ARAM KHACHATURYAN’S WORKS INCLUDED IN UNESCO’S MEMORY OF THE WORLD PROGRAM
16:16, 19 June, 2013
YEREVAN, JUNE 19, ARMENPRESS. In accordance with the decision of the
UNESCO General Director and conclusion of the International Advisory
Committee, the Collection of note manuscripts and film music of
Composer Aram Khachaturyan was included in the Memory of the World
Register at the June 18 session of the committee.
The Press, Information, and Public Relations of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that Aram
Khachaturyan’s name will have its place in the same list along with
the names of such prominent composers as Beethoven, Brahms, and Chopin.
Aram Khachaturian was a distinguished Armenian composer. Alongside
Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, Khachaturian is called
one of the three “titans” of Soviet music. Khachaturian’s works were
often influenced by classical European music and Armenian folk music.
Khachaturian’s works span a broad range of musical types, including
ballets, symphonies, concertos, and numerous film scores.
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. These three
concertos were written for the members of a renowned Soviet piano
trio that performed together from 1941 until 1963: David Oistrakh,
violin; Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, cello; Lev Oborin, piano. The piano
concerto originally included 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 Spartacusand 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 the Toccata in
E-flat minor, and 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 “Waltz”
from which has been performed and recorded frequently.
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 and
Patriot Games 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 and
Ice Age: The Meltdown
From: Baghdasarian
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/723204/aram-khachaturyans-works-included-in-unescos-memory-of-the-world-program.html