Abstract

The article discusses the state of research on liturgical monody of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This monody is a collection of musical and literary works, coming mostly from the period from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries and performed during the liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the Middle Ages khaz (neumatic) systems were developed for recording the melodies of monody, but most of the systems have been forgotten. In the nineteenth century in several centers of Armenian culture, melodies of that monody were written down from the oral tradition with the so-called new Armenian notation. Studies of the monody since the eighteenth century were followed by both researchers of Armenian origin, as well as other nationalities, but to this day no university has established any entity, which could be regarded as a center for research on liturgical monody of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the world literature no monograph has been written, which would include general issues concerning the liturgical monody of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are several lines of research on this monody: history, theory and khazology (neumology), retrieving, processing and cataloging sources, the study of medieval commentaries on sacred music, the study of various kinds of the monody, and finally performance practice in the liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are difficulties in conducting research on this monody, including scattered sources and limited contact between researchers from Armenia and other countries. The final conclusion of the work is that the issues concerning the Armenian Apostolic Church monody not yet been sufficiently studied.