Sayat Nova and Armenian Ashoogh Musical Tradition

"

( SAYAT NOVA AND

ARMENIAN ASHOOGH MUSICAL TRADITION

by

HASMIG

INJEJIKIAN

McGill University, Montreal Facul ty of Music

A thesis su1:mitted to the Faculty of Graduate SLudies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of t-laster of Arts.

Hasmig Injejikian March, 1990

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SAYNf NOVA AND ARMENIAN ASHcmtt MUSICAL TRADITIQN

On ne peut boire ainsi mon eau, tout d'une autre source a coulé; On ne peut lire ainsi mes mots, tout d'un autre coeur ont roulé;

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Hon sol, à moi, n'est point de sable, il est tout de pierres moulé; Freine ce torrent qui ne veut tarir, tôt ne l'branle pas. Trad. Leon Hardirossian

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ABSTRACT ........................................................ lli

2, INTRODUC"""I'rON ..................................................... iv 3. TRANSLI TE RAT ION KEY ............................................ viii

4. CHAPTER 1. ARMENIAN SECULAR MUSIC TRADITIONS ...................... 1

A. Vlbassan-Koosan Traditlon B. The Ashoogh

ln

Arrnenian Hlstory

5. CHAPTER 2. SAYAT NOVA: SOUkCES AND BlOORAPHY ..................... 17

A. Sources B. Blography 6. CHAPTER 3. ASHUOGH POETIC FORMS .................................. 35 7. CHAPTER 4.

~

IN ARMENIAN MUSIC........ .......

. ............ 62

A. General System B. Cnaracteristlcs of Armenian Tzayns

8. CHAPTER fi.

A.

ANALY~;IS ~

OF SAYAT NOVA'S MErDDIES ..................... 90

Analysls

B. Cadences C. Intervals D. Decoratlve Notes E. Contrast and Balance F. Ranges G. Melodlc Contours H. Form 1. Rhythm and Meter 9. CONCLUSION ...................................................... 134 10 . BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................... 138

11. APPENDICES ...................................................... 143 12. CHARTS.............................. . .......................... 16~j

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( ABSTRACf

The maIn obJecth-e of this thesis is to show that the thLrty melodies ascribed to the

~.É.I:!.9.Qgl! Sa~at

Nova are melodically and

rhythmically homogeneous, and that they bear similari ly ta bath Armenian foH. and sacred on this topic in

rneh)(he~.

~cldenl31

SlJ1Ce very l1ttle has Lee". hTItten

languages, .it has been necessary to prodde

( 1) a deseripti ve accolU1t of the anCIent Annenian music; narnely, vi bas san , liç>o§'?J1, folk and sacred tl'adi tians;

(2)

a presentation of

ashoogh }X>eLtc füPIns, rhYIn1l1g schemes, and accentuation patterns, whieh are summarized for the fi rst time in a chart Hl th corresponding sources i ( 3)

a ehapter on Armelllan tzayns as a background to the melodic analysis

and codifIcations of Sayat accepted practlce of

~oYa'

codIf~-ing

s melodies, h'hich i8 contrary to the

these melodjes Hith Greek modal nrunes.

Professor Nl.goghos Tahrnizian' s analysis of Sayat

~ova

melodies "'as

used as a starting JX>int. Furtherrnore, through anal;n,ls based

prlmaril~­

on a\'ailable secondary sùurces, certa1l1 cone lus ions hm e been ùbtalned: such as, the uni ty of rhythm/meter Hl th language conventiolls, presence of speci fic melodlc patterns, cadential endlllgs, mter\'allic patterns and ranges in Sayat Nova rnf>lCKlies, as c/mracterised by lndividual tzayTl codifications. Further research ie; suggested to clar ify codifIcatlOn of poetic forms, tzayn designations, and specifieally, tü solidif;\ accentuation C'onventions of the Arrnenjan language and of its dialects.

c Hi

INTRODUCTION

In 1977, a grant from the Secratary of State (named as "CanadaUSSR Universities ExC'hanse Prr:gram") enabled me to conduct research in At~t~ mu~tCI

tn

Y~ravsn,

41~enia.

During my studies l diacovered

that research ln tha koosao-ashoogh traditlon was limited to the poetic ou~put

of these poet-musicians, yet relatively little work has been

done in the area of kQQsao-ashoogh music. The musical tradition, unlike the uritten word, was collectee! and recorded from oral practice only

Ü1

the early decades of this century. The few melod1es entered into medieval manuscript:.; ([2agœ.r.ans)

ln

neumatic notatlOn are inaccessible,

since the system of neumatic writing is not decipherable. Under these conditions the A:menian koosao-ashoogh musical tradltion is treated with reservation as to its authenticity. ·rhe Armenian Koosan-ashoQgh tradition with roots in the preChristian Armenian musical culture, could not have survived if it only relied on borrowed material. Over 400 names have been enumerated in the Armenian

~n-ashQQgb

tradition from 1560's to 1900. A considerable

number of them performed for the non-Armenlan public, as a result of which their poetic output was rarely in Armenian. In short, thL koosanashoogh drew upon both Armenian and non-Armenian poetic and musical traditions. Of the numerous Armen1an kQosao-ashooghs, the name and works of Sayat Nova (Harootioon Sayatian) stand out not only in the sheer amount of poetry (72 Armenian, 32 Georgian and 117 Azerbaijani poems), and the number of melodies that have reached us orally, but also (as put by the ,

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iv

cRussian poet; Valerie Prussoy), becal:se Sayat Nova "brought ashoogh poetry ta an unattalnable height" and "with the strength of his genius turned the fall{ singer's tracte ta a poet's calling." In arder to P'3tRbll sh a bacl{ground to the sub,}ect prE'sented in this theSl">, a hrlef dCCI.JUnt of Armerdan koosal.l-ashQo..,gh tradItIOns is ghen in Chapter ], within the context of :1l1nenlan muslcal histary. In Chapter 2, Sayat

~ova'

s biugraphy and various sourees of lus ''',n'ks and

SOllgs are presented along

hTl

th controverslal lssues conC'erning hIS 11 fe

and \"orl\S. Certain pot::'t lC forms alld con'vent 1')ns ~~.l!90.KI}s

USM

by AnnenHU1

are df!SCr j hed ln Chapter 3. l hm e presf'nted the poet le form

codi ficatlolls gl\-en by my sources a long

hl

t.h those armotated by

Sa~-at

Nova ln tabula1"' forrn. The primaIT source matf'rial for my thP.bis is the 19G:l puhl h.'atiorl of the melodies ascri bed to Sayat Nova, collected durulg the first th'O decades of

(hr~

t\o/entieLh

('t'ntur~

and t'dl ted by Shal'a DalIan and

~Iooshegh

Aghayan. Other sources arE' described lmder the sectlon ent! tied Sources in Chaptf"r 2. Roman numel'als are usee! for meloches in order of their appearanre in thi s publIcatIOn, Hhile poems (khaghs) are gi vell Arabie numemls as they appear i Il thp- 198·l publ icatl on of the poet' R Armelllan lillaghs. Tl'adi tionally, At'menian lTlusicologists have used Armenian chul'ch !-zaYl} (mode or piteh cOllflguratwnl codifications for For

kOQ~a.r:!.-a~ho~

me l oches , as

names, Hhich ha\t> no di

c

lTlelodies 1 havf' been

r~"'l

h-t>ll as

sacrt~

melodies.

folk melodies, Grt:'ek rr.odal

beanllg upon the true character of these

emplo~"€'d ~ver SÜ1('t.='

the SO'"lt.:'tl zat i on of Armenia. PriOI'

to this pt"'r iod , Ciomidas, the ('minent Armenian lTlusicologist, had usE'Cl d\\lrch

tz~~]}

l'Ixlifi"ali\llls for buth "élC'r· ..d

tHld

..,PC'IÜ(l1'

mplocllplcians are depicted on

tIoses-.K!)!?.!'enB:!-s' i 1 pp. 78-9 , 80 , A5, 96, 111, 120, 12:3 , H4, 178, 189-90, 192-3, :?30, etc. See also Burnp,Y and Lang, TlJ_~_Y~OR!~~, p. 264, and Lang, Armenia, p. 25a. It has not yet been established whether the \·Ü.lé\S'3F.l.r:!::-JsO(~f!'-1 rtrt was 1ni tially an oral trach tion and l.jas rel urded later by pagall temple scribes or vice-versa. One should not m-erlook the !x,[,re\'an Pllb1., 1976), pp. 478-90.

l 12 not entertainers and their language Has exclusively Annenian. Ashoogh poetry in Middle Eastern cultures to the contrary was, intended, to he sung and/or reci ted in public. The a.§hoQ@ l.Jas """'.-pected to comply to three conditions: first, to compose poems accol'duJ.g to certain standard forma.l, metric alld rh:yming schemes, spcond, ta C'ompptp publicly ""ith other ashgoghs in a

phonal

~tyle,

and third, to perform either solo

or in an ensemble, both as a singer and an instl'umE"nta]]st. The spontaneit~·

()f ashoogh. art requirPd total

Hell as knoHleclgp of mplodk t;YVes, training. 24 Bec8U8l' 11n8 Has an

j

whjl.~h

master~-

of poetic fonns, as

\,;-ere acquired thl'ough

mprovisatory art, asl}QulSb poems Here

only in rare casps HrHten do\.m by the poet.

~lany

ri id not s1l1k into

anonymity, hm.Jever 1 sinee the poet frequently mentioned his Ilame in the final verse of the poem, or tht' first Jetters of each 1ine of the poern forrned an acrostic of his Hame. Non'u\el', S]l1('e many illiterate, their poems Here '-Titten

dOHII

Ly others in

By the elghlepnth and tlw lIineteE:'nth cPlltul'Ïeb

them Here

(Jf

d

[~afjél_!.:.

~hoogh

art Has \"ell

establ ished among both the urban and l'lll'ai ArmE"nian population. DetaiJed accounts of tlleir soc Lal ranks, schooling and guiJdf:> have been

24. Along Hi th JX)etic forms there f"xists me 1odic typps 01' fOlms with their respectlve terrns. There is sorne oVf'rlap between the terminology of thesf" tI-,o form~. Sometimes the same terrn is used to refer ta both a }XJeUe and melodic forme Charlot te F. Farr, "The Nusic of Professi.onal ~1usicians of ]\;orth v.est Iran," Ph. D. dissertation (Ann Arbor, m.: Umversily Microfilms InternatIOnal, 1977), \Jp. 9:{-112, K. Levoman, {~shoqghnere ye\~J:~.rrt:.!LArvf'!i.t~ (Yel'P\'Fl.fl: Haybedhrntl, 194,t), pp. 47-50, KotchariEî, Ha~j\oQ.sall~€L~l_)~~l~k_E?_r (Yer(>\an: ,\SSH Ac.uf Sc. Puhl., 197G), pp. 2.t 43.

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preserved. 2~ There were three distinct social ranks among the ashoogbs: court ashooShsi for example, Sayat Nova and his predecessor Naghash Hovnatan (1661--1722) in Tbilisi, urban ashooghs, and rural-village asboQgbs. Eacb fulfilled a specific role within his social class. Naturally, the ashoQgb tailored his poetic language, content and subjcct in accordance witb bis audience. Similarly, the choice of instruments and per'formance practice

vari~i accol~ing

to the social group the asbQoah entertained.

Tbe court ashoogh usually performed during weekly festivities held at the court for a royal audience. 28 A specifie locale, usually a cafe, was the regular venue for performance of the urban ashooSb. The latter often formed instrumental

~nsembles

Some urban ashQoghs aiso travelled

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wlth saz, kamani, saotoor and daf. wi~h

ensembles to various cities and

towns to perform. Those who led a sedentary life frequently had a second trade. As a solo entertainer, the village ashoogh travelled from one village to the next. Often blind fu,d illiterate, he narrated public news of interest. The village ashoogb, less of a creator than the court and urban ashooghs, was destined to perform works by renowned ashooghs, and acted as the propagator-transmitter of the asboogh art. Ashoogh training was conducted according to an apprentice system which was practi5ed in the nineteenth century. The novice ashoogh learned bis art while accompanying and serving his master; the training period lasted from four to five years, after which, in compliance with bis master's decision, the novice gave a publlC performance. The jury

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25. Levonian, Ashoogbnere, pp. 7-45. Uniess otherwise footnoted most of the :information on a,shoogh ranks, schooling and guilds i8 summerized from this source. 29.

Barooyr Sevag, Sayat Noya, p. 70.

consisted of the headmaster ashoogh, and a11 other mas ter ashooghs of the city. Following an or