Vartabed Komitas is the name taken by the Armenian composer, conductor and collector of liturgical and folk music, Soghomon Soghomonian, when as a young man he became a priest. Born in 1869, he studied music in Tiflis and Berlin, returning to his native country to write or arrange between three and four thousand melodies. Though he survived the terrible year of 1915, his collection was destroyed, and he himself, it seems, wrote no more. He emigrated to Paris in 1919 and died there 17 years later. A large number, perhaps a third of the total, of his pieces have been retrieved from various sources, a published edition being produced for his centenary. This present record comprises 17 songs and five dances for solo piano. The other records devoted to his works are currently listed on the Gramophone Database, one of chants (on the Tune Up, France label) and the other a set of 11 movements called Miniatures and played by the Komitas String Quartet (New Albion).
The first of the songs is in a fine expansive style that proves to be not entirely typical. Other ‘special’ songs include a lullaby, an unaccompanied piece of epic narrative, and a fable about turtledove and seagull. Many are love songs, often with a seasonal reference, and two are sung by an emigrant yearning for the homeland. A modal idiom, with an eastern flavouring, is prevalent, though sometimes a more western idiom comes into play, the piano accompaniment supporting this orientation. For the most part, the accompaniments and the piano solos retain the purity and simplicity of their origins though they also have character and in some instances considerable charm.
It is not possible for a listener who knows nothing of the language and only a little of the national culture to gain more than a gentle and partly speculative pleasure, but that much certainly is to be had. Singer and pianist are sympathetic advocates and the booklet is sensibly laid out with texts in Armenian and summaries in English.'