I read today that the musicologist Bedros Alahaidoyan has recently passed away.
I met Bedros Alahaidoyan in person for the first time more than a decade ago; in fact it was in 2011, in Los Angeles. He and his wife graciously accepted my invitation for a lunch in my mother’s house. But I knew of Bedros long before that.
“Pharmacie de la Paix” (Խաղաղութեան Դեղարան) was one of the most prominent pharmacies in the commercial hub of downtown Beirut. It was on Rue Weygand, not far from the Lebanese Parliament, in an area known for its cluster of the big banks. It was also not far from "Hotel Lux" my father ran on Rue Allenby that crossed Rue Weygand.
Much like the rest of the Armenian businesses in downtown Beirut then, the owner of “Pharmacie de la Paix” was also socially referred to by his store's name. It is thus that I came to know of Bedros Alahaidoyan as “Pharmacie de la Paix”'s son who was uninterested in his father’s business and pursued “music” in Europe.
Bedros’s interest did not make much sense or sit well with the members of the downtown's Armenian business community who knew and related to each other much like the members of a clan, even though they competed ferociously in business. They were a business force to reckon with, if not the predominant businessmen of the area. Their opinion mattered. "Hotel Lux" on Allenby Street was a walking distance from “Pharmacie de la Paix” where I had been many times with my father. He would never fail to point out to me how good the lot of a pharmacist could be in Beirut, as I was contemplating of studying pharmacy after graduating from high school.
Bedros was a decade older than I and the '60s was the era of the Woodstock, “do not trust anyone over thirty” and of the “flower power” generation. Music to the young and the restless of the '60s was an instrument of the counterculture, if you will. It was the era of rebels without much of a cause. I thought of Bedros as the son of the well-to-do, if not the son of a wealthy family pursuing his “thing” in Europe and was dabbling in music instead of taking over his father’s pharmacy.
Little did I know then of what I found much later about Bedros' real vocation during those years, and I realized how wrong my perceptions of him were then. I thus wanted to meet him, not only for the purpose of just meeting him in person, but also to gift him an Armenian song book I had purchased from a seller in Istanbul, on eBay. It seemed to me it was rare music book. It was titled "Hayoun Yerkaraneh" ("The Armenian’s Songbook") by Hmayag Aramiants (http://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2017/04/tale-of-armenian-hymnal.html.) The hard-cover songbook was printed in Istanbul in 1911. Its 318 pages were very well preserved. It was a collection of nationalistic songs. I thought Bedros Alahaydoyan would certainly appreciate the music book much more than any other person I knew. Hence came about the invitation in my mother's house in Reseda, Los Angeles.
The truth of the matter was that Bedros had studed pharmacy in Belgium, but rather than engage in the profession and taking over his father’s lucrative pharmacy in downtown Beirut, he had continued his studies in music and had graduated as a musicologist from the State University in Brussels and worked at the state-run radio and has had a mission, which was salvaging Armenian folk songs from their inevitable loss, due to the passing away of the displaced survivors of the Genocide of Armenians.
He had thus embarked what would be his life’s calling, collecting Armenian folk songs. Initially, he collected the folk songs of Kurdified Armenians who had settled in Belgium and in Holland. He then expanded his search by visiting Armenian seniors' homes in Europe, America, and in Middle Eastern cities, probing the recollection of the elderly residents for songs they remembered.
His decades-long endeavors culminated in the publication of “An Ethno-Musicological Collection of Palou and its Neighboring Areas” (Բալուի եւ Տարածաշրջանի Երաժշտական-Ազգագրական Հաւաքածոյ) in 2009, and in 2015 he published “Վան-Վասպուրական Ազգագրական Բնորոշ Երգային Նմուշներ - Van-Vasbouragan Ethnological Typical Song Samples”. Both music books Include CDs of songs of the region.
Bedros was also a music critic and penned articles in Armenian journals and contributed to the Houshamadyan. He was a member of Hamazkayin music committee and authored a booklet about Parsegh Gananchian songs that was included with the collection of Parsegh Gananchian’s songs in a set of two CDs Hamazkayin produced.
Treading along the pioneering path of Gomidas Vartabed in unearthing and salvaging Armenian folk songs led Bedros to another discovery in the person of his wife Violette, the daughter of Nartouhie Khosrofian from the Sgham village of Palou. Bedros dedicated his first book to her and attributed its realization to her encouragement and support.
Alahaidoyans lived in Glendale, California where Bedros pursued his calling with a youthful passion and with the support of Violette.
My condolences to his immediate family, his relatives, and friends.
He was indeed a rebel with a cause.
Note: On April 24, 2023 Arthur Ispirian reported that they have finally finished the digitization of the audio archive of the Armenian genocide survivors recorded by the late musicologist BEDROS ALAHAYDOYAN. He had recorded the indescribable stories of our compatriots who survived the genocide and were living in different countries of the world in 487 cassettes lasting about 756 hours.
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