Aram Khachaturian was a leading Soviet composer whose compositions were inspired both by the great Russian music tradition and the idioms of his native Armenian folk music. While his parents came from Armenia, he himself was born, on June 6, 1903, in Tbilisi (formerly Tiflis), the capital of neighbouring Georgia.
The young Khachaturian began his musical training by playing the tenor horn in the school band. He also taught himself to play the piano, so that when the family moved to Moscow in 1920 (in the early days of the Soviet Union), he was able to gain admittance to the Gnesin Music Academy. There he studied the cello before entering composition classes. In 1929 he enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied composition with the composer Nicolay Myaskovsky.
Khachaturian’s first compositions included a trio for violin, clarinet, and piano, and his Symphony No. 1 (which he dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Armenian Republic). Then, in 1936, he had his first acknowledged success with his Piano Concerto, which was played and acclaimed far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. Soon afterward, in 1940, he wrote his Violin Concerto, which was almost equally successful and gained international recognition. From then on, Khachaturian was acknowledged to be one of the Soviet Union’s most prominent musical figures, composing, teaching, and serving on various official boards and committees of the Communist Party.
In 1942, when the Soviet Union was fighting for survival against Hitler’s onslaught, Khachaturian struck just the right note with his ballet Gayane. The story centred on a young Soviet heroine, Gayane, who lived and worked on a collective farm. The ballet was a tremendous morale booster, and it included the famous and rousing “Sabre Dance.” Such timely patriotism, however, did not save Khachaturian from political trouble soon after World War II. In 1948, at the height of Stalinist repression, he was accused, together with eminent colleagues including Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH and Sergey PROKOFIEV, of “formalism”; that is, of writing music that was considered too advanced or difficult for the masses to enjoy.
Khachaturian returned to favour in 1954 (after Stalin’s death), when he wrote the score for another ballet, Spartacus, this time inspired by the gripping historical story of the gladiator-slave who led a revolt against the Roman Empire. It earned the composer a Lenin Prize to add to his list of official honours.
Khachaturian also wrote f i lm scores, taught composition, and became an orchestral conductor. He toured Europe and Latin America, and in I960 made the first of several visits to the United States, where he conducted his own music. He died in Moscow on May 1, 1978, at age 75.
As a composer, Khachaturian never forgot the folk melodies and rhythms of Armenia, with their exotic echoes of Asia and the Middle East. He combined these with his own great gift for melody and brilliant orchestration. Despite the complaints of his political foes back in the tyrannical days of Stalin, his music is seldom if ever too technically advanced for the average music-lover. His best known piece, the breathtaking “Sabre Dance,” richly deserves its worldwide popularity.
Alan Blackwood
SEE ALSO:
BALLET AND MODERN DANCE MUSIC; CHAMBER MUSIC; FILM MUSIC; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Yuzefovich, Victor, with Nicholas Kournokoff, and Vladimir Bobrov, trans. Aram Khachaturyan (New York: Sphinx Press, 1985).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Double Fugue for String Quartet; Piano Concerto; Sabre Dance, Sonata for Solo Viola; Sonatas for Violin and Piano; Spartacus; Violin Concerto.