Dr. Nora Arisian Translates and Publishes First Book About Gomidas in Arabic

Dr. Nora Arisian Translates and Publishes First Book About Gomidas in Arabic –

Historian and translator, Dr. Nora Arisian has published the Arabic version of the book “Gomidas and Armenian Music” in Damascus, reports  Hayern Aysor.

This is the first book about Gomidas in Arabic and contains articles about Gomidas and his music selected from various books, including the translated versions of several studies from Robert Atayan’s book “Gomidasian” such as the study entitled “The Musical Heritage of Gomidas”, Muradian’s “Gomidas’s Evaluation of Yegmalian’s Liturgy”, Tahmizian’s “Issues on the Study of Armenian Spiritual Songs” and more. The book also includes the translated versions from Khachig Safarian’s book “Gomidas the Marvel”, including the articles entitled “Problems with Deciphering Notches”, “Gomidas and Russian Music” and “Gomidas and Kurdish Music”, as well as excerpts from Hrant Kevorkian’s book “To Breath and Live with Gomidas”. The article “Living Martyr” from Vartan Vartanian’s book “Eternal Traveler” has also been translated.

The music for the book was edited by director of Syria’s symphony orchestra, Maestro Misak Baghbudarian who, in his preface, encourages the young musicians of the Arab World to take the path that Gomidas took and document Armenian folk music.

The 160-page book was translated by Nora Arisian who, in her preface, wrote that the book is dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and to the 80^th death anniversary of Gomidas. Arisian also voices hope that the book, which presents Gomidas the genius and the person who embodies Armenian culture and history, will serve as a contribution to Arabic literature.