A Musical Father to Found the Utopian Homeland: Komitas's Legacy in the Milanese Armenian Avant-Garde

As a pivotal figure in shaping Armenian national musical identity, Komitas holds a prominent place in events and narratives within Armenian diasporas. The Armenian community in Milan provides a striking example of this phenomenon. Since the aftermath of World War II, Komitas’s music has served as a tool for Milan-based Armenian musicians to explore their own sense of American identity. However, despite the significance of these works, they have been largely overlooked by researchers. My presentation addresses this gap by focusing on the musical scores performed during a minoritarian avant-garde spectacle from the late 1970s. Komitas’s influence is evident in the work of Armenian diaspora composer Ludwig Bazil, particularly in his intermedial performance Ararat, which was staged in Milan in 1977. Bazil’s compositions pay homage to Komitas’s harmonic and melodic sensibilities, drawing from both the liturgical and folk traditions of Armenia’s musical heritage. Ararat portrays Komitas as a symbol of a denied culture and an intellectual icon, transcending the role of a national composer. Indeed, Bazil even arranges a short poem by Komitas, titled Aghers, into music, demonstrating a deep assimilation of the vardapet’s compositional techniques and a desire to rework them personally. The delicate balance between honoring past musicians and charting new artistic directions results in the creation of a new Armenian music. By examining the stylistic choices in the music of Ararat within the broader context of the performance, this paper aims to demonstrate that Bazil did not view Komitas’s legacy as a rigid canon but as a foundation on which to build the future of Armenian art. At a time when Armenia was still under Soviet rule, Bazil reinterpreted Komitas’s teachings to envision new artistic directions for a self-determining Armenian homeland.