(b Kyotaya, 8 Oct 1869; d Paris, 22 Oct 1935). Armenian composer. Trained in a seminary from 1881, he attracted notice as a singer, folksong collector and self-taught composer: he adopted ‘Komitas’, the name of a 7th-century hymn writer, as his religious pseudonym on becoming an archimandrite. He was one of the first Armenians to have a classical Western musical education. After studies in Berlin (1896-9) he returned to Edjmiadsin, but his activities became increasingly international and secular and in 1910 he settled in Constantinople, founding a choir. Deported to the interior during the Armenian persecution, he suffered a breakdown, and from 1919 lived in a hospital outside Paris. His works consist mostly of folksong arrangements, remarkable for their exactness and variety, for the Armenian choirs he directed. Most of his own vocal works are based on folk or sacred melodies.
