon was often seen sleeping on the cold stones of the laundry room. He could sing perfectly, and no wonder in Koutina he was nicknamed “a little vagrant singer”.

For his delightful voice, Soghomonyan was also indebted to an event that fundamentally changed the entire course of his life.

In 1881 the priest of Koutina, G. Dertsakyan, had to leave for Echmiadzin to be ordained a bishop. At the request of the Catholicos, he brought the gifted orphan boy with him to study at the Echmiadzin Church Seminary.

Twelve-year-old Soghomon was selected out of the other 20 orphans to study at the Seminary. As it was forbidden to speak Armenian at that time the boy spoke Turkish and when being greeted by the Catholicos Gevorg IV, he replied, “I don’t speak Armenian if you wish I will sing”.

Then with his fine soprano voice, he sang an Armenian sharakan (a church hymn) without understanding the words. Due to his exclusive aptitude, Soghomon overcame all the obstacles quickly and perfectly learned Armenian.

In 1890 Soghomon has ordained a monk. In 1893 he finished studying at the seminary, then he was ordained a “Vardapet” (priest) and acquired his new name “Komitas” – the name of the outstanding poet of the VII century, the author of sharakans. At the seminary, Komitas was assigned to teach music.

Along with teaching, Komitas organized a choir, an orchestra of folk instruments, and treated folk songs; he made the first research in Armenian Church music.

Komitas was the most important collector of Armenian folk songs, and his exact and detailed research established Armenian musicology scientifically. His folk-based songs and choruses and his liturgical chants are still popular among Armenians, many of whom regard him as their foremost composer.

In the period of World War I, the government of the Young Turks initiated their monstrous program of violent and inhumane extermination of part of the Armenian people.

In April 1915, Komitas was arrested together with several outstanding Armenian writers, publicists, physicians, and lawyers. After the arrest, accompanied by violence, he was deported far to Anatolia where he became a witness to the brutal extermination of the nation’s bright minds.

And even though due to the intervention of influential figures Komitas was returned to Constantinople, the nightmare he had experienced left a deep ineradicable impression on his soul. Komitas remained in seclusion from the outer world, absorbed in his gloomy and heavy thoughts – sad and broken.

The genius of Armenian music found his final shelter in Paris, in the suburban sanatorium Vil-Jouif where he spent almost 20 years of his life.

On the 22nd of October, the life of the Great Komitas came to an end. In the spring of 1935, his remains were transported to Armenia and buried in the Pantheon of prominent art figures in Yerevan.

No less tragic was the destiny of Komitas’ creative legacy. The majority of his manuscripts were destroyed or lost all over the world…

Nouné Yeranosian