'''Robert Arshaki Atayan''' ({{langx|hy|Ռոբերտ Աթայան}}; 7 (20) November 1915{{spaced ndash}}4 March 1994)<ref>{{cite web|last=Wolverton|first=Cynthia Kay|title=The Contributions of Armenian Composers to the Clarinet Repertoire|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3299/m2/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf|publisher=University of North Texas|accessdate=14 February 2014|date=December 2002|page=39}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Աթայան, Ռոբերտ Արշակի, 1915-1994 (Personal Name)|url=http://opac.flib.sci.am/cgi-bin/koha/opac-authoritiesdetail.pl?authid=5368|publisher=Armenian Academy of Sciences|accessdate=19 February 2014|language=hy}}</ref> was an Armenian musicologist and composer.
He was born in Tehran, Iran and later moved to Soviet Armenia. He completed the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory in 1941 and since 1944 taught there.<ref>{{cite book|contribution=Աթայան Ռոբերտ [Atayan Robert]|language=hy|title=Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia|publisher=Armenian Encyclopedia|location=Yerevan|editor=Hambardzumyan, Viktor|volume=1|page=127}}</ref> He authored several important works on the Armenian system of musical notation called ''khaz''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Atʻayan|first=Ṙobert|title=Armenian neume system of notation: study and analysis|date=1997|publisher=Curzon Press|location=Richmond, England|isbn=9780700706365|translator=Vrej Nersessian|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJ0KuhmKpMAC&dq=%D5%A1%D5%A9%D5%A1%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6+1994&pg=PP3 |chapter=Intro |page=3}}</ref> He spent almost thirty years researching Komitas's work and was the main editor of the ''Collected Works of Komitas'' in fourteen volumes (Yerevan, 1960–2006). He is recognized as the foremost authority of Komitas's art.<ref>{{cite web|title=Researchers of Komitas|url=http://www.komitas.am/eng/researchers_komitas.htm|publisher=Komitas Virtual Museum|access-date=19 February 2014}}</ref>
Atayan died in Los Angeles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPSF-WV4|title=FamilySearch.org|website=FamilySearch |accessdate=19 July 2023}}</ref> He was buried in Yerevan.
==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atayan, Robert}} Category:Musicians from Tehran Category:Iranian emigrants to the Soviet Union Category:Iranian people of Armenian descent Category:Armenian musicologists Category:1915 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century musicologists