Sabre Dance - Music

Aram Khachaturian Was Born In Tbilisi Georgia Imperial Russia 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 1921 He Travelled To Moscow To Join His Brother Unable To Speak A Word Of Russian. 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 Mikhail Gnessin And Entered A Composition Class 1925 . In 1929 He Transferred To The Moscow Conservatory Where He Studied Under Nikolai Myaskovsky. 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 Which Would Later Severely Denounce Some Of His Works As Being “formalist” Music Along With Those Of Sergei Prokofiev And Dmitri Shostakovich. These Three Composers Became The So Called “titans” Of Soviet Music Enjoying World-Wide Reputation As Some Of The Leading Composers Of The 20th Century. Khachaturian’s Works Include Concertos For Violin Also Transcribed For Flute Cello And Piano The Latter Originally Including An Early Part For The Flexatone Concerto-Rhapsodies For The Same Instruments Three Symphonies—the Third Containing Parts For Fifteen Additional Trumpets And Organ And The Ballets Spartak AKA Spartacus And Gayane The Adagio Was Used In Stanley Kubrick’s Film 2001 A Space Odyssey . The Latter Ballet Features In Its Final Act What Is Probably His Most Famous Movement The “Sabre Dance.” He Also Wrote Some Piano Music Such As The Song "Two Ladies Gossiping " A Quick And Lively Song. He Also Composed Some Film Music And Incidental Music For Plays Such As The 1941 Production Of Mikhail Lermontov’s Masquerade. The Cinematic Quality Of His Music For Spartacus Was Clearly Seen When It 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 Sabre Dance Included Mixed With The Original Compositions By Carter Burwell. He Was Also The Composer For The State Anthem Of The Armenian SSR Whose Tune Is One Of The Five Current Choices To Become The Next State Anthem Of Armenia. The Climax Of Spartacus’ Second Movement Was Also Used In Ice Age The Meltdown. read less