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Score To Komitas' (1869-1935) 6 Dances For Piano


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Komitas wrote a suite of delicate Armenian dances for solo piano, which were published in about 1916 by the German firm of Breitkopf & Härtel.  These have been released a few times in recorded performances:  the Komitas centenniel committee included a very pleasant performance of it in their celebratory LP set in 1969, and more recently, Grigory Sokolov included it on some recorded recital CD's, although he makes a rather sentimental, syrupy job of them, in my opinion.  I believe the American composer Alan Hovhaness also recorded these charming pieces at some point.

I'm having no end of trouble trying to locate the published score; several letters to major libraries in Yerevan have gone unanswered, and the archivist at Breitkopf & Härtel (which is still in business in Germany) informs me that he has no titles by Komitas in the archives.

I am hoping that someone here may be able to help me locate the sheet music for this work, preferably the original edition, which I'm anxious to obtain, so that I may learn and play these wonderful pieces.  Here is an extract from a  Web page which discusses the piece further, and seems to indicate that a new, scholarly edition of Komitas' works was published more recently in Yerevan, which might contain the sheet music for this short suite:

The solo piano makes its appearance in Komitas' mature work in 1902 in the form of Six Dances for Piano which he composed over a four-year period. The cycle was performed in Paris by the composer in 1906 and published in Leipzig by Breitkopf and Härtel in 1916. Six volumes of Komitas' works, edited by the late Komitas scholar Robert Atayan, were published in Yerevan between 1960 and 1982.

The titles of the dance cycle indicate the ethno-choreographic characteristics of various regions in Armenia. Here Komitas aims for a kind of abstraction where dance is transformed into choreography and song becomes a contemporary, polyphonic performance.

Although Komitas turns to a European musical instrument for his medium, the Dances does not follow European compositional conventions in form, harmony, and metro-rythmic structures. There is an intentional reduction of pianistic bravura and virtuosity. The identity of the piano is shaped by the vocal and folk instrumental idiom of Armenian music. The two-voice setting of Yerangi, with the percussive second voice accompanying the melodic line, displays an elegant female dance. Each of the two sections of Ounabi is made up four sets of six measures. The intensive modal constrasts of Marali complement Ounabi. An equally complex rythmic structure is also evident in the two male dances of Yet Ou Arach and Shoror.

In the Dances, Komitas departs from the Classical and Romantic piano & forte understanding of performance. His aim is to appropriate the piano not only to the human voice but also to traditional Armenian folk instruments. This is why he directs the performer to play in "the trumpet, drum, and tambourine style." What the piano loses in grandiosity is more than amply made-up in transparency, perspective, and texture. In this, the Dances has something in common with the piano works of Debussy, Bartók and Kodály. In fact, there is evidence that on one of his visits to Paris, Komitas met with Debussy who later spoke enthusiastically about the Armenian's work. Perhaps one of the reasons for Komitas' extraordinary scholarly and artistic success in Europe during the first decade of our century was due to the experimental, compositional possibilities which his work suggested.

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да, меня тоже заинтересовал этот цикл, встретив в интернете информацию, что Г.Соколов его исполняет (хотя не могу поверить что он исполнял его "сладенько" :lol:); к сожалению так до сих пор его не слышал и не видел (нот) :/

the Dances has something in common with the piano works of Debussy, Bartók and Kodály

Было бы неплохо :rolleyes:

Если Komitas действительно "опередил" Bartok'а, у которого результат своего хобби "собирательства" народных древних мелодий (венгерских, болгарских, румынских и даже несколько арабских) начал ощутимо проявляться с ~1912 года, то - впечатляет :D

ps. в Ленинской библиотеке в Москве должны быть

ps2. сорри что не на английском :(

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вот нашел, если кому интересно, послушать :)

сайт посвященный творчеству Комитаса www.komitas.am

list works

ps. в Ереванской Косерватории им.Комитаса на 100% эти ноты должны быть, если же она "не отвечает" на запросы, логично тогда связаться с кем-то кто в настоящее время в ней учится, у кого-то из форумчан может имеются такие родственники или знакомые? :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you for your comments, Hawk; I don't really know very much Russian, but with the help of translate.google.com, I was able to understand most of what you had to say.

As for Sokolov's performance, when you hear how beautifully and delicately the suite was performed (in rhythm, without the rubato that Sokolov put everywhere) back in 1969 when American-Armenian performers got together and made the Komitas Centenniel recording (which I think is still in print as a CD), you will hear why I found Sokolov "syrupy!"

I received an answer from one Armenian publisher who hoped to obtain a xerox copy of the dances for me...I shall let you know if I manage to get hold of them.

I have given up on trying to write to libraries in the former Soviet block:  they don't even acknowledge my letters.

Perhaps if I were to write in Armenian or Russian, it would help...but they just ignored my inquiries altogether.

The New York Public Library has one volume of Komitas songs for voice and piano, which I saw when I was a teenager, and looked through a little bit--it had text underlays in Russian as well as the original Armenian, but was enough to give me enormous respect for Komitas' beatifully simple, elegant piano-music.

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