Aram Khachaturian

Armenian Russian classical composer

• Born: June 6, 1903
• Birthplace: Tiflis, Russian Empire (later Tbilisi, Georgia)
• Died: May 1, 1978
• Place of death: Moscow, Soviet Union (now in Russia)

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.

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. He soon 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 Gayané 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. This work, 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.

Gayané. 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, Gayané 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 Gayané Khachaturian used the best numbers from his first ballet, Happiness. Perhaps Gayané 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 Gayané.

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 prominent works 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 classical canon.

Principal Works

ballets (music): Schast’ye, Op. 43, 1939 (Happiness; scenario by Gevorg Ovanesian; choreography by Ilya Arbatov); Gayané, Op. 50, 1942 (scenario by Konstantin Derzhavin); Gayané Suite No. 1, Op. 53, 1943; Gayané Suite No. 3, Op. 55, 1943; Gayané Suite No. 2, Op. 54, 1945; Spartak, Op. 82, 1956 (Spartacus; scenario by Nikolai Volkov; choreography by Yuri Grigorovitch); Gayané, 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-Étude, Op. 6, 1926; Poem in C-sharp 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.

Bibliography

Bagar, Robert, and Louis Biancolli. The Concert Companion. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947. Includes commentary on the composer, his life, and a performance history of the Piano Concerto and “Saber Dance” from Gayané.

Denton, David. “Speed Merchants: Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto.” Strad 112 (February, 2001): 152ff. The article discusses various performances of the piece, concentrating on its virtuosity and each performer’s execution of it. Record label numbers, photographs.

Ewen, David. The Complete Book of Twentieth Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1959. Offers a background on Khachaturian’s style and influence, followed by a brief description of concerti, symphonies, Gayané, and Masquerade.

Machlis, Joseph. Introduction to Contemporary Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 1961. A music professor at Queen’s college gives a brief survey of Khachaturian’s works, emphasizing his use of folklore.

Vroon, Donald R., John P. Mckelvey, and Steven J. Haller. “Overview: Russian Music Beyond Tchaikovsky.” American Record Guide 67 (March/April, 2004): 48-75. An extensive overview of Khachaturian’s works, including commentary on performances and recordings.