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Armenian Russian
classical composer An outstanding representative of the Russian school
of composition, Khachaturian was a unique artist for whom folklore was
the inspiration for his music. His ballets, symphonies, and other works
are permeated by the intonations and rhythms of folk songs and dances of
the East. They brought a fresh voice to the Russian music of the
twentieth century.
Born: June 6, 1903; Tbilisi, Georgia, Russian Empire (now in Georgia)
Died: May 1, 1978; Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union (now in Russia)
Also
known as: Aram Ilich Khachaturian (full name) Principal works ballets
(music): Schast’ye, Op. 43, 1939 (Happiness; scenario by Gevorg
Ovanesian; choreography by Ilya Arbatov); Gayan?, Op. 50, 1942 (scenario
by Konstantin Derzhavin); Gayan? Suite No. 1, Op. 53, 1943; Gayan?
Suite No. 3, Op. 55, 1943; Gayan? Suite No. 2, Op. 54, 1945; Spartak,
Op. 82, 1956 (Spartacus; scenario by Nikolai Volkov; choreography by
Yuri Grigorovitch); Gayan?, Op. 89, 1957 (scenario by Boris Pletnev).
cello work: Sonata-fantaziya, Op. 104, 1974 (Sonata-Fantasy in C Major).
chamber works: Elegy in G Minor, Op. 4, 1925 (for cello and piano);
Pesnya stranstvuyushchego ashuga, Op. 2, 1925 (The Roaming Ashug’s Song;
for cello and piano); Dance No. 1, 1926 (for violin and piano); The
Dream, Op. 3, 1926 (for cello and piano); Pantomime, Op. 13, 1927 (for
oboe and piano); Allegretto, Op. 18, 1929 (for violin and piano); String
Quartet, Op. 23, 1931; Mass Dance, Op. 25, 1932 (for bayan); Sonata,
Op. 29, 1932 (for violin and piano); Trio, Op. 30, 1933 (for clarinet,
violin, and piano). choral works: Mer Hayrenik, Op. 60, 1944 (Our
Fatherland; national anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic;
lyrics by Armenac Sarkisyan under the pseudonym A. Sarmen); Oda radosti,
Op. 88, 1956 (Ode to Joy; for female soloist, chorus, violins, harps,
and orchestra; lyrics by S. Smirnov); Ballada o Rodine, Op. 97, 1961
(Ballad of the Motherland; for soloist and symphony orchestra; lyrics by
Ashot Garnakerian). orchestral works: Baghdasar akhpar, 1927 (Uncle
Baghdasar; incidental music for Hakob Paronian’s play); Arevelian
atamnabuzh, Op. 17, 1928 (The Eastern Dentist; incidental music for
Paronian’s play); Khatabala, Op. 15, 1928 (incidental music for Gabriel
Sundukian’s play); Dance Suite, Op. 32, 1933 (Tantseval’naya syuita);
Macbeth, Op. 33, 1933 (incidental music for William Shakespeare’s play);
Symphony No. 1, Op. 35, 1935; Piano Concerto in D-flat Major, 1936;
Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 46, 1940; The Widow of Valencia, Op. 45,
1940 (incidental music for Lope de Vega’s play); Masquerada, Op. 48,
1941 (incidental music for Mikhail Lermontov’s play); Symphony No. 2 in E
Minor, Op. 56, 1943 (Simfoniya s kolokolom; The Bell Symphony);
Russkaya fantaziya, Op. 59, 1945 (The Russian Fantasy); Cello Concerto
in E Minor, Op. 65, 1946; Symphony No. 3, Op. 67, 1947 (Symphony-Poem);
Oda pamyati Lenina, Op. 71, 1948 (Ode in Memory of Vladimir Ilich
Lenin); Stalingradskaya bitva, Op. 74, 1949 (The Battle of Stalingrad );
Macbeth, Op. 84, 1955 (incidental music for Shakespeare’s play);
Spartacus Suite No. 1, Op. 82a, 1955; Spartacus Suite No. 2, Op. 82b,
1955; Spartacus Suite No. 3, Op. 82c, 1955; King Lear, Op. 92, 1958
(incidental music for Shakespeare’s play); Privetstvennaya uvertyura,
1958 ( Salutatory Overture); Suite from Lermontov, Op. 94, 1959;
Concerto-Rhapsody in B-Flat, Op. 96, 1962 (for violin and orchestra);
Concerto-Rhapsody, Op. 99, 1963 (for cello and orchestra);
Concerto-Rhapsody in D-flat Major, Op. 102, 1968 (for piano and
orchestra). piano works: Poem, Op. 1, 1925; Andantino, Op. 5, 1926;
Waltz-Caprice in C-sharp Minor, Op. 8, 1926; Waltz-?tude, Op. 6, 1926;
Poem in Csharp Minor, Op. 12, 1927; Toccata in E-flat Minor, Op. 24,
1932; Dance No. 3, Op. 31, 1933; March No. 3, Op. 34, 1934;
Khoreograficheskiy val’s, Op. 58, 1944 (Choreographic Waltz); Children’s
Album Book I, Op. 62, 1947; Waltz from Masquerade, 1952; Sonatina in C
Major, Op. 93, 1958; Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 95, 1961; Children’s
Album Book II, Op. 100, 1965; Seven Recitatives and Fugues, Op. 101,
1966. The Life Aram Ilich Khachaturian (ah-RAHM IHL-yihch
kah-chah-TOO-rih-ahn) was born on June 6, 1903, in Kodjori, a suburb of
Tbilisi. He grew up in an environment filled with folk music, his first
musical impressions formed by the artistry of Ashugs, folk poets and
singers of the Caucasus who fused all the best stylistic traits of
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Persia. His first encounter with
classical music, at the age of sixteen, was an opera, Abesalom and Eteri
(1918) by Georgian composer Zakharia Paliashvili. At that same time, he
began to play the trumpet by ear in an amateur band. In 1921
Khachaturian moved to Moscow to attend the university as a biology
major.Hesoon realized his uncontrollable attraction to music and left
the university to enroll in the Gnesin Institute of Music, studying
cello with Andrei Borisyak and composition with Mikhail Gnesin. In
1929-1934 he studied composition with Nikolai Myaskowski at the Moscow
Conservatory, acquiring the best of Russian and Western European
traditions. During his graduate studies (1934-1936) his tendency toward a
virtuosic style was evidenced in concerti for piano (1936) and violin
(1940) with bright harmonic “colors,” emphatic rhythms, and expressive
melodies. At the same time, he began an active performing career and
became a member of the Composers’ Union. The 1940’s were associated with
a great Soviet patriotism, as demonstrated in The Bell Symphony, a
tragic piece depicting terrible times. He also composed a cello
concerto, the Gayan? ballets, and Our Fatherland, considered the
national anthem of the Armenian Republic. In 1950 Kachaturian became a
professor at both the Moscow Conservatory and the Gnesin Institute and
began his conducting career. In 1951 he was awarded the title of
National Artist of the U.S.S.R. During a trip to Rome, Khachaturian
conceived an idea that led him to compose the ballet Spartacus, for
which received the Lenin Prize in 1959. He received many honorary titles
thereafter. In the 1970’s, as Khachaturian’s health began to decline,
he often spoke about wishing to be buried in Yerevan, in his Armenian
homeland. After his death on May 1, 1978, his wish was fulfilled. The
Music Khachaturian was first to use Asian themes in large, symphonic
forms, thus enriching Western music. His music is marked by modern
images and means of expression based on the folk motifs of the peoples
of the Caucasus. Early Works. Khachaturian’s first compositional
attempts were combined with great challenges: his lack of training in
music theory and his age (he entered the conservatory at twenty-six).
However, his hard work and purposefulness prevailed. His early works
include a toccata for piano, a clarinet trio, and an orchestral dance
suite, in which Eastern colors merge with academic strictness of form.
His Symphony No. 1, a graduation project, won a gold medal. Violin
Concerto in D Minor. The Violin Concerto in D Minor marked the
composer’s artistic credo: brightness of musical images, an emphasis on
folklore sources, a distinct foundation in dance, and a lack of
dramatically emphasized conflicts. Thiswork, filled with musical
materials resembling Armenian folk songs and dances, depicts scenes from
people’s lives and poetic sketches of Armenian nature. Dancelike,
ecstatic outer movements surround a lyrical second movement. The
concerto premiered on November 16, 1940, conducted by its dedicatee,
David Oistrakh. Gayan?. Composed in 1942, this ballet was the first
Armenian work in the genre. It features three main elements: dance,
drama (bordering on tragedy), and lyricism. The main characters are
farmers and Red Army soldiers. Their happiness, resulting from the
nation’s prosperity, is boundless. Through difficult struggle against
evil and unfairness, Gayan? finally finds her happiness. She exposes the
perpetrators (among them her husband) who set fire to a collective
farm’s warehouse, an act that almost costs her her life. The ballet
concludes with a national celebration. In Gayan? Khachaturian used the
best numbers from his first ballet, Happiness. Perhaps Gayan? is most
famous for the fiery “Saber Dance” of the fourth act. Arranged for
various instrumental ensembles, this piece would become a standard in
concert programs. In 1943 Khachaturian received the State Prize for
Gayan?. Spartacus. Inspired by ancient Rome, Khachaturian composed this
ballet, in which he shows the conflict between the opposing forces of
Spartacus and the gladiators, and the aristocratic world of the Roman
patriarchs. This opposition is heard in the prologue as Thracians pull
the victor-commander’s chariot. Heavily, with somber solemnity, sounds
the march of the victors. This is Rome, a powerful, imperious, and
brutal empire. Opposing it is Spartacus’s heroic theme, conveying
strength, nobility, and, at the same time,worry and sorrow. Premiering
in 1956, Spartacus became one of the most prominentworks of the Soviet
ballet. Later Khachaturian created three suites using this ballet’s most
important fragments. Musical Legacy The stylistic individuality of
Khachaturian’s works lies in the inseparability of what is his own music
and what is borrowed. Since even the authentic folk melodies are
altered, it is nearly impossible to detect where traditional motifs end
and the composer’s work begins. Most of Khachaturian’s works are
saturated with centuries-old motifs of Armenian culture. The traditions
of folk music were sustained and developed by many national composers,
such as Armenian Soghomon Soghomonian (Komitas) and Georgian
Paliashvili, but Khachaturian was the first of the trans-Caucasian
composers to weave these motifs into large, symphonic forms and, by
enriching these classical forms with ethnic music, elevate the latter in
the classic
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