Front Page
ARMENIA
───────────────────────────────────────
Introduction
Armenia
has had a strong tradition of folk-music and folk-song, harmonically
interesting. The most prominent 20th-century Armenian composer
has been Aram Khatchaturian (1903-1978) whose colourful
music, infused with the harmonies and melodies of his native
folk-music, achieved international prominence. Michael Ippolitov-Ivanov
(1859-1935, see under former U.S.S.R.), though not an Armenian,
also incorporated a number of Armenian folk-songs and influences
in his music, notably in the Caucasian Sketches and the
Armenian Rhapsody. Alexander Arutyunian (born 1920) absorbed
Armenian folk-music into his idiom, and his best-known work
is probably the innocuous Trumpet Concerto (1949).
───────────────────────────────────────
KHATCHATURIAN
───────────────────────────────────────
KHATCHATURIAN
Aram Ilich (also spelt Khachaturian)
born
6th June 1903 at Tiflis
died
1st May 1978 at Moscow
───────────────────────────────────────
All
the talents of Aram Khatchaturian suggest that if he had been
born in America rather than the U.S.S.R., he would, with his
penchant for bright colours, traditional harmonies and bold
tunes, have made a consummate composer in the heyday of that
Capitalist counterpart to Soviet Socialist Realism, the Hollywood
epic. Indeed, a large proportion of his output was for Soviet
films. As it was, one aspect of his art in particular has marked
him out from the run of Soviet Socialist composers, and brought
a handful of his works an international popularity. His harmonies
are coloured by the inflections of Armenian music, and in particular
the interval of the minor second and the minor seventh, reflecting
Armenian rather than traditional Western scales. This, with
his sense of vivid colour and melodious flow, gives his music
a touch of exotic piquancy, but it must be said that once one
has heard one of Khatchaturian's works one has, to all intents
and purposes, heard them all, as a quick comparison with the
better-known passages of the ballet Spartacus and the
opening of his graduation work, the Symphony No.1 (1933-1934)
of two decades earlier, will show.
That
symphony, though marred by academic passages that betray Khatchaturian's
inexperience, is an attractive and characteristic work, with
folk inflections, syncopated rhythms and colourful orchestration.
Cheerfully bombastic at times, it also has moments of delicate
Romantic lyricism, the impulse of the dance, and an exotic third
movement. It was followed by a colourful and technically more
assured Piano Concerto (1936), in the grand Romantic
virtuoso tradition, saturated with Armenian folk influence,
with a memorable use of the flexatone (musical saw) in the lovely
slow movement, full of a hushed delight and wonder, and with
energy in the outer movements. The Violin Concerto (1940)
sounds much too much like the Piano Concerto for comfort,
depending on which one has heard first, but is equally as attractive
and felicitous, and of the two this is the finer work: the musical
argument is tauter, and the lyrical tone of the violin better
suits Khachaturian's idiom. It also exists in a version for
flute, the Flute Concerto, transcribed by the flautist
Jean-Pierre Rampal at the composer's suggestion. The Cello
Concerto (1946) follows similar lines, but is less inspired
in its colours and its material. He later produced three Concerto-Rhapsodies,
for violin (1961-1962), cello (1963) and piano (1965). The Symphony
No.2 (1943, revised 1944) is a huge, epic wartime symphony,
known in Russia as the Bell Symphony after the bell motive
that runs through the work, though not named as such by the
composer. All colour, sonority and effect, it has something
of a stirring immediacy, a noble bombast, and is full of sincere
fervour. That bombastic element then was given full blown and
hideous sway in the Symphony No.3 (1947, originally titled
Symphony-Poem) for orchestra, organ and 16 extra trumpets,
which is best forgotten; if in such a mood the second symphony
will answer one's needs, and indeed is stirring accompaniment
in a drive through the mountains.
The
summit of Khatchaturian's output is to be found in the ballets
Gayaneh and Spartacus, and both have reached a
wider audience through other media, the former from the spare,
haunted, monochromatic landscape music used in the film 2001,
the latter from the use in the British television series The
Onedin Line. Both also have complex histories. Some of the
music for Gayaneh (1940-1941) originated in an earlier
ballet, Happiness (1936); the new ballet was set on an
Armenian collective farm, telling the story of Gayaneh, her
malicious traitor of a husband, and her love for a Russian officer.
In 1957 a new version appeared, to a completely different story
of a man racked with guilt for a crime, with considerable additional
music. Both contained the justly famous Sabre Dance,
a tour-de-force of orchestral rhythmic energy and colour. The
first version is more likely to be encountered, and Khatchaturian
drew three suites from the ballet. Spartacus, based on
the uprising of the slaves against the Romans led by Spartacus,
exists in an original version of 1956, a version of 1957 with
the story heavily altered, and another version, with more alterations,
of 1958, but the music is most likely to be encountered in the
orchestral suite. The beautiful `Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia',
with its surge of upward excitement, grand tune, and epic orchestration,
is unforgettable; its association with the sea in The Onedin
Line seemed descriptively so appropriate that it will be
difficult for many to imagine it in its original stage context.
Of
his other works, the early Piano Trio (1932) is an effective
work, while the waltz from the suite Masquerade, based
on incidental music to Lermontov's play, is occasionally heard.
One of the songs from the film score of Pepo (1936),
in the style of Armenian folk song, became so popular that when
the composer heard some vineyard workers singing it, and enquired
what it was, he was told it was a very old folk song.
Khatchaturian
never quite fulfilled the early promise of the Symphony No.1
and the Piano Concerto, but his handful of major works
are vivid, undemanding, and entertaining, and seem destined
to remain in the popular repertoire. He taught in Moscow from
1950, and became an accomplished conductor of his own music.
His wife, Nina Makarova (1907-1976), was also a composer, as
is his nephew, Karen Khatchaturian (born 1920).
───────────────────────────────────────
works
include:
-
3 symphonies
-
cello concerto; piano concerto; violin concerto ; 3 Concerto-Rhapsodies
for cello and orch., piano and orch. and violin and orch.
-
Dance Suite and suite Masquerade for orch.
-
violin sonata; trio for clarinet, violin and piano; string quartet
-
piano sonata and other piano works
-
Ode to Joy for mezzo-soprano, chorus, 40 violins, 10
harps and orch.
-
ballets Gayaneh, Happiness and Spartacus
───────────────────────────────────────
recommended
works:
ballet
Gayaneh (1939-1942 rev.1952 rev.1957)
Piano
Concerto (1936)
ballet
suite Spartacus (1954)
Violin
Concerto (1940)
───────────────────────────────────────
