Wardan Sarxian (1895-1978)
With heartfelt warmth and admiration, we invite you to explore the life and legacy of Wardan Sarxian (1895-1978), a devoted musician whose passion and dedication significantly enriched Armenian culture. Born in Istanbul at the turn of the 20th century, Wardan miraculously survived tumultuous times and emerged with an unwavering commitment to his heritage. Through the loving words of his son, Edouard Sarxian, we delve into a narrative that not only honors a father’s profound impact on music but also celebrates the resilience and unity of the Armenian diaspora. This profile is a tribute to a man who, with modest ambition, used the universal language of music to preserve and promote the traditions of his ancestors, ensuring that the melodies of Armenia continued to resonate across the world.
To view and listen to Chants Profanes et Sacrés – click here
___________________________________________________________________________
In memory of my father, Wardan Sarxian
Edouard Sarxian, Marseille, November 1992
The composers of the diaspora preserve the Armenian culture by conveying it throughout the world and this make it richer.
On the verge of thre 20th Century, Komitas, the apostle of music, had decided to renew the music of his ancestors and set all his hopes on the creation of a new national Conservatoire.
Then came the years 1914-1915, a period of war, and the terrors of the extermination. However, the Armenian culture, far from dying out, grow stronger, endowed with that energy and strength that only prevail in communities who are used to live on the loof-out and to draw their energy rights from the core of their values.
Wardan Sarxian, born in Istanbul in 1895, miraculously escaped from the war unhurt. Right after the armistice, although he had witnessed the atrocities undergone by his compatriots, he eagerly dedicated himself to his task as a musician and created several chorales (vocal ensembles). His only ambition, modest as he was, was to promote the traditions of his predecessors, to work on that specific music, making the most of its essential and everlasting elements, thus following the line of his spiritual father. He never considered himself as a composer. As he wrote in one of his letters: “My friends used toad this title to my name.” Nevertheless, his work as a whole is particularly rich and glorifies the secular traditions of Armenian popular melodies and religious chants. Like his Masters, Komitas and Ekmalian, throughout his life he gave a great importance to the choral songs, considering it was an universal language and a means of communication and unity through the Armenian diaspors.
There’s no denying Wardan Sarxian’s kinship. Actually, his father, Bulbul Hadji Sarkis [was known] as the “nightingale with a wonderful voice” in Constantinople. He [grew] up in an atmosphere of devotion and passion for music. In 1910, he met Reverend Father Komitas, who had settled in Constantiple, and this encounter was going to upset his life and determine his fate. Komitas created the Koussan Chorale in which his five disciples performed (W. Sarxian, P. Ganatchian, M. Toummadjian, and V. Servandjian). The master’s aim was to [train] choir conductors of a thorough culture, bearing the national temperament and spirit, so that they could conduct their musical activities in western countries. Studying altogether theory, popular and sacred music, methods of transcription as well, they were able to experiment their knowledge with young children. Staring from 1911, W. Sarxian founded his own choir, “Raffi”, and organized memorable performances and concerts, all the benefits being used to cover the medical expenses concerning Komitas, for his health had been seriously impaired since the war.
As soon as 1920, the master’s dearest wish was nevertheless achieved: his five students could finally go to Paris where they carried their training through.
W. Sarxian conducted the choir of the Armenian Church in Paris while he was attending the harmony classes of a renowned scholar, Professor Lenorman. It contributed to improve his knowledge of theoretic principles as far as occidental musical writing is concerned. And that’s an essential point, since he will convey what Komitas had always yearned for and thanks to the modern works and his never-ending anthology of Armenian tradition.
A year later, he is invited in Belgium where he found “Armenia”, a musical society in which the most talented Belgian singers were engaged. He spent four years there until he went back to Paris again in 1928, at the request of the “Commission of the safeguard of Komitas”.
The association was created on the initiative of M. Babayan, a singer and one of the master’s close collaborators and it was presided over by the writer and musicologist Archak Tchobanian. It ws supposed to delay the medical expenses of the composers and to work on his unpublished compositions in order to get them together before being published. From 1928 to 19851, the “Komitas Commission” with W. Sarxian as the editor realized 6 books of songs including 17 solo chants and 36 pieces for choir of rustic music, together with a book of 6 popular dances, a book of sacred songs and finally the “Badarak” [Divine Liturgy]. W. Sarxian restored some of these compositions from memory since he had sung them as members of the “Koussan” choir in Constantinople.
The Armenian diaspora has always considered them as fundamental, as they represented the only foundations for the choir movements which were developing everywhere at the time.
As for bringing out of the “Badarak” composed by Komitas, W. Sarxian had to work scrupulously for the text required a through and painstaking reading to convey the author’s genuine thought. We know that only 14 out of 70 original pages of that composition had been arranged and copied by Komitas himself.
From 1946 to 1960. W. Sarxian settled down in Marseille. There he gathered a new musical society called “Armenia” and began a series of concerts the media qualified as “brilliant”. He thus performed the best works of the popular Armenian music” in Marseille, Lyon, Saint Louis, Brussels, Utrecht, Antwerp, etc…
But he didn’t stop there, he didn’t spare his efforts and he organized 40 choirs in Constantinople and in European towns where an important Armenian population has settled. They gave several concerts and also conferences about Komitas, his life and work, dealing with various themes as far as Armenian music is concerned or the famous anniversaries of the native country.
In 1955, he went to Armenia (Soviet Republic) to celebrate the Consecration of the Catholicos. His colleagues from the Department of the Theory and History of music in the Academy of Sciences welcomed him quite respectfully and established strong and permanent links. He showed a great concern towards the economic and cultural development of the country.
In 1958 he recorded “The songs of Dawn” (Arevakali Yerker) which represent the most important sequences of Medieval Armenian Music.
Concerning this edition, one of the contemporary critics wrote: “(…) in that point of view, one the obvious forces of the art is the way he harmonizes; an accurate technique and a creative taste lead him to special polyphonic forms. Which emanate from the very purpose of the “homophonic” Armenian music. Bearing this in mind, and not willing to hurt his hidden sensitiveness, W. Sarxian works our harmonies round melodies”. (K. Keresttedjian “The Songs of Dawn by Sarxian”, Zvartnots review Paris 25 Feb. 58).
When he was 65, W. Sarxian gave up his activities as a choir conduct, because of his health problems and also an account of the indifference shown by the Armenian Community. He moved to a suburb of Paris and devoted the end of his life to creation only.
Through his vast work, compositions, transcriptions of numerous popular songs and sacred melodies, thanks to the importance he to the work Komitas had started and to this worthy sensitiveness, W. Sarxian knew how to bring out from the traditions a genuine national style. That’s how he has greatly contributed in the preservation and restoration of the notion of armenity, a cagor and warm notion acknowledge only by those who live far away from their native country.
Edouard Sarxian