ABSTRACT
Armenia is both a country located in Transcaucasia and a multinational community with significant representation in many other countries. Its music bears relationships to European and Middle Eastern musical systems and so has a readily distinguishable character. With a history that extends over thousands of years, Armenia’s musical heritage includes one of the world’s great liturgical traditions, numerous genres of folk music, and contributions to international symphonic and choral repertoires. Armenian scholars and musicians developed written theories of music and their own systems of musical notation. Colloquial song genres such as the gusan are demonstrably centuries old. Armenian church music depends on its own system of modes, similar in character to those of Armenian folk music. Together, these repertoires sustain a sense of community and identity in the widespread diaspora that constituted Armenian life for most of the twentieth century.
