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Notes

1 The kanoon, qanun or kanun is a string instrument played throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and south-eastern Europe. The Turkish kanun has 72 strings (usually 3 × 24, the Arabic kanun is bigger and can have 3 × 26 strings) and is placed on the knees and played with plectrums fixed with rings on the index fingers. It is considered to be one of the most difficult instruments to play and features significantly in Ottoman Classical Music.

2 The master singer is the leader of traditional church cantors who has an expertise acquired through long-term apprenticeship and a responsibility to transmit the singing traditions and repertoire to future generations.

3 Choeurs en Exil (Singing in Exile) is a film by Nathalie Rossetti and Turi Finocchiaro that documents a journey that Virginia and Aram made in Asia Minor encountering the ruins and remnants of Armenian civilization. The research ‘expedition’ was made with members of Teatr ZAR in preparation for the production of Armine, Sister.

Please see page 175 for QR code and link to further information on Singing in Exile

4 Nerses, known as ‘the Gracious’, was the head of the Church of Armenia during the 12th century in the Cilician Kingdom. He is also well known as a poet-musician. Some of his prayer-songs were so popular that they entered the Breviary long after his death. He used classical Armenian language in a very simple style, close to folk traditions.

5 Teatr ZAR is the multinational performance ensemble associated with the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, Poland. Both the Grotowski Institute and Teatr ZAR are directed by Jarosław Fret. ‘Cultivating an ethos of ensemble work, Teatr ZAR develops productions through a long process of creating its own theatrical language, which draws on music from numerous traditions found in the East and West.’ http://www.teatrzar.pl/en

7 Although mainly regarded as an intense physical and musical performance by Teatr ZAR, with a set evoking the crumbling pillars of an Armenian church, Armine, Sister was a multipronged project that included the creation of a performance and its presentation in Poland and abroad, work on publications (including a photographic album), and the organising of photographic exhibitions, panel discussions and concerts of musicians. https://bit.ly/2PLluEO

Please see the previous essay by Jarosław Fret and the photographic essay by Magdalena Mądra for a more detailed account of Teatr ZAR and Armine, Sister (pages 165-83).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aram Kerovpyan

Virginia Pattie Kerovpyan was born in Washington DC, USA, and Aram Kerovpyan was born in Istanbul, Turkey. They came to Paris, The work of Akn was first presented at the France, in the mid 1970s and have lived there ever since. Virginia has performed and recorded with various early music ensembles, as well as with contemporary music groups. She is the soloist of the Kotchnak and Akn ensembles, being specialised in Armenian song since 1980. In 1976 she formed, with Rouben Haroutunian, the duo that would later become Kotchnak, and in 1985 she helped to form the ensemble of Armenian liturgical chant, Akn.

Aram Kerovpyan holds a PhD in musicology from the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. He is Director of ensemble Akn, co-founder of the ensemble Kotchnak and founder/director of the Centre for Armenian Modal Chant Studies, Paris. He was master singer of the Armenian Cathedral in Paris from 1990 until November 2019.

Both Aram and Virginia Kerovpyan are not only excellent singers of liturgical Armenian chant but also significantly contribute to its transmission. Aram, a singer-philosopher in the traditional sense, has published several books and articles on Armenian modal music and its transmission. Together with Virginia, he teaches the art of Armenian modal singing, which differs significantly from the Western conception of music not least in that it has resisted being defined by notation systems over the centuries and has thus always emphasised that it is an inner attitude that preserves the singing. https://akn-chant.org/en/