Titre / Վերնագիր : | Ոսկեփորիկ - A treasury of Armenian chants / auteur/հեղինակ : Շահան Արծրունի - |
Editeur / Հրատարակիչ : | Armenian Church of America |
Année / Թուական : | 1994 |
Imprimeur / Տպագրիչ : | St Vartan Press |
Description / Նկարագրութիւն : | 22 x 28 cm, 169 pages, couverture illustrée en couleurs |
Collection : | |
Notes / Նշան : | |
Autres auteurs : | |
Sujets / Նիւթ : | Musique religieuse |
Lecture On-line : | non disponible |
Commentaire :The idea for this hymnal was born more than ten years ago out of the need for children as well as adults to understand and sing together the sacred songs of their people. There was no song book we could open as a church family that would make our hymns intelligible to new generations of faithful. In most cases, there was no modern musical notation available. The then Primate and now Patriarch of Jerusalem and Locum Tenens of the Holy See at Etchmiadzin, His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom Manoogian helped launch this project by setting a lone vartabed to work painstakingly setting down music by hand, note by note. The hymnal was so long in securing funding that this process became obsolete and was replaced by the computer (much to the vartabed's relief, no doubt). We were able to continue with the blessings of the current Primate, His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, and fortunate to find a true musician and creative force in Sahan Arzruni whose work in making these songs singable and in recreating their history and milieu is nothing short of miraculous. It was his thought to accompany the hymnal with a cassette, an idea not only educationally sound but also responsive to the needs of many of our teachers and church families who, unfamiliar with most of our sacred music, had been asking for a tape of such selections. Sahan went to Yerevan and personally recorded a children's chorus assembled by His Eminence Archbishop Garegin Nersisyan, Primate of the Diocese of Ararat. What that heroic chorus achieved is surely another miracle, its youthful members coming from distant villages by any means available - often by foot - and rehearsing for only a few short weeks with little more to support their efforts than their own sheer joy. This is the result of such efforts, a treasury that is an esthetic delight even as it carries out the mission of the Department of Religious Education: to teach, inspire, and cultivate a living faith. A Treasury of Armenian Chants is a gift from the DRE, the author, the benefactors, the designer, the children's chorus of Armenia, and from the ancient Church of Armenia itself, whose voices, present and past, echo in its pages. But most of all, it is a gift from God - who made us, brought us into new life in Jesus Christ, and who dwells in us as Spirit to the end of time. And it is our gift to Him: "Sing to the Lord a new song!... Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!" (Psalms 149,150)
Elise Antreassian, Co-Director Department of Religious Education |