A Reflection on Horovel: A Preliminary Attempt

Abstract

Qanon Player, 2nd-year master's student at the Qanon Department of the Chair of Armenian Traditional Music Performance, Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, Tatev Sargis Hakobyan - "A Reflection on Horovel: A Preliminary Attempt".This article presents an excerpt from a master's thesis titled "Komitas Vardapet's Choral Song, 'Plough Song of Lori in the Style of Vardablur Village'" in the context of the horovel genre and its interpretation performed by a qanon ensemble. The paper explores the horovel, one of the most ancient genres of Armenian folk music, reflecting the millennia-old farming culture of the Armenian people. It provides a classification of dialectal terms specific to this genre, presented in the form of a table. Numerous musicologists, ethnographers, and philologists have studied the horovel, having recorded it in both Armenian and European notation systems and published both transcribed and non-transcribed collections. Several monographs dedicated to this genre are also referenced in the article. Special emphasis is placed on the significance and relevance of Zaven Tagakchyan's collection "Work Songs of the Armenian Farmer", which remains the only comprehensive published and transcribed anthology of horovels to date.