Dr. Haig Utidjian Guest Lecture

Title: Tntesean as theorist: hypotheses and heuristics for the construction of hymnal melodies in nineteenth-century Constantinople

Abstract:  This talk draws on and interprets the corpus of writings, transcriptions and redactions by the Constantinopolitan Armenian musicologist and church musician, Ełia Tntesean (1834-1881). I shall first endeavour to place this in the context of several earlier sources – to provide some pre-requisite background and also to demonstrate how Tntesean’s work constitutes a quantum leap forward and still uniquely valuable to us at present. I shall then seek to demonstrate the manner in which his theoretical contributions were intended by the author himself to serve as a “productive and creative heuristic for musicians and scholars alike” in his own time – as well as a kind of apologetics for his decisions and choices in preparing an edition of the Armenian Hymnal. In this capacity, he redacted melodies constructed on the basis of an only partly understood mediaeval notational system. At the same time, indirectly he provides us with a partial codification of principles underpinning quasi-improvisatory procedures deployed by his colleagues. His work thus touches upon intriguing fundamental questions – on fixity versus fluidity, on the appropriateness of competing notational systems, and, ultimately, on the intertwined nature of empirical practice and theory – that remain undiminished in their fascination today.

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Meeting ID: 676 0042 2946