Spiritual Songs of Grigor Narekatsi. Evolution of the Genre

Abstract

The article is devoted to the sacred chants of Grigor Narekatsi, widely known as the author of the masterpiece of Armenian and world literature «The Book of Sorrowful Chants». The signi cance of the songs is shown both in terms of content and in the aspect of artistry in the evolution of the genre and in the history of Armenian literature. Narekatsi introduced tagi, folk songs, into active church use. Continuing the gospel theme of sharakans, in his works he used a wide range of means of artistic expression: epithets, comparisons of metaphors, expanded the semantic eld of verse with paintings and analogies with nature, spiritual included the earthly world in a cosmic perspective. The works are distinguished by detailed, portrait descriptions («Song for Christmas», «Song of the Mother of God», etc.), which had not been found in the poetics of sharakans before him.