Armenian composer, music theorist and pedagogue Kristapor Kushnaryan was born in Simferopol. In 1925 he graduated from the Petersburg conservatoire and started to lecture composition and polyphony. Kushnayan played a significant role in the renewal of programs and creating new methods of teaching of theortical disciplines in musical institutions of the Soviet Union. He has educated a number of composers of various nationalities from national republics. Kushnaryan was a great speicalist in a number of musical disciplines. Especially significant is his contribution in the theory of monody, specifically — the Armenian monody. Continuing the theory of Komitas, Kushnaryan clarified the modal basis of the Armenian music, considering it as a logically organized and historically formed system.
