Aram Khachaturyan

Aram Ilych Khachaturyan was an Armenian Soviet composer, conductor, pedagogue, a public and musical
figure, a People’s Artiste of the USSR, the author of the music of the Armenian Soviet Republic’s anthem
and overall one of the major musicians of the 20th century.

He was born in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) into the family of a bookbinder. He was brought up in the cosmopolitan
musical atmosphere of Tiflis, which was the cultural capital of the pre-revolution South Caucasus. From his
early years he ad-libbed music on the piano. When he was ten, he entered a commercial school. After
learning to play wind instruments by himself, he participated in an amateur brass band. When he was 16,
he went to an opera theater for the first time. There he heard the Georgian classic “Abesalom and Eteri,”
which impressed him so much that his dream to learn to play music became an obsession. In 1921
Khachaturyan moved to Moscow with his brother, where he simultaneously entered the biological faculty of
a university and the Gnessin State Musical College, despite his lack of even a basic musical education.
His perfectly tuneful ear, musicality and excellent memory helped him succeed.

At first Khachaturyan learned to play the violoncello and the piano. But it soon became clear that his main
vocation was composing. At Mikhail Gnessin College, he found an understanding teacher who helped him
to quickly develop his natural talent. While at the college he wrote his first pieces, “Dance” for violin and
piano, and “Poem” for piano, which later were successfully published.

From 1929 until 1934 Khachaturyan studied composing at the Moscow Conservatory, first under Gnessin,
and later under the composer Nikolay Myaskovsky (often dubbed the “father of Soviet symphony”). During
those days he dedicated his full attention to his art. He wrote the “Toccata” for piano, a trio for clarinet,
violin and piano and his “Dancing Suite” for a symphonic orchestra. His popularity among the masses
grew. As his graduation work he presented his first symphony dedicated to Soviet Armenia. He graduated
with honors, and his name was put up on the honors board. Later he perfected his skills in his
postgraduate studies.

After graduation, he worked mainly on his new compositions, turning to various genres. His music for
dramatic performances and movies earned him the most acclaim. He also took part in the social music life
of the country, doing important work for the Composers’ Union.

He spent the spring and summer of 1939 in Armenia, working on the ballet “Happiness” (“Schastye”). In
the ballet genre, he incorporated the life of the Armenian people and the happiness they had earned with
hard work and struggle. In 1940 he created one of his best-known works, a violin concert dedicated to the
Russian virtuoso David Oystrakh, who first played it.

During World War II Khachaturyan created the songs “Captain Gastello” and “Praise Be to Our
Motherland” (“Slava Otchizne”), a march for a brass orchestra named “To the Heroes of the Patriotic War”
(“Geroyam Otechestvennoy Voyny”). He also created the ballet “Gayane,” which premiered in 1942 in
Perm, where the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater had been evacuated. In 1943 the ballet earned him
the Soviet State Prize, which he donated to the Soviet army. In 1944 he wrote the Armenian Soviet
Republic’s anthem.