Divine Liturgy

The Armenian composer Gomidas (1869-1935), usually transliterated as Komitas, is considered the father of Armenian music. While the conservatoire in Moscow is named after Tchaikovsky, the one in Yerevan is named after Komitas. He was born to Armenian parents in the western Anatolian town of Kütahya, but went as a boy to Echmiadzin, the centre of the Armenian church, and became a priest. He studied Armenian liturgical music, collected hundreds of Armenian folk songs and set some of them to music, but his Divine Liturgy (Badarak), which he started composing in 1892, is his most substantial composition. It was left unfinished at his death in a psychiatric hospital in Paris and completed by his pupil Vartan Sarkisian.

Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity, in 301 AD, and Komitas’ setting of the liturgy is strongly influenced by Armenian liturgical chant. But it isn't monophonic like the church chants; it's written for a male choir in four parts. There's a simple austerity to the music, in contrast to the sumptuous harmonies of Russian Orthodox choral music: just as the clean lines of Armenian church architecture differ to the Orthodox gilded onion domes. This recording was made out of two performances at Armenian churches in Istanbul and it has the atmosphere of a service, although the shuffling of the audience rather spoils what should be a beautiful opening. This recording includes not just the choral music but the solo parts of the liturgy as well. There's an extensive booklet in Turkish, Armenian and (rather poor) English.