With the blessings of His Holiness Catholicos Aram I, the Information and the Communication Department of the Catholicosate of Cilicia organized a virtual book launch event on the volumes of hymnals “Tsaynakryal Sharagan Hayasdanyayts Yegeghetsvo” (Recorded hymns of the Armenian Church) on Friday evening, February 12th, 2021.
The editor of the volumes Archbishop Oshagan Tcholoyan, as well as V. Rev. Fr. Karekin Shekherdemian, former conductor of the “Shnorhali” choir, and Krikor Alozian, conductor of “Kousan” choir of the Hamazkayin cultural Center, presented the volumes, while V. Rev. Fr. Hovagim Panjarjian, director of Information and Communication Department, addressed the welcoming remarks and introduced the co-speakers.
Archbishop Oshagan gave a brief historical account on the stages of the creation and recording of the Armenian Church hymns. He narrated that in the beginning the hymns were transmitted orally across generations, which has created different versions of the same song. This has given rise to the need to write the hymns in notations. However, due to the fainted knowledge of the Armenian musical notations, the reading of the hymns have become difficult to impossible by time. Based on this concern, in 1979, the late Archbishop Zareh Aznavorian and himself have initiated the work of “Tsaynakryal Sharagan Hayasdanyayts Yegeghetsvo” (Recorded hymns of the Armenian Church). Archbishop Oshagan stated that 11 volumes have been published to this date and the final volume will be published in the near future. He also expressed his gratitude to Sarkis Hovhannessian for his contribution. Finally, the Archbishop announced that a special guidebook for choirmasters will be released soon.
Subsequently, Rev. Fr. Karekin Shekerdemian presented the first 8 volumes, and Krikor Alozian the last 3 volumes of the hymnals.
Concluding the virtual event, V. Rev. Fr. Hovagim Panjarjian extended the paternal warm greetings of His Holiness Aram I to the presenters and the audience, as well as to all those have contributed in the publication of the hymnals.
