KOMITAS' SOLO ARRANGEMENTS

The primary part of Komitas' musical legacy consists of his treatments of authentic folk songs. The creative treatment of folk melodies was a genre that especially attracted Komitas. Komitas can be called a true folk artist, having mastered the rules and features of folk song creation. In fact, he appears as a keeper of folk music classical traditions who remakes and improves peasant folk melodies by using the expressive means of contemporary professional musical art.
"I strongly believe that before setting to remake Armenian folk songs, one should deepen his knowledge of the historical and day-to-day living conditions of his people; one should decipher the musical structure, essence and style, the meanings of the words, and be aware of the unique qualities of our folk verses, style of folk singing and many other facts. Only then can one launch a treatment and publication of the songs; otherwise there will be flaws and shortcomings".
These words by Komitas entirely correspond to his own experience of working with his native people. That is why, through his treatments of songs, he has made a great contribution to Armenian professional music. In general, Komitas has only one theme for his creations, that is, Armenian peasantry, although in different genres this theme is presented through various aspects and unique displays.
Series of lyrical songs for voice and piano such as "Keler-tsoler", "Kele-Kele", "Chinar es", "Kuzhn ara", etc. gained wide recognition both in Armenia and abroad. In the song "Keler-Tsoler" the girl praises her fair-haired beloved mowing the grass. She admires his step, manliness and labor, and his wonderful image is compared to the landscape of a mountain meadow and with nature in general.
"Kele-Kele" is a more complicated and dynamic song. In its center, two images are contrasted: an energetic, manly image and a tender, feminine one. The young man glorifies his darling - "his tender dark quail". He admires everything: her step, sharp mind and slenderness. Komitas achieves a contrast of the two images by applying modal changes. The same changes are used in the song "Chinar es". There is no contrast here, only a vast lyrical state with a range of nuances.
In the song "Kuzhn ara", Komitas achieves even more integrality. A fine, poetic piano accompaniment creates a transparent background for the affectionate and simple melody, i.e. the song of a girl looking forward to meeting her darling. These four pearls are examples of light-hearted lyrics, but in Komitas' work, one can find lyrics of another type: dramatically tense, mournful and tragic.
The song "Garun a" brightly expresses such a sphere of feelings. The theme of the song is the tragedy of an abandoned girl. Here nature and the realm of personal feelings go in parallel like two identical worlds: in spring, when everything must blossom, it suddenly starts snowing, and a girl whose love has just blossomed is abandoned by her beloved.
In "Garun a", Komitas' creative approach is more complicated. Now it can be described as s dynamic work based on folk music rather than a simple correction or purification of this music. Komitas turns "Garun a", a restrained mournful song, into a profound dramatic composition, both saturated and strong in its expression. And, if in other songs, Komitas frequently treated the piano accompaniment as a background or sort of emotional "tuning", for this song, he wrote a comparably extensive four-bar introduction bearing an independent idea. Here the main four-note motif gradually tenses and becomes more vibrant. "Garun a" in Komitas' treatment brilliantly testifies to his mighty talent of creating tragic works of great artistic value.
Another branch of Komitas' lyrical songs includes poetic sketches of Armenian nature and landscapes. By their common frame of character, these songs continue along the enlightened, lyrical line, especially as the love theme in folk songs is always closely related to images of nature. The lyrical daily song "Alagyaz" is one such musical picture. It portrays a number of Armenian nature sketches following one after another, such as the gorgeous and stately Mount Alagyaz surrounded by clouds, a sudden rainfall and the sun looking out from behind the clouds and warming up everything.
The song "Es arun" is also a musical "picture": one can hear the playful murmur of a stream. The piano accompaniment plays the leading descriptive role: slight wave figures illustrate a stream, softly talking and running amongst mountainous stones. Komitas worked out this gentle miniature with limited means but in excellent taste.
Special consideration among Komitas' treatments is given to a song-cycle concerning people's grief and suffering. The social theme sounds here especially boldly. These songs, replete with a solemn eminence, are about numerous cases of distress, wars, oppression, ravage, poverty, and expatriation that have occurred in Armenian history. The main character and victim in these songs is a wanderer, "pandukht", a deprived exile compelled to drag out a dreary existence and longing for the happy day when he will again be blessed with his own home and peace. Undoubtedly, "Antuni" is the most prominent representation of the cycle. Nonetheless, it is still not known for certain whether the song is a treatment or an original work by Komitas. Researchers' opinions on this subject differ.
Very frequently the wanderer's image is compared with that of a crane ("krunk" in Armenian). That is why in the songs of the Antuni ("homeless", "wanderer") type, we encounter Krunk as the main character who is always waiting for a homeland and who dreams of flying back and building a nest at home.
"Kanche Krunk", one of the best treatments in the cycle, is an innovative work bearing a seal of immense creative inspiration. Komitas' treatment is strict and simple and thus highlights the poetic beauty and deep authenticity of the folk melody with its rhythmic and modal diversity.
The famous and much loved treatment "Tsirani Tsar" ("Apricot Tree") occupies a special place in the cycle of grief-filled yet heroic songs. It is a tragic song which tells of a deprived peasant. In fact, "Tsirani tsar", an infinitely developed composition with a great number of repetitions, unites three songs according to Komitas' composition plan. The foundation is the song "Tsirani Tsar" itself, in its entirety, emotionally and psychologically concentrated. The melody of the song reveals many features assembled in Armenian folk music. And that is the reason for such an ordinary merging of the two other songs: "Tvek, et tvek" ("Give back") and "Hov, Hov, Hovn enkav" ("Evening Freshness Fell"). More modest in depth, character and expression, they serve as superb expansion of the main song.