Culture

The objective of the UNESCO’s International Organization of Folk Art (IOV) is to “further promote folk art, customs and culture around the world through the organization of festivals and other cultural events, thereby contributing to international understanding and world peace” which is directly related to UNESCO’s mission of “Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women”. IOV has had its presence in Armenia for many years, however, Anahit Khechumyan’s journey with this international organization started in 2001, when Valeri Paranyan, an active cultural event and festival organizer and a writer known widely during the Soviet Union times, got to an age of retirement and decided to pass the torch to a more dedicated and enthusiastic person. So, he found Anahit Khechumyan.

Armenian culture has its peculiar presence not only within the borders of the country, but it also left its trace across the globe. Here are several sites of Armenian origin, included in UNESCO Cultural Heritage List from other countries.

Regional Post discussed with musicologist and musician Aram Kerovpyan Komitas’s legacy, his role in the world music and his being an icon for Armenia and Diaspora.

Located about 300km south-east of Constantinople, on the western side of the Anatolian plateau, a ceramic school flourished from the early sixteenth century to the early twentieth century in the hometown of Komitas Vardapet – Kutahya.

Komitas is arguably the most Armenian composer, whose prolific activities have affected a scope well beyond music or musicology. Komitas is a symbol of a whole epoch and his tragic end fully symbolizes the ordeals, that the Armenian nation went through in the beginning of the 20th century. Historian Tigran Zakaryan describes what was going on in the World and in the region during his life.

Komitas not only collected, transcribed, researched and compared more than 3000 pieces of Armenian folk music, but also did research on the music of other cultures. We talked to Tatevik Shukhkulyan, head of Research Department of Komitas Museum-Institute about the topic.

In the beginning of the 19th century, a big part of Armenian medieval professional music was on the verge of being forgotten. As a result of closed-door policy adopted centuries ago, the system of the Armenian khaz notation became incomprehensible to church musicians. It is in this decisive moment when the great reformist Hampartsoum Limonjian started his activity as a musicologist. Baba Hampartsoum would later become the person who would save the enormous amount of Armenian musical heritage. Decades later, Komitas would continue this mission.

Sona Hovhannisyan, the founder of the Hover choir and the head of Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, talked with us about Komitas’s exceptional personality, her bond with the master and his transcending value which goes beyond time.