Բարսեղ Կանաչեան (1885-1967). Կեանքի Մը Երաժշտացումը

No sooner had the Lebanese-Armenian composer and conductor Parsegh Ganachian (1885-1967) settled in Beirut in 1933 than he organized his choir, Kusan, and gave his first Lebanese concert that same year. A group of devoted supporters surrounded him and took over the organizational and administrative tasks of the choir. For a quarter of a century, Kusan gave annual concerts in Beirut, Tripoli, Zahle, Latakia, Aleppo and Damascus, shaping the musical taste of the Armenians reconstructing their lives in Middle Eastern hostlands. These concerts were attended by presidents Emile Eddé and Camille Chamoun, PM Riad Solh, ministers, MPs and French mandatory officials. Ganachian, a student of Gomidas, was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. During WWI he served in the military hospitals of Dardanelles and the army brass brand on the Eastern front of Erzurum. He was exiled to Diyarbekir, and finally to Aleppo, where he organized a choir and gave a concert in the presence of Amir Faysal. Ganachian's concerts and studies took him to Adana (Cilicia), Istanbul, Paris, Cairo, Aleppo, Cyprus and Beirut. The Kusan choir triggered Ganachian to resume composing. He composed some 30 Armenian songs, an opera in 1939 and 19 children's songs. Ganachian transformed several Lebanese folk songs (Ala Dal'una, Zahle Arous, Zahle Ya Dar El Salam, Debek-Debek, etc.) into four-part harmony choir songs, which became a part of Kusan's repertoire. These endeavors brough him state recognition. Ganachian was awarded the "Ordre de Palme Academique" by the French Mandatory authorities in 1936 and the Ordre National de Cèdre in 1955 by President Chamoun. The book provides an extensive panorama of Ganachian's musical life. It comprises his biography and education, around one hundred letters he and his classmate exchanged for almost half a century, his five analytical articles on his compositions a list of his compositions, a chronology of his choir performances and a list of songs performed by the choir Kusan, newspaper reviews on Kusan's performances; four interviews, memoirs of his wife, daughter, students, and choir members; reviews of his compositions; documents; photos, book covers, and local newspaper announcements.