Edgar Manas

Yet, his impulse to continue his music studies took him back to Italy, where he settled in Padua and worked with composer Luigi Bottazzo,[4] focusing on harmony, counterpoint and fugue.

Members of the quartet were violinists Ekrem Zeki Ün[11] and Krikor Garabedian, violist Diran Israelian and cellist Kalayov.

A short Adagio spanned by long melodic arcs, titled “Lied,” follows as the third movement; and a lively, vivacious, flowing Finale, full of inner life, brings this concise work to a close.

Without exploring new harmonic or formal territory, it shows the hand of someone with the characteristic quartet style of familiar masters, who achieves excellent motivic work and finds pleasure in honest images and forms averse to any affectation.

During the final concert on January 20, 1922, the program included Manas's own composition, My Death («Իմ մահը»), in addition to works from the standard repertoire.

Manas was engaged to teach music at the Esayan[13] Armenian day school and was hired by the Dârülelhan)[14] (the precursor of the Istanbul State Conservatory[15] in 1923 to conduct the orchestra and establish the first women's choir in the newly founded Turkish Republic.

The program included excerpts from Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Meyerbeer’s L'Africaine, Brahms’ Nänie, as well as purely orchestral works by Gluck, Schmitt, Schumann and Mendelssohn.

Manas was appointed choirmaster of The Choir of Goghtn (Գողթան երգչախումբ) of the Armenian patriarchal church in Istanbul, where he served for twenty years until 1957.

In the foreword of the printed score, the composer writes:[16] Compared to the Latin Mass, which consists of five movements of various lengths, the Armenian Divine Liturgy is made of several short segments that are interconnected.

In order to avoid any kind of monotony and to conclude the work with a proper ending, I decided to augment certain numbers...and finish the composition with a chorale and fugue.

This particular Divine Liturgy with organ obbligato, reserved for special occasions, requires a big chorus in order to project the necessary volume in loud portions, and create an even and opaque sonority in soft passages.