Robert Arshaki Atayan

Robert Arshaki Atayan (Tehran, 1915 – Los Angeles, 1994) was a central figure in twentieth-century Armenian musicology, combining research into folk and ancient traditions with composition and teaching. His work was developed mainly in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia, and his name remains associated with the study of Komitas's output.

After settling in Yerevan in 1923, he trained as a composer at the city's conservatoire. From 1944 he taught harmony at that same institution, and between 1945 and 1948 he completed a second qualification at the Institute of Art of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia under the direction of Kushnaryov. From 1951 he took part in folklore collecting expeditions to various parts of Armenia, and in 1955 he defended at the conservatoire his thesis on the Armenian neumatic notation known as khazer. He joined the staff of the Institute of Arts in 1956, was appointed professor in 1962, and headed the department of music theory intermittently until 1991. In 1961 he received the title of Honorary Representative of the Arts of Armenia and, reportedly, was highly valued as a teacher.

His interests encompassed Armenian peasant and urban folklore, medieval monody and the music of Komitas, whose complete works he compiled and edited in eight volumes (Yerevan, 1960–1998). He systematised folk elements such as typology, genre, mode and dialect, and studied the stylistic evolution of Komitas's compositions as well as the question of their authenticity. As a composer he gravitated towards vocal music, with solo and choral songs drawing on national themes and rhythms.

His legacy extends to the theory, history and ethnology of Armenian culture, a notion that guided his studies of Ekmalian and Tigranyan. His writings, published in several languages, remain a point of reference for anyone approaching the medieval and popular music of Armenia.