
Komitas’s Sacred Harmony Before the Silence, the Last Liturgy
Hratch Tchilingirian | 24 April 2025
During the chaos of World War I in Constantinople, Komitas Vardapet began composing a version of the Armenian Divine Liturgy (Badarak) for a male choir. Due to military exemptions for some educators and church servants, including a few from the Armenian Church in Galata (Istanbul neighborhood), Komitas gathered a group of about 25–30 young men and worked intensely—sometimes day and night—to train them and compose the choral arrangements, carefully crafting each voice part as its own unique melody....