"Gandzaran" contain a special kind of poetry called "gandz" (anthem) and "tagh" (hymn). The latter also has its de­ri­va­tives known as "pokh" and "meghedi" (melody). These poems, dedicated to church feasts and saints, were sung during the church ceremonies. The gandz which was the main element was mostly composed of a recitative, while the tagh and its deri­vatives (often parts of the same tagh) – used as auxiliary elements for the gandz – were energetic and vigorous, the meghedi be­ing especially melodious. The oldest samples of these poems date back to the 10th century, as their first author is con­sidered to be Grigor Narekatsi (Gregory of Narek) (951-1003), the most renowned Ar­menian poet of the Middle Ages. The Gandzaran, though preserved with hund­reds of manuscripts – the oldest copies belong to the 13th century – was not tho­roughly studied. Grigor Nare­katsi's publications often included also his three an­thems. The author's hymns were published more frequently. However, neither the an­thems nor the hymns were presented as elements of the Gandzaran, as the orderly arran­ge­ment of gandz+tagh coordination was not understood.

The study of the Gandzaran manuscripts carried out by the present writer took place while working at the Institute of Old Manuscripts ("Matenadaran") in Ye­revan. The research helped to identify the order and arrangement of the an­thems and hymns and to understand the difference between the old and revised collections of Gandzaran. The survey presented here gives a general notion of the orderly coor­di­na­tion between the anthems and hymns. It also explains why the anthems and hymns of the revised Gandzarans that had undergone the edi­tion of Գրիգոր Խլաթեցի (Gre­gory of Khlat) (1349-1425) do not have the same com­position as those of the older period.

To insure the availability of more specialised information, the names of the books and articles (these are in Armenian) by the present author appear at the end of the survey.