Photo taken in San Lazzaro degli Armeni, with a mosaic of St Gregory of Narek in the corner, to preserve an earlier painted image by the Venetian painter, Antonio Ermolao Paoletti (1834-1912).
Haig Utidjian (CESEM - Centro de Estudos em Música, New University of Lisbon)
The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.
SS. Gregory of Narek (c. 945-1003) and Nersēs of Klay (the “Gracious”, 1102-1173) are amongst the most prominent saints of the Holy Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and are regarded by many as the greatest Armenian poets of all time. The lecture will first explore St. Gregory’s rich imagery, the constant tension between lamentation and hope that permeates his writings, as well as the music associated with his odes – dazzling in their fleeting allusions and multivalent associations, and at times redolent of modern surrealist poetry. It was the Saint’s explicit wish to serve all Christian nations and future generations with his writings, and the lecture will seek to demonstrate the universality and astonishing modernity of his message. It is particularly fruitful to consider St. Nersēs in tandem with St. Gregory: Nersēs too was a prolific poet and musician, and used his precursor’s odes as models for his own. His ecumenical endeavours were ahead of their time, and pursued with great vigour. His poetry is rich in theology, belying its simple and readily memorable surface. There is much in the legacy of either Saint worthy of being cherished by all, and it is hoped that the signposts provided by the lecture may contribute to the enjoyment, enrichment and edification accruing from their respective corpora.
About the Speaker:
Haig Utidjian, PhD, is an orchestral conductor, chorus master, musicologist and patristics scholar. He has written extensively on Armenian culture, in particular on the musicology, theology and iconography of the Armenian Hymnal and the works of St Gregory of Narek. He is a Senior Deacon of the Armenian Church, and has been decorated with the Komitas medal by the Armenian state and the Yakob Melapart medal by the National Library of Armenia. His publications include the volumes: They who imbibed the effusions of the Spirit: The Art of the Armenian Book through the Ages (Mervart, 2016), Treasures of the earliest Christian Nation: Spirituality, Art and Music in Mediaeval Armenian Manuscripts (Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov in Prague, 2018), Tntesean and the Music of the Armenian Hymnal (Mervart, 2018), and a critical edition of Dvořák’s Mass in D (Bärenreiter Praha, 2020).
About the Zernov Lecture:
The Zernov Lecture is an annual event hosted jointly by the House of St Gregory and St Macrina Oxford, the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius and the St Theosevia Centre, charities working in the field of Eastern Christian studies. It honours the memory of the Orthodox theologian, Nicolas Zernov (1898-1980), Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Culture at the University of Oxford, whose vision and work for Christian unity lay behind the founding of our charities. We are pleased to be collaborating for this lecture with the Maison Française d’Oxford, especially given Zernov's connections with the Paris School of Theology, connections which he continued to represent and sustain in Oxford.
