Happy Anniversary, Master!
Happy Anniversary, Master!
To the 100th anniversary of the composer and musicologist Eduard Pashinyan
24th of April 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 9th 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.
He entered the faculty of theory and composition of the Yerevan State Conservatoire. Later he started teaching at the Romanos Melikyan Music School, became a senior lecturer at the Yerevan Conservatoire, where 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: Eduard Pashinyan, without a doctoral degree, was awarded the title of Professor at the Yerevan State Conservatoire.
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, Hasmik Paspian, Aram Satyan, Yervand Yerkanyan, 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.
