Armenian Church Music

Armenian church music is the sacred repertory of the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the oldest continuous chant traditions in Christianity, centered on the sharakan hymns sung through the liturgical year. Monophonic and modal, organized by an eight-mode system related to but distinct from the Byzantine oktoechos, the chant is preserved in khaz neumatic notation and performed by choir and soloists, traditionally unaccompanied. Its supreme monuments are the hymns attributed to saints and scholars from *Mesrop Mashtots* onward, and the composed Divine Liturgies of *Makar Yekmalyan* and *Komitas*, which recast the ancient melodies in choral polyphony without breaking their modal character.