Khachatur of Taron

Khachatur of Taron or Khatchatur Taronetsi (Armenian: Խաչատուր Տարոնցի, born Taron, western Armenia, date unknown; death date unknown) was a poet and musician who occupies a special place among the writers of Sharakans.

It is known that he was born in Taron and eventually settled in eastern Aarmenia during Zakarid Armenia (The first few decades of the thirteenth century in northeastern Armenia are known as the Zakarid period after the most influential family in the region, the Zakarians.) The region was enjoying relative prosperity and development. In the 1230s he was put in charge of the monastery of Haghartsin, in the province of Dzorapor. From Western Armenia he brought with him to Dzorapor many spiritual chants transcribed in Khaz. Neumes were the musical notes used for the notation of Gregorian chants, among other things, and were called khazes in Armenian. As elsewhere, this system of musical notation was gradually replaced by the system still in use today.^[1]

References

1. A. J. Hacikyan, Gabriel Basmajian, Edward S. Franchuk, Nourhan Ouzounian, ed. (2002). The Heritage of Armenian Literature volume II: From the sixth to the eighteenth century. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 477–478. ISBN 9780814330234.