Hampartsoum Limondjian (; 1768 – 29 June 1839) was an Ottoman Armenian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of Armenian church, inclined to composition of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and

Ottoman classical music Ottoman music () or Turkish classical music (, or more recently ) is the tradition of Art music, classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditionally features a sol ...

. He was a musical theorist who developed the "Hamparsum" notation system used as the main

music notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proces ...

for

Western Armenian Western Armenian ( ) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Arme ...

and Ottoman classical music until the 20th-century introduction of European notation systems, and is still in use by the

Armenian Apostolic Church The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the Autocephaly, autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christianity, Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic ...

. Limondjian was referred to as Baba Hamparsum (Father Hampartsoum) in Ottoman imperial court music circles. The name Համբարձում, transliterated as ''Hampartsoum'' in

or ''Hambardzum'' in

Eastern Armenian Eastern Armenian () is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language. Eastern Armenian is spoken in Armenia, Russia, as well as Georgia, and by the Armeni ...

, means " ascension".

Biography

Early life

Hampartsoum Limondjian was born in 1768 on Çukur Street in the Pera (

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the o ...

) district of Istanbul. His father Sarkis and his mother Gaderina, who had recently moved to Istanbul from Harput, were poor, and could only send their son to primary school. After primary school, Limondjian started working for a tailor. His love for music was eminent, and as a kid, Limondjian started attending Armenian churches where he received his music lessons for free.

Marriage and children

Hampartsoum Limondjian married at the age of 27 and had six children. One of them, named Zenop Limondjian (1810–1866) also became a musician and played the ney.

Musician, composer, member of court, and theoretician

Hampartsoum Limondjian took lessons in Armenian music from various Armenian musicians like Krikor Karasakalyan (1736–1808) and Zenne Bogos (1746–1826). He soon came under the patronage of another Armenian - Hovhannes Çelebi Düzyan, director of the Ottoman Imperial Mint. This is when he devoted himself fully to music and continued his music education in the Düzyan family mansion located at the Kuruçeşme district of Constantinople. After serving as a chorist in the Armenian Church, he was appointed as the

precentor A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is ''præcentor'', from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" (or alternatively, "first ...

(first singer) and chief musician. Around this time, Hampartsoum Limondjian started attending ''mevlevihane''s, places of gathering for dervishes of the

Mevlevi The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya (; ) is a Sufi order that originated in Konya, Turkey (formerly capital of the Sultanate of Rum) and which was founded by the followers of Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi ...

order, to learn Ottoman music. In the Beşiktaş Mevlevihanesi, he took lessons from Dede Efendi, one of the greatest Ottoman composers. He was then accepted at the court of Ottoman Sultan

Selim III Selim III (; ; was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, he was eventually deposed and imprisoned by the Janissaries, who placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV (). A group of a ...

, himself a composer whose music is still performed today, and was a regular member of the music circles of his day. Sultan Selim III was concerned about the lack of a comprehensive notation system for music and encouraged members of his court to work on a notation system that would be easy to learn and transcribe. As a result, two music systems were developed and presented to Selim III, by Hampartsoum Limondjian and Abdulbaki Nasir Dede. Abdulbaki Nasir Dede's system was based on the

abjad An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introd ...

system, however differs in the ordering of the notes. Hampartsoum Limondjian's notation that he developed in two years between 1813 and 1815 was preferred over the other and became the dominant notation for Turkish and Armenian music. He worked as a master of music and educated a number of Turkish and Armenian musicians of his day. Besides being known as a leading composer, he was a famous vocal performer and played the violin and the tanbur. Thirty-one of his Armenian hymns, composed with Armenian lyrics in the Turkish melodic system ( makam) survive up to this day. He has composed a large number of Turkish music pieces, most of which are regularly performed today.

Hamparsum notation

Using his own system, Hampartsoum Limondjian transcribed most of 18th century Turkish music compositions in a collection of six books, which he presented to Selim III. Only two of the originals survive to date and are preserved at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory Library. As the dominant notation for Turkish and Armenian music, the Hamparsum notation was instrumental in the transcription and survival of thousands of pieces of music, and was surpassed only in modern times in its use for Turkish classical music. The notation system is still in use by the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Hampartsoum notation uses symbols derived from an older notation called '' khaz'' () used by the Armenian Church. Pitch is indicated by one of forty-five symbols. There are fourteen notes per octave over a range of three octaves and a minor second; a

tilde The tilde (, also ) is a grapheme or with a number of uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish , which in turn came from the Latin , meaning 'title' or 'superscription'. Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) in ...

is used in place of a sharp and also to raise or lower a note an octave. All twelve notes of the Western

chromatic scale The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce the ...

are represented, but in the case of F-sharp (''fa diyez'' in Turkish) and B-natural (''si''), two

enharmonic In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords, or key signatures are considered enharmonic if they represent identical pitches that ar ...

symbols are used for each, because Middle Eastern music uses

microtonal Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal interv ...

intervals called commas. Above each note is written another symbol, marking its duration. Other symbols are used for rests, repeats and phrases.

Death

Hampartsoum Limondjian died at the age of 71 in his house in the Hasköy district of Constantinople. He is buried in the Surp Agop Armenian Cemetery.

Notes

References

* Jäger, Ralf Martin: Türkische Kunstmusik und ihre handschriftlichen Quellen aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, Eisenach 1996,

External links

Hamparsum
(requires installation of a downloadable TrueType font for the Hamparsum notation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Limonciyan, Hamparsum 1768 births 1839 deaths Musicians from Istanbul Armenian composers Armenian inventors Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Turkish classical composers 18th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century composers from the Ottoman Empire Composers of Ottoman classical music Composers of Turkish makam music Male classical composers