Armenian Church Music: genres, modes, and notation issues

Abstract

This article covers some essential elements of liturgical Armenian music, starting from its historic evolution, up to the presentation of some essential genres, church modes characteristic to Armenia and unique and specific medieval musical notation with khazes. The article describes in detail the formation and evolution of the most important Armenian musical liturgical genre, sharakan, enumerating its characteristics as well as outstanding composers 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 also considers a widely discussed chapter of the history of Armenian music, the use and understanding of Armenian medieval neumes, called khazes, the research carried out in the field and their results.