Xosroviduxt’s “Zarmanali e Ints”
This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers!
Many of you reading my blog may have heard of the 12th-century German Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179). She often is the only woman composer mentioned in Western music history and theory texts, at least when discussing early composers and trailblazers. But you won’t have heard of an extraordinary woman composer writing long before Hildegard von Bingen; in fact, until I started reading the amazing tweets by Jon Silpayamanant (follow him: @Silpayamanant), I hadn’t heard of the 8th-century Armenian hymnographer and poet Xosroviduxt.
Xosroviduxt is one of the earliest known women musicians. There are a few scholars who believe she flourished in the 4th century, but more people seem to be sure that she lived in the early 8th century. She has a short entry in Grove Online: “She is reported to have written the šarakan (canonical hymn), ‘Zarmanali ē inj’ (‘Wondrous it is to me’), which honours the memory of her brother, killed in 737 for reclaiming his Christian faith. Despite its secular subject, this florid šarakan has been sanctioned by the Armenian Church for use during service.” You can read the poem here: https://www.armenianinstitute.org.uk/viewstext/khosrovidukht (original Armenian and translation).
“Zarmanali ē inj’ is her only extant work, and it is absolutely gorgeous. The instrumentation is lush and haunting. And when you compare this hymn to much of what we study from the same time in Western European music . . . well, there is absolutely no comparison at all.
Although we only have one example of Xosroviduxt’s work, that is not a reason to omit her from the history of music. In a thread on neglected women musicians, Jon Silpayamanant points out that it is more likely that she is never mentioned because her music does not fit into the standard European Christian tradition: “And even if Xosroviduxt is part of that Eastern Orthodoxy that Kassia is, there's certainly no liminal status as to the relationship of the Armenian Apostolic Church—it stands outside Europe in ways similar to how other Orthodox Churches in Asia and Africa do.” When I listen to Xosroviduxt’s hymn, it makes me realize that much more of the extraordinary music from outside the Eurocentric world—by both women and men—deserves and demands further study and performance.
My classical music post for today is Xosroviduxt’s “Zarmanali e Ints.”
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