Makar Ekmalian

Ekmalian, Makar Grigor’evich 

Born Jan. 21 (Feb. 2), 1856, in Vagarshapat; died Mar. 6 (19), 1905, in Tbilisi. Armenian composer.

In 1888, Ekmalian graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he had studied in the class of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. He taught at the Nersesian School in Tbilisi, where he created an excellent men’s choir, from 1891 to 1902. In 1893–94 he was a teacher and rector of the Tbilisi Music School.

Ekmalian played a prominent role in the development of Armenian music. His major contributions—arrangements of peasant folk songs, first published in Yerevan in 1970, and the choral a capella liturgy Patarag (published in Leipzig-Vienna, 1896)—are bright pages of the nation’s classical music heritage. Ekmalian wrote the cantata.Rosa’s Wanderings (1888), a symphonic overture, choruses, art songs, and piano pieces.

REFERENCES

Komitas, hotvacner ev usumnasimt-’yunner. Yerevan, 1941. At’ayan, R. “Makar Ekmalyani mshakac norahayt geghjuk ergere.” Sovetakan arvest, 1968, no. 12.