Week Three Introduction: Good Morning Class! I hope you all had a great week and had a chance to practice our song Marmin Deroonagan from last week. Today, we re going to be continuing our lessons and learn more about our featured composer of the day Magar Yegmalian, and our song of the day Krisdos Ee Mech. With that, let s start! Music History: When we go to church we celebrate the Divine Liturgy. From our prior weeks, we know that the Yegmalian Badarak is traditionally the most widely adapted and used version of the Liturgy/Badarak our churches use. Yegmalian was born in Vagarshapat, Armenia on February 2 nd, 1856. He studied at seminary in Etchmiadzin, Armenia and later continued his musical studies and journey in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with fellow prominent colleagues such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer of such works as The Flight of the Bumblebee. Later, he published his copy of the Divine Liturgy/Badarak in Leipzig, Vienna in 1896 and then moved to Tbilisi, Georgia where he taught music until his final days. The arrangement of Yegmalian s Badarak we use within the Western Diocese is by Komitas s own student, Vartan Sarxian. Sarxian arranged the music for four voices: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass with organ accompaniment. My teacher, Ms. Zavian, the choir director of Saint Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Van Nuys, California was one of Sarxian s students. I am honored and blessed to have been taught by such talented and gifted individuals and mentors.
Song of the day: Krisdos Ee Mech Today s song that we re going to learn together is Krisdos Ee Mech, which directly translates to Christ is in our midst. As you may know, the holy kiss of peace takes place as the choir fills the walls of the sanctuary with this angelic hymn. The Armenian lyrics for this piece are as follows: Khaghaghootyan tsayn hunchetzav, Soorp voghchooyni hraman duvav, heratsav, Sern huntanoorus supretsav. Art bashdonyaik partzyal uztsayn, Dook zorhnootyun ee mi peran. Miasnagan Asdvadzootyan, Voroom srovpekn yen surpapan. The English translation is: Christ is in our midst hath been revealed. He who is God is here seated. The voice of peace hath resounded. Holy greeting hath been enjoined. Here the Church is become one soul. This kiss is given for a bond of fullness. The enmity hath been removed. And love is spread over us all. Now ministers, raising your voice, give ye blessings with one accord to the consubstantial Godhead, to whom Seraphim give praises. Similar to last week, let s break up the song into three main parts. As you may know, we repeat the first two lines with the same melody. Part I: Khaghaghootyan tsayn hunchetzav, Soorp voghchooyni hraman duvav Part II: heratsav, Sern huntanoorus supretsav. Part III: Art bashdonyaik partzyal uztsayn, Dook zorhnootyun ee mi peran. Miasnagan Asdvadzootyan, Voroom srovpekn yen surpapan.
Now, we know it s a lenghty piece, so what did we learn last week? We must take a deep breath before we stop and learn to breath once again in between phrases so we can sing the song properly without exhausting ourselves. I ll sing each part first and then we ll all sing it together. Part I goes like this: Khaghaghootyan tsayn hunchetzav, Soorp voghchooyni hraman duvav Now, let s try PART I together. <PAUSE> Part II: heratsav, Sern huntanoorus supretsav. Now, let s try PART II together. <PAUSE> And finally, Part III: Art bashdonyaik partzyal uztsayn, Dook zorhnootyun ee mi peran. Miasnagan Asdvadzootyan, Voroom srovpekn yen surpapan. Great! Now let s put it all together. We ll take it from the top to the finish at a medium tempo. Countdown.. 1-2-3-4
Sing: AACCWD Music Education CEC Curriculum
Conclusion: Great job everyone! That s all the time we have for today but I d like to leave you with some homework for this week. With your parents or guardians, go online to www.aaccwd.com and visit WEEK 3 under our Sunday School page. There you view the sheet music and audio playback for Krisdos Ee Mech. Until then, God Bless you and your families. See you next week!