The views of the founder of the Eastern Armenian literary language Khachatur Abovyan about music are based on the ideas of Armenian national identity. Two of his articles, "Armenian Church and Folk Music", as well as an article addressed to the Imperial Russian Academy that has not been preserved to this day, pursued a specific and cognitive goal to identify the characteristic features of the identity of the Armenian people and introduce them to the outside world. In the history of Armenian music, these articles marked the beginning of the formation of a national worldview, the ideological foundations of which were formed under the influence of German Romanticism, and the culmination of which was the formation of the Armenian national school of composers.

KeywordsKhachatur Abovyan Johann Benjamin Gross German Romanticism sacred song traditional musical and poetic art art of ashughs national school of composers khaz Sharakan.

In traditional Armenian music-poetry, the manifestations of Gusan and Ashugh art very often are not differentiated. The lack of clarity on this issue is a consequence of disregarding the main characteristics of these expressions of traditional art, along with the lack of research on Gusan art in general. The absence of a clear distinction between the folk and folk-professional (secular-professional) branches of Armenian traditional musical-poetical art is also important, due to its relation to the differentiation between Gusan and Ashugh art, representing two areas of folk-professional branch.

Keywords folk– professional secular professional Gusan Ashugh “Ergqkՙ cՙcՙocՙ ev parucՙ” “Hagnergutyun” (rhapsody ῥαψῳδία) horeia (χορεία).