Sahakdukht[n 1] (Armenian: Սահակադուխտ, lit. 'daughter of Sahak'; fl. early 8th century) was an Armenian hymnographer, poet and pedagogue who lived during the early 8th century.[2] She is the first known woman of Armenian literature and music. Along with her slightly later contemporary Khosrovidukht, she is among the earliest woman composers in history.
Sahakdukht and her brother Stepanos Siunetsi, who became a noted composer and music theorist, were educated in Dvin. She then spent her life as an ascetic, living in a cave (a grotto) of the Garni valley where she wrote and taught music. Though she is said to have written much Christian music, particularly for the Virgin Mary, only a single sharakan (canonical hymn) survives, the acrostic "Srbuhi Mariam" ("Saint Mary"). The work shows considerable stylistic connections to contemporaneous Byzantine theotokions and kanons. Though her piece did not join the general sharakan liturgy, Sahakdukht's oeuvre as a whole is thought to have exerted considerable influence on subsequent sharakans; they introduced certain phrases into popular use and according to ethnomusicologist Şahan Arzruni they "helped to shape the development of the genre during subsequent centuries".[5]
- ^ Hovanessian & Margossian 1978, p. 43.
- ^ a b Arzruni 1995, p. 400.
- ^ Rowe 2003, p. 17.
- ^ Hacikyan 2000, p. 162.
- ^ Arzruni 1995, p. 401.
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