Classical Music Composer Aram Khachaturian - Classical Music Sabre Dance

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Classical Music Composer: Aram Khachaturian

Sabre Dance

Aram Khachaturian (Armenian: Արամ Խաչատրյան, Aram Xačatryan; Russian: Ара́м Ильи́ч Хачатуря́н, Aram Il'ič Xačaturjan; Georgian: არამ ხაჩატურიანი, Aram Xačaturiani) (June 6, 1903 – May 1, 1978) (born in Tiflis, Georgia) was a Soviet-Armenian composer whose works were often influenced by Armenian folk music.

Life in classical music

Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was born in Tiflis, Imperial Russia (now Tbilisi, Georgia) to a poor Armenian family. In his youth, he was fascinated by the music he heard around him, but at first he did not study music or learn to read it.

In 1920, when Armenia was declared a Soviet republic, Khachaturian joined a propaganda train touring Armenia, populated by Georgian-Armenian artists. The following year he travelled to Moscow to join his brother, the stage director of the Second Moscow Art Theatre. Although he had almost no musical education, Khachaturian showed such great talent that he was admitted to the Gnessin Institute where he studied cello under Sergey Bychkov, and later Andrey Borysyak. In 1925 Mikhail Gnessin started a composition class at the Gnessin Institute which Khachaturian joined.

In 1929, he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under Nikolai Myaskovsky (composition) and Sergei Vasilenko (orchestration), graduating in 1934. In the 1930s, he married the composer Nina Makarova, a fellow student from Myaskovsky’s class. In 1951, he became professor at the Gnessin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (Moscow) and the Moscow Conservatory. He also held important posts at the Composers' Union, becoming deputy chairman of the Moscow branch in 1937, then appointed vice-chairman of the Organizing Committee of Soviet Composers in 1939. In 1939 he composed his ballet Happiness, which was later reworked into the ballet Gayane.

The composer joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1943. However, he temporarily fell from official favour in 1948. It was the Symphonic Poem, later titled the Third Symphony, that officially earned Khachaturian the wrath of the Party. Ironically, Khachaturian wrote the work as a tribute to communism: “I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express the Soviet people’s joy and pride in their great and mighty country.” Perhaps because Khachaturian did not include a dedication or program notes, his intentions backfired.

Andrei Zhdanov, secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, delivered the so-called Zhdanov decree in 1948. The decree condemned Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and other Soviet composers as “formalist” and “anti-popular.” The three named composers had by then already become established as the so-called "titans" of Soviet music, enjoying worldwide reputation as some of the leading composers of the 20th century. Nonetheless, all three accused composers were forced to apologize publicly.

The decree affected Khachaturian profoundly: “Those were tragic days for me... I was clouted on the head so unjustly. My repenting speech at the First Congress was insincere. I was crushed, destroyed. I seriously considered changing professions.”

Despite this mortifying episode, Khachaturian returned to official favour. He received numerous state awards both before and after the Zhdanov decree: for example, four Stalin prizes (1941, 1943, 1946 and 1950), one Lenin prize (1959), a USSR State Prize (1971), and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1973). Khachaturian went on to serve again as Secretary of the Board of the Composers' Union, starting in 1957, and was also a deputy in the fifth Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1958-1962).

Khachaturian died in Moscow on May 1, 1978, just short of his 75th birthday. He was buried in Yerevan, Armenia, along with other distinguished Armenians who made Armenian art accessible for the whole world. In 1998, he was honored by appearing on Armenian paper money (50 dram).

Classical music

Khachaturian's works include concertos for violin (sometimes heard in a composer-sanctioned arrangement for flute), cello and piano as well as concerto-rhapsodies for the same instruments. The piano concerto originally including an early part for the flexatone, and was his first work to gain him recognition in the West. Khachaturians's three symphonies are varied works, with the third containing parts for fifteen additional trumpets and organ. The composer's largest scaled works are the ballets Spartacus and Gayane, both of which contain Khachaturian's most well-known music, with Gayane featuring in its final act what is easily his most famous music, the "Sabre Dance".

He also wrote several solo piano works, including two albums of music for children (Opp. 62 and 100). Children's Album, Book 1, first published in 1947, contains a smooth and melodic Andantino originally composed in 1926; this piece is commonly known as Ivan Sings, which stems from eight of ten pieces originally being collected as Adventures of Ivan. Children's Album, Book 2, first published in 1964, includes a fugue composed in 1928, and a fast-paced programmatic piece entitled Two Funny Aunties Argued which is sometimes translated as Two Ladies Gossiping. He also composed some film music and incidental music for plays such as the 1941 production of Mikhail Lermontov’s Masquerade, the orchestral suite of which has become relatively popular.

The cinematic quality of his music for Spartacus was clearly seen when the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia was used as the theme for a popular BBC drama series, The Onedin Line, during the 1970s. Since then, it has become one of the most popular of all classical pieces for UK audiences. Joel Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy also prominently featured music from Spartacus and Gayane (the "Sabre Dance" included). Gayane's adagio was used in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey among other films. He was also the composer for the state anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, whose tune is one of the five current choices to become the next state anthem of Armenia. The climax of Spartacus was also used in Caligula (film) and Ice Age: The Meltdown.

Classical Music Composer: Aram Khachaturian

Sabre Dance

"The Sabre Dance" (Armenian: Սուսերով Պար) is a movement in the final act of the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's (Ара́м Ильи́ч Хачатуря́н, Aram Il'ič Xačaturjan) ballet Gayane (Гаянэ), completed in 1942. It evokes a whirling war dance in an Armenian dance, where the dancers display their skill with sabres. Its middle section incorporates an Armenian folk song from Gyumri. Due to its exceptionally exciting rhythm, "The Sabre Dance" established a place for itself in common concert practice, leading also to various adaptations in popular music. Its recognizable ostinato and popular melodies have made "Sabre Dance" a popular concert band piece.

The orchestral version is written in G major. It starts out with a recognizable motif ostinato with the timpani and strings that can be heard throughout much of the piece. The upper woodwinds and keyboard percussion take an exciting dance melody, later accompanied by the low brass. Then the strings come in with a folk song melody. The first melody is then briefly recapitulated. Descending chromatic eighth notes bring the piece down to straight eighth notes on the note G in the low strings. The piece ends on ascending quarter notes.

Classical music in popular culture

Cover versions

"The Sabre Dance" has been covered by performers such as jazz musician Woody Herman, vocal trio The Andrews Sisters, rock and roll musician Dave Edmunds with the band Love Sculpture, heavy metal guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, German progressive thrash metal band Mekong Delta, British heavy metal band Skyclad, progressive rock group Ekseption, Tony Levin, Vanessa Mae, the string quartet Bond, and British punk rock bands The Boys, UK Subs and Toy Dolls. The Disco Biscuits sometimes cover "Sabre Dance" at their live shows, often mixing in elements of rock and trance.

Variety

The piece's popular familiarity has been enhanced by its traditional use as accompaniment by travelling circuses and on television variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show when novelty acts such as plate spinners appeared.

Film

• Pianist Oscar Levant plays a piano transcription of the piece in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film The Barkleys of Broadway (1949).
• The piece reinforces James Cagney's energetic performance in the final act of the 1961 comedy One, Two, Three as he plays a troubled executive making snap decisions to save his career.
• The Coen Brothers' 1994 film The Hudsucker Proxy also makes use of the music, in a scene in which a newly-invented hula hoop is picked up and used by a young boy for the first time. The piece was arranged and integrated into the wider score by Carter Burwell, who also made use of Khachaturian's other well-known piece, the adagio from Spartacus, as the movie's main theme.
• In The Blues Brothers 2000, when the main heroes encounter Russians in the grave and run, "Sabre Dance" can be heard for several seconds.
• In the feature film Kung Fu Hustle, the song plays in the background as Sing (Stephen Chow) infiltrates a mental institution to spring an assassin known as the Beast.
• In the 2006 Woody Allen film Scoop, the piece was used to great effect.

Television

• The tune is frequently featured on the TV series The Simpsons, usually to emphasize the fast pace of some situation (for example, in the episode "Bye Bye Nerdie") or during an activity containing sort of acrobatic skills (as in "Tennis the Menace").
• "Sabre Dance" is also the music played while Late Night with Conan O'Brien's recurring character the Masturbating Bear masturbates on stage.
• The MSNBC TV program Countdown with Keith Olbermann featured the music from 2003 until 2007 during Oddball, a nightly news feature of bizarre stories, often referring to the tune as "this strange music".
• The piece can be heard in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Slimy Dancing".
• In the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory episode "The Work Song Nanocluster," Howard and Raj "sing" it while Leonard has his turn evading a laser field during "Secret Agent Laser Obstacle Chess." It is reprised later by Sheldon and Howard as Raj tries to manage the same laser field during "Secret Agent Laser Obstacle Lunch."
• In the American sitcom Two and a Half Men episode "I remember, the coatroom, I just don't remember you", Charlie plays this song on piano while Jake and Rose are doing circus stunts.
• In the Family Guy episode "Peterotica", Peter distracts Lois by whistling the tune and riding a unicycle.

Sports

• The National Hockey League team Buffalo Sabres use the piece as a theme song.