The Role of the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church Community Song in the Transformation Process of the Armenian Liturgical Repertoire in Transylvania

Abstract

"This article presents and briefly discusses the transformation process of the Armenian liturgical repertoire in Transylvania, through the prism of contemporary descriptions and manuscript sources dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As known, most of the Armenian population settled in the Transylvanian area in the seventeenth century. In time, there followed a gradual and definitive assimilation into the native Hungarian (Szekler) population, during which Transylvanian Armenians lost their mother tongue. Schools with Armenian as the language of instruction gradually closed, and the Armenian liturgy also underwent major changes following the adherence of Armenians to the Roman Catholic Church. Currently the Armenian language and culture are on the verge of extinction, most Armenian churches open only on pilgrimage days, once a year. The Armenian population retains only the language of the liturgy and some traditions (more of a gastronomic nature), which in fact represents the danger of the disappearance of everything that this ethnic group has built beneficially in the service of the community over the centuries. Keywords: Armenian, Transylvania, liturgical music, religious folk songs, Frumoasa, Gheorgheni"