“Pages of Ashot Zohrabyan S creative life "

Abstract

The proposed material is a set of texts of different genres, covering various pages of the life and work of one of the prominent Armenian composers Ashot Patvakan Zohrabyan (1945-2023). The set opens an introductory article by Svetlana Sarkisyan, who dedicated a number of analytical, biographical and musical critical articles to Zohrabyan, as well as personalities in music encyclopedias: Contemporary Composers (London- Chicago, 1992). The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Revised Edition (London, 2001), Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart Gbr., Bd.17 (Kassel, 2007). The introductory article is followed by two early publications by S. Sarkisyan from the authoritative Armenian newspaper «Azg» (Yerevan), confirming the facts of international recognition of Zohrabyan’s composer art. The first article “Following the Outgoing Year” (December 23, 2000) is devoted to the release of the author’s CD by the French label and Music Publishing House “Le Chant du Monde” (CD-series “Musique aujourd’hui”). The article is supplemented by Sarkisyan’s comments on five works by Zohrabyan published in the CD booklet: String Quartet N 1 “Narcisse”, “Ritual” for three flutes, “Parable” and “Serenade” for thirteen instruments, “Boomerang Games” for the ensemble. From the trilingual booklet, in this case, the English version of the comments is presented. The second article by Sarkisyan, “Ashot Zohrabyan’s Music in the USA” (July 1, 2023), presents composer American visit, which was crowned with the success of performing his chamber works. The trip to the United States was the logical end of Zohrabian’s cooperation with the American avant-garde Kronos Quartet, to which the composer dedicated his String Quartet N 1 «Narcisse» (1994 ) and later by commissioned wrote String Quartet N 2 «Kronos» (1998). Ashot Zohrabyan’s creative work is an important part of not only Armenian, but also world academic music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The style created by the composer combines the innovative trends of European school, primarily French and Austro-German, with the original properties of national monodic thinking. In particular, it is an aesthetic perception of music as an object of inner harmony: introspective feeling, compositional proportionality of sections, basic value of diatonic modes, variability of interval and rhythmic structures. Thanks to sophisticated polyphonic technique, variability in texture, Zohrabyan creates an individual writing style that impresses with the complexity of mobile sound forms and, at the same time, with the clarity of the perspective of musical development, the logic of the whole.