Monday, April 17 2023 16:02

ArmInfo. 24^th ofApril marks the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Armenian musicologist, composer, creator of the universal supermodal system in music, author of the only polyphony and harmony textbooks in Armenian, professor at the Yerevan State Conservatoire, Eduard PASHINYAN.

Eduard Pashinyan was born and raised in Kirovakan (now Vanadzor), Armenia. Since the school years, he studied hard for admission to the Conservatoire, wishing to become a great pianist. But the Great Patriotic War interfered: on the 9^th of May, a year before the Victory, as a result of a severe wound near Sevastopol, fighter Pashinyan almost lost his arm. The dreams of a pianist career collapsed overnight!Fortunately, doctors decided not to fully amputate the arm, only removing the affected joints and tendons. Eduard Pashinyan celebrated the Victory Day until the end of his life as the second birthday. Commissioned, he returned to Yerevan, trying to bring his hand back to life, invented and developed a small design in the shape of a glove that allowed him to play with his left hand.

In 1946 he entered the faculty of theory and composition of the Yerevan State Conservatoire. A couple of years later, together with other musicians, he left the Conservatoire in solidarity with a group of musicologists boykotting the struggle against formalism that had started  in the USSR in that period. Then he entered the medical institute.Specializingin ophthalmology, Pashinyan worked with Professor Babken Melik-Musyan, also studied music, wrote scientific articles on musical theory and began working on theharmony textbook, much needed by Armenian students.

Bythe request of friends, Eduard Pashinyan returned to the music, this time forever.In 1951 he started teaching at the Romanos Melikyan Music School, in  1961 he became a senior lecturer at the Yerevan Conservatoire, where in 1971  he became Associate Professor and afterwards  Professor of the Department of Music Theory. In addition to the harmony textbook in Armenian, for which he received a Ph.D. in the history of art, he created a unique super-modal tonal system in the Armenian music, which was later highly appreciated in Moscow: Eduard Pashinyan, without a doctoral degree, was awarded the title of Professor at the Yerevan State Conservatoire. Following the recognition of the scientific merits of the musicologist in the Armenian SSR he was awarded the title of «Honored Arts Worker».

Eduard Pashinyan was a composer who wrote choral works, piano and instrumental pieces. Generations of students brought up by him later became jewels of the Armenian musical art, and his "school" works today not only in Armenia, but also abroad. Konstantin Petrosyan, Svetlana Navasardyan, Lusine Zakaryan, Aram Satyan, Armen Ananyan, Ruzanna Stepanyan, Robert Amirkhanyan, Artashes Kartalyan, David Azaryan, Artur Satyan: this is an incomplete list of  Eduard Pashinyan's eminent students, for whom he was not just a prominent scientist and teacher, but a guide to the world of music.

Aram SATYAN, composer, chairman of the Armenian Union of Composers: “It is very important to meet a real teacher, whom you will respect, love, appreciate just at the beginning of the path. Like all Pashinyan's students, I am very lucky in this regard. Eduard Pashinyan had a rare ability to combine severity and goodwill. It made us more responsible. Later, his skills (to some extent) "by inheritance" passed to us, his students. Pashinyan's students had always stood out: the school and "deportment" were immediately visible. We were much more savvy than our fellow students, because it was simply not possible not to be such, being Pashinyan's students. Even the laziest and, perhaps, not particularly gifted student after a certain time "blossomed" before our eyes, had used to be transformed. ... He liked to repeat: "In the music school they used seven years to explain what you can’t do in music, I’ll teach you what you can. Try, dare!"

There are many stories associated with his name. “You are a real Armenian singer, in your voice you have power and sorrow, strength and light of the Armenian people. What kind of Svetlana are you? You are real Lusine!” – Eduard Pashinyan  once said to his student Svetlana to be later recognized by the world under the name Lusine Zakaryan.

Mikhail KOKZHAEV, composer, professor of the Yerevan State Conservatoire: “The legend, coryphaeus of the Armenian musicology,its part that belongs to the fundamental bases of the musical theoretical science. His contribution to the musical theory, and not only related to the national art, is invaluable: the textbooks of polyphony and harmony created by him are examples of teaching aids for the highest school of music. If we recall that in the world musical pedagogical practice, no more than a dozen of worthy musical harmony and polyphony textbooks have been created in the entire history of formation of the educational process, then Armenia can be proud of the very fact of having such manuals, created by the willpower and talent of the Armenian musicologist.”

Today in the Romanos Melikyan Music School at the entrance to the classroom, where Eduard Pashinyan worked, there is a plate in his honor. The Union of Composers of Armenia, the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and the Yerevan State Conservatoire are planning to hold a scientific conference in September dedicated to the 100th anniversary of this outstanding figure of musical art.

P.S. Volume I of the "Harmony Textbook" was published in 1960, then republished several times,in 1987 in two volumes. In 1998 his last work"Polyphony" was published at the expense of Archbishop Shahe Achemyan. Today, these books are stored in the libraries of various universitiesin a very poor state and in extremely limited quantities. Hopefully, the Eduard Pashinyan's 100th anniversary will finally become an occasion for relevant structures to pay attention to the issue of  republishing these works. And then, with a sense of duty done, it will be possible to bow the head and say: "Happy anniversary, Master!"