On the Musicality of Parajanov’s Film “The Color of Pomegranates””

Authors

  • Svetlana Koryun Sarkisyan Yerevan State Conservatory

Abstract

Doctor of Arts, Professor at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, Svetlana Koryun Sarkisyan. - “On the Musicality of Parajanov’s Film “The Color of Pomegranates'”.The article was written by S. K. Sarkisyan in 1969, when she was a student at the Theoretical and Composition Faculty of Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, for the literary magazine "Garun" (Spring).At the suggestion of the editor-in-chief Alexander Topchyan, the material was intended to highlight the musicin Sergei Parajanov's new film "The Color of Pomegranates", specifically the work by composer Tigran Mansurian. However, due to a shift in the analytical perspective, the article was not accepted for publication(this task was successfully carried out by musicologist Nikoghos Tahmizian). Later, in 1987, during apersonal meeting with S. I. Parajanov, the author personally handed him the article. After the director’s, thanks to the initiative of Svetlana Shcherbatyuk (the director’s widow), Sarkisyan’s article from the archive of the Parajanov House-Museum in Yerevan, richly illustrated with frames from the film "The Color of Pomegranates", was published in the Ukrainian language in the journal "Kino-Theatre" (Kyiv, 1999, pp.43-46). At the end of the article, there is an editor's note: "The article was read and approved by Sergei Parajanov". The Russian version (original) is now being published for the first time with minor authorial revisions. The ideas presented in this article were further developed and theoretically expanded in the essay"The Musical Phenomenon in the Films of Sergei Parajanov", published in Armenian in the magazine"Garun" (Yerevan, 1994, No. 2, pp. 87-93). This was followed by its publication in Russian in Moscow("Iskusstvo Kino", "Musical Academy"), Kyiv ("Ukrainian Musicology"), Novosibirsk (the universityperiodical "Criticism and Semiotics"), Saratov (the collection of articles "Dialogue of Arts and ArtParadigms"), and in French in Zagreb (the academic quarterly "International Review of the Aesthetics andSociology of Music") and Paris (the selected articles and interviews "Sergei Parajanov. Cineaste, Trublionet Martyr"). Moreover, the essay "The Musical Phenomenon in the Films of Sergei Parajanov" wasincluded in S. Sarkisyan 's authorial collection of articles "At the Boundary of Centuries. Music and its Spheres" (Moscow, 2014).

Author Biography

Svetlana Koryun Sarkisyan, Yerevan State Conservatory

musicologist, Dr. Hab. in Musicology, Professor. Studied at the Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas and completed postgraduate studies at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, where sheobtained her PhD in 1975 with a thesis entitled "Development of Armenian Music in the 60s years of the 20th Century”. Later,in 1999, she earned the title of Dr. Hab. in Musicology from the Moscow State Conservatory with a thesis entitled" “Armenian Music in the Context of the 20th Century”. From 1974 to the present, she has been Professor of Chair of Music Theory at theYSC. She has also lectured at the musical academies and conservatories in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vilnius, Lvov, and Maikop.She has participated at 76 symposia in Armenia, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Georgia, Azerbaijan,Belarus, Lithuania. Author of books: Problems of Contemporary Armenian Music., Yerevan, 1983, (In Russian); Armenian Music in the Context of the 20th Century. Research. Moscow, 2002; Armenian Music and Composers., London-Yerevan, 2004,(In English); Aram Khachaturyan, Reference Book. Yerevan, 2004 (In Russian, Armenian, English); At the Boundary ofCenturies. Music and its Spheres. Moscow, 2014 (In Russian, Armenian, English, French, German) and about of 500scientific articles in Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Polish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Croatian, Czech,French, Lithuanian, Lebanon scientific collections and journals. She has written articles on Armenian music and musicians inThe Music Encyclopedia, V. 3, Moscow, 1976; Musical Encyclopedic Dictionary., Moscow, 1990; Orthodox Encyclopedia,V. 3, Moscow, 2001; Short Armenian Encyclopedia, V. 2., Yerevan, 1995; The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians(Ed. by S. Sadie, London, 1980), Grove Dictionary of Opera (London, 1992), Contemporary Composers (Ed. by P. Collins,B. Morton, London-Chicago, 1992), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians II. Rev.Ed. (Ed. by S. Sadie &J. Tyrrell, London, 2001) and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart Gbr. (Ed. by L. Finscher, Kassel, 2001-2008),edited and compiled a few monographs and scientific collections of articles. Member of Union of Armenian Composers (Yerevan,1975), the International Music Union (Moscow, 2004). She was awarded the Honoured Culture Worker of Republic of Armenia(Yerevan, 2009), Honoured for Polish Culture (Poland, 2013), Gold Medal for contribution in Science (State Committee for Science of Republic of Armenia, 2015).

References

Bergman I., Stat’i. Retzenzii. Stzenarii. Interv’yu /sost. N. Gordinskaya, M.: Iskusstvo, 1969.

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Published

2024-10-24

How to Cite

Koryun Sarkisyan С. (2024). On the Musicality of Parajanov’s Film “The Color of Pomegranates””. Musical Armenia, (66-67), 18–23. Retrieved from https://yerazhshtakanhayastan.am/index.php/ma/article/view/457

Issue

2024: Musical Armenia

Section

Articles

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