Aram Khachaturian

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Aram Khachaturian

Khachaturian in the Netherlands in 1971

Born 6 June [O.S. 24 May] 1903

Tiflis, Russian Empire (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia)

Died 1 May 1978 (aged 74)

Moscow, Soviet Union

Resting place Komitas Pantheon, Yerevan

Citizenship Soviet

Alma mater Gnessin Musical Institute, Moscow Conservatory

Years active 19261978

Era 20th-century classical music

Political party Communist Party of the Soviet Union (from 1943)

Spouse(s) Nina Makarova (19331976; her death)

 Children 2

Awards Full list

Signature

Aram Il'yich Khachaturian (/rm kttrin/;[1] Russian:

; Armenian: , Aram Xaatryan;[A] Armenian pronunciation: [m
tt()jn]; 6 June [O.S. 24 May] 1903 1 May 1978) was a Soviet Armeniancomposer and
conductor. He is considered one of the leading Soviet composers.[5][6]
Born and raised in Tbilisi, the multicultural capital of Georgia, Khachaturian moved to Moscow in
1921 following the Sovietization of the Caucasus. Without prior music training, he enrolled in
the Gnessin Musical Institute, subsequently studying at the Moscow Conservatory in the class
of Nikolai Myaskovsky, among others. His first major work, the Piano Concerto (1936),
popularized his name within and outside the Soviet Union. It was followed by the Violin
Concerto (1940) and the Cello Concerto (1946). His other significant compositions include
the Masquerade Suite (1941), the Anthem of the Armenian SSR (1944), three symphonies
(1935, 1943, 1947), and around 25 film scores. Khachaturian is best known for his ballet music
Gayane (1942) and Spartacus (1954). His most popular piece, the "Sabre Dance" from Gayane,
has been used extensively in popular culture and has been covered by a number of musicians
worldwide.[7] His style is "characterized by colorful harmonies, captivating rhythms, virtuosity,
improvisations, and sensuous melodies".[8]
During most of his career, Khachaturian was approved by the Soviet government and held
several high posts in the Union of Soviet Composers from the late 1930s, although he joined
the Communist Party only in 1943. Along with Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, he was
officially denounced as a "formalist", and his music dubbed "anti-people" in 1948, but was
restored later that year. After 1950 he taught at the Gnessin Institute and the Moscow
Conservatory, and turned to conducting. He traveled to Europe, Latin America and the United
States with concerts of his own works. In 1957 Khachaturian became the Secretary of the Union
of Soviet Composers, a position he held until his death.
Khachaturian was the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century[9] and the author of
the first Armenian ballet music, symphony, concerto, and film score.[B] While following the
established musical traditions of Russia, he broadly used Armenian and, to lesser
extent, Caucasian, Eastern & Central European, and Middle Eastern peoples' folk music in his
works. He is highly regarded in Armenia, where he is considered a "national treasure".[12]

Contents
[hide]

1Biography
o 1.1Background and early life (190321)
o 1.2Education (192236)
o 1.3Early career (193648)
o 1.4Denunciation and restoration (1948)
o 1.5Later life (195078)
2Music
o 2.1Works
 2.1.1Ballets
2.1.2Orchestral music
2.1.3Other compositions
o 2.2Influences
2.2.1Armenian folk music
2.2.2Other folk music
2.2.3Russian classical music
3Legacy
o 3.1Recognition
3.1.1In Armenia
o 3.2Posthumous honors and tribute
4Awards & titles
5References
6Bibliography
o 6.1Books & book chapters
o 6.2Dictionary & encyclopedia articles
o 6.3Journal & newspaper articles
7External links

Biography[edit]
Background and early life (190321)[edit]
Aram Khachaturian was born on 6 June (24 May in Old Style)[13] 1903 in the city of Tiflis (present-
day Tbilisi, Georgia) into an Armenian family.[14][15] Some sources indicate Kojori, a village near
Tiflis (now in Georgia's Gardabani Municipality), as his birthplace.[16][17][18] His father, Yeghia (Ilya),
was born in the village of Upper Aza near Ordubad in Nakhichevan (present-day Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan) and moved to Tiflis at the age of 13; he owned a bookbinding
shop by the age of 25. His mother, Kumash Sarkisovna, was from Lower Aza, also a village near
Ordubad. Khachaturian's parents were betrothed before knowing each other, when Kumash was
9 and Yeghia was 19. They had 5 children, one daughter and four sons, of whom Aram was the
youngest.[19] Khachaturian received primary education at the Tiflis Commercial School, "a school
for aspiring merchants",[20] "where he debated between a career in medicine or engineering".[21]
In the 19th and early 20th centuries and throughout the early Soviet period, Tiflis (known as
Tbilisi after 1936) was the largest city and the administrative center of the Caucasus. In Tiflis,
which has historically been multicultural, Khachaturian was exposed to various cultures.[22] The
city had a large Armenian population and was a major Armenian cultural center until the Russian
Revolution and the following years. In a 1952 article "My Idea of the Folk Element in Music",
Khachaturian described the city environment and its influence on his career:
I grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music: popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the
life of the people always accompanied by music, the vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Georgian songs and dances performed by folk bards [ashugs] and musicians such were the
impressions that became deeply engraved on my memory, that determined my musical thinking. They
shaped my musical consciousness and lay at the foundations of my artistic personality... Whatever
the changes and improvements that took place in my musical taste in later years, their original
substance, formed in early childhood in close communion with the people, has always remained the
natural soil nourishing all my work.[23]

In 1917, the Bolsheviks rose to power in Russia in the October Revolution. After over two years
of fragile independence, Armenia fell to Soviet rule in late 1920. Georgia was also Sovietized by
the spring of 1921. Both countries formally became part of the Soviet Union in December
1922.[24] Khachaturian later wrote that "the October Revolution fundamentally changed my whole
life and, if I have really grown into a serious artist, then I am indebted only to the people and the
Soviet Government. To this people is dedicated my entire conscious life, as is all my creative
work."[25] Khachaturian always remained enthusiastic about communism,[26] and was
an atheist.[27] When asked about his visit to the Vatican, Khachaturian responded: "I'm an atheist,
but I'm a son of the [Armenian] people who were the first to officially adopt Christianity and thus
visiting the Vatican was my duty."[28][29]
Education (192236)[edit]

Khachaturian in the 1930s

In 1921, the eighteen-year-old Khachaturian moved to Moscow to join his oldest brother, Suren,
who had settled in Moscow earlier and was a stage director at the Moscow Art Theatre by the
time of his arrival.[20][19] He enrolled at the Gnessin Musical Institute in 1922, simultaneously
studying biology at the Moscow University.[21][30] He initially studied the cello under Sergei
Bychkov and later under Andrey Borysyak.[31][15] In 1925, Mikhail Gnessin started a composition
class at the institute, which Khachaturian joined.[32][20] He also took lessons from Reinhold Glire.
In this period, he wrote his first works: the Dance Suite for violin and piano (1926) and the Poem
in C Sharp Minor (1927).[21][30] Beginning with his earliest works, Khachaturian extensively used
Armenian folk music in his compositions.
In 1929, Khachaturian entered the Moscow Conservatory to study composition under Nikolai
Myaskovsky and orchestration under Sergei Vasilenko.[33] In 1933, he married the composer Nina
Makarova, a fellow student from Myaskovsky's class.[34] He finished the conservatory in 1934 and
went on to complete his graduate work in 1936.[20]
Early career (193648)[edit]
His Armenian-influenced First Symphony, which Khachaturian composed as a graduation work
from the Moscow Conservatory in 1935, "drew the attention of prominent conductors and was
soon performed by the best Soviet orchestras"[22] and was admired by Shostakovich.[23] He began
an active creative career upon completing his graduate studies at the conservatory in 1936.[30] He
wrote his first major work, the Piano Concerto, that year.[21] It proved to be a success,
establishing him as a respected composer in the Soviet Union.[15] It was "played and acclaimed
far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union,"[6] and "established his name abroad."[22]
His Piano Concerto, along with the two later concertosthe Violin Concerto (1940), for which he
won a State Prize (called the Stalin Prize then, the highest artistic award in the Soviet
Union),[21][22] and the Cello Concerto (1946)are "often considered a kind of a grand cycle."[15] The
Violin Concerto "gained international recognition"[6] and became part of the international
repertory.[22] It was first performed by David Oistrakh.[22]
Khachaturian held important posts at the Composers' Union, becoming deputy chairman of the
Moscow branch in 1937. He subsequently served as the Deputy Chairman of the Organizing
Committee (Orgkom) of the Union between 1939 and 1948.[17][35] He joined the Communist Party
in 1943.[20] "Throughout the early and mid-1940s, Khachaturian used that position to help shape
Soviet music, always stressing but technically masterful composition. In fact, in his memoirs he
reported pride about leading an institution that organized creative work in many musical genres
and especially in all Soviet republics."[36]
The years preceding and following World War II proved to be very productive for Khachaturian. In
1939 Khachaturian made a six-month trip to his native Armenia "to make a thorough study of
Armenian musical folklore and to collect folk-song and dance tunes" for his first
ballet, Happiness which he completed in the same year. "His communion with Armenia's national
culture and musical practice proved for him as he put it himself, 'a second conservatoire'. He
learned a lot, saw and heard many things anew, and at the same time he had an insight into the
tastes and artistic requirements of the Armenian people."[37] In 1942, at the height of the Second
World War, he reworked it into the ballet Gayane.[38] It was first performed by the Kirov Ballet
(today known as Mariinsky Ballet) in Perm, while Leningrad was under siege. It was a great
success that earned Khachaturian a Soviet State Prize.[30] Khachaturian returned the money of
the prize to the state with a request to use it for building a tank for the Red Army.[39]
He composed the Second Symphony (1943) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of
the October Revolution and incidental music to Masquerade (1944), "a symphonic suite in the
tradition of lavish classical Russian music", on Mikhail Lermontov's same name play.[21] Both the
ballet Gayane and the Second Symphony were "successful and were warmly praised by
Shostakovich."[15] In 1944, Khachaturian composed the largely symbolic Anthem of the Armenian
Soviet Socialist Republic.[10]
Denunciation and restoration (1948)[edit]

Khachaturian in 1964

In mid-December 1947, the Department for Agitation and Propaganda (better known as Agitprop)
submitted to Andrei Zhdanov, the secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, a
document on the "shortcomings" in the development of Soviet music. On 1013 January 1948, a
conference was held at the Kremlin in the presence of seventy musicians, composers,
conductors and others who were confronted by Zhdanov:[40]
We will consider that if these comrades Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Myaskovsky,
Khachaturian, Kabalevsky and Shebalin namely who are the principal and leading figures of the
formalist direction in music. And that direction is fundamentally incorrect.

Thus, Khachaturian and other leading composers were denounced by the Communist Party as
followers of the alleged formalism[15] (i.e. "[a type of] music that was considered too advanced or
difficult for the masses to enjoy")[6] and their music was dubbed "anti-people".[41] It was the
Symphonic Poem (1947), later titled the Third Symphony, that officially earned Khachaturian the
wrath of the Party.[40][42] Ironically, he wrote the work as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of
the October Revolution.[43] He stated: "I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the
public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express
the Soviet people's joy and pride in their great and mighty country."[44]
Musicologist Blair Johnston believes that his "music contained few, if any, of the objectionable
traits found in the music of some of his more adventuresome colleagues. In retrospect, it was
most likely Khachaturian's administrative role in the Union [of Soviet Composers], perceived by
the government as a bastion of politically incorrect music, and not his music as such, which
earned him a place on the black list of 1948."[45] In March 1948,[25] Khachaturian "made a very full
and humble apology for his artistic "errors" following the Zhdanov decree; his musical style,
however, underwent no changes."[45] He was sent to Armenia as a "punishment",[15] and continued
to be censured.[25] By December 1948,[25] he was "restored to favor later that year when he was
praised for his film biography of Lenin"Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (ru).[21]
Later life (195078)[edit]
In 1950, Khachaturian began conducting[45] and started teaching composition at his alma
matersthe Gnessin Institute (since 1950), and later at the Moscow Conservatory (since
1951).[17] Some of his notable students include Aziz El-Shawan,[46] Andrei Eshpai,[10] Anatol
Vieru,[10] Edgar Hovhannisyan,[16] Mikael Tariverdiev,[10] Mark Minkov,[47] Alexey Rybnikov,[48] Tolib
Shakhidi,[49] Georgs Pelcis,[50] Rostislav Boiko (ru),[16] and Nodar Gabunia (ru).[16] During his
career as a university professor, Khachaturian emphasized the role of folk music to his students
and instilled the idea that composers should master their nations' folk music heritage.[17]
In 1950, he began working on his third and last ballet, Spartacus (195054), which later proved
to be his last internationally acclaimed work.[15] He was named People's Artist of the Soviet Union
in 1954.[21] He revised Spartacus in 1968.[15]

Khachaturian's grave at the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan

"Following the success of Spartacus towards the end of the fifties, his remaining years were
devoted less to composition, and more to conducting, teaching, bureaucracy and travel."[23] He
served as the President of the Soviet Association of Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with
Latin American States from 1958[13] and was a member of the Soviet Peace Committee (since
1962).[17] "He frequently appeared in world forums in the role of champion of an apologist for the
Soviet idea of creative orthodoxy."[21] Khachaturian toured with concerts of his own works in
around 30 countries, including in all the Eastern Bloc states,[10] Italy (1950), Britain (1955, 1977),
Latin America (1957) and the United States (1960, 1968).[6][23] "In January of 1968 he made a
culturally significant trip to Washington, D.C., conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in a
program of his own works."[45]
Khachaturian went on to serve again as Secretary of the Composers Union, starting in 1957 until
his death.[13][17] He was also a deputy in the fifth Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (1958
62).[51] In the last two decades of his life, Khachaturian wrote three concert rhapsodiesfor violin
(1961-2), cello (1963) and piano (1965)[43]and solo sonatas for unaccompanied cello, violin,
and viola (1970s), which are considered to be his second and third instrumental trilogies.[15]
Khachaturian died in Moscow on 1 May 1978, just short of his 75th birthday.[43] He was buried at
the Komitas Pantheon[52] in Yerevan on 6 May, next to other distinguished Armenians.[10] He was
survived by his son, Karen, and daughter, Nune,[19] and his nephew, Karen Khachaturian, who
was also a composer.[15]

Music[edit]
See also: List of compositions by Aram Khachaturian
 "Sabre Dance"

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Khachaturian's works span a broad range of musical types, including ballets, symphonies,
concertos, and film scores. Music critic Edward Greenfield expresses the opinion that
Khachaturian "notably outshone other Soviet contemporaries in creating a sharply identifiable
style, something which his successors have found impossible to emulate".[23] He composed a
great portion of his works in a ten-year span between 1936 and 1946, preceding and following
the Second World War.[53] Despite his formal restoration after the 1948 denunciation,
Khachaturian only succeeded in composing one internationally acclaimed work in the last 30
years of his life, the ballet Spartacus.[22]
According to James Bakst, what made Khachaturian unique among Soviet composers is "the
blending of national Armenian vocal and instrumental intonations with contemporary orchestral
techniques".[54] Khachaturian's music is characterized by an active rhythmic development, which
reaches either a mere repetition of the basic formula (ostinato) or "a game of emphasis within
this formula".[55]

The Central Bank of Russiaissued a commemorative coin depicting Spartacus in 2001.

Works[edit]
Ballets[edit]
Khachaturian is best known internationally for his ballet music.[C] His second ballet, Gayane, was
largely reworked from his first ballet, Happiness.[42][57] Spartacus became his most acclaimed work
in the post-Stalin period. These two compositions "remain his most successful
compositions".[58] According to Jonathan McCollum and Andy Nercessian, his music for these two
ballets "can safely be included among the best known pieces of classical music throughout the
world, a fact that is vitalized by perception that these are perhaps the only works through that the
world really knows Armenian music".[59] Ann Haskins of LA Weekly suggests that he has thus
"made an indelible mark on the world of ballet".[60]
Spartacus was popularized when the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" was used as the theme
for a popular BBC drama series The Onedin Lineduring the 1970s.[43] The climax
of Spartacus was also used in films such as Caligula (1979)[61] and Ice Age: The
Meltdown (2006).[62] Joel Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) also prominently featured music
from Spartacus and Gayane (the "Sabre Dance" included).[62] Gayane's "Adagio" was used,
among other films, in Stanley Kubrick's futuristic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[63]
Orchestral music[edit]
Khachaturian wrote three symphonies: the First in 1934/5, the Second in 1943, and the Third in
1947.[15][64]
He also wrote three concertos: the Piano Concerto (1936), the Violin Concerto (1940), and
the Cello Concerto (1946).[15]
Other compositions[edit]
Khachaturian wrote incidental music for several plays, including Macbeth (1934, 1955), The
Widow from Valencia (1940), Masquerade (1941), King Lear (1958).[15]
He produced around 25 film scores.[43][64] Among them is Pepo (1935), the first Armenian sound
film.[58] In 1950 he was awarded the USSR State Prize (Stalin Prize) for the score of The Battle of
Stalingrad (1949).[10]
Influences[edit]
I do not see how modern composers could isolate themselves from life and not want to work among society. The
more impressions that come from contact with life, the more and better the creative ideas.
Khachaturian[65]

Musicologist Marina Frolova-Walker describes Khachaturian as the only internationally renowned

Soviet composer "who emerged from the nationalist project".[66] James Bakst interpreted
Khachaturian's views as follows: "Music is a language created by the people. The people create
intonational music forms which reveal at once his national elements of an art work."[67]
Composer Tigran Mansurian suggested that Khachaturian's music incorporates American
characteristics and called the United States his "second homeland" in terms of musical
influences, especially due to the sense of optimism in his works and lifestyle.[68]
Armenian folk music[edit]

Khachaturian used the "raw material" made available by Komitas (pictured), who in the early 20th century
collected thousands of pieces of Armenian folk music.[69]

Khachaturian is widely known for his use of folk songs of various ethnic groups in his
compositions, most notably those of Armenians.[D]Despite not having been born in Armenia,
Khachaturian was "essentially an Armenian composer whose music exhibits his Armenian
roots".[56]"[M]any of his compositions evoke an Armenian melodic line. However, his works
markedly differed from the conventional orchestrations of folk themes," writes Rouben Paul
Adalian. He suggests that Khachaturian's works carry "the vibrant rhythms and stirring pace of
Caucasian dance music", but at the same time are "original compositions that reworked that
cultural material through new instrumentation and according to European musical canons,
resulting in a sound unique to the composer".[58] He was particularly influenced by the folk-song
collector, musicologist Komitas,[69] and composers Alexander Spendiaryan and Romanos
Melikian.[E] Khachaturian acknowledged that Komitas "singlehandedly laid the foundations for
Armenia's classical tradition".[71] In a 1969 article about Komitas, Khachaturian called him his
"greatest teacher".[72]
His plans to write an opera "on the destiny of the Armenian people, the tragic fate of Armenians
scattered all over the world, their suffering and the struggle" never realized, and his "Armenian
Rhapsody for mouth-organ and orchestra, intended for his close friend Larry Adler and
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra" remained uncompleted. "Yet the intention, the spirit, was
always there."[23] Khachaturian emphasized his Armenian origin, stating:
No matter how I may waver between various musical languages, I remain an Armenian, but a
European Armenian, not an Asian Armenian. Together with other [Armenian composers], we will
make all of Europe and the whole world listen to our music. And when they hear our music, people
are certain to say, 'Tell us about that people, and show us the country that produces such art.' [22]

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Other folk music[edit]

During his university years, Khachaturian transcribed Armenian, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish
and other folk songs.[13] In his mature works, Khachaturian used elements from folk songs of
Caucasian (including, but not limited to Georgians), Eastern European (Ukrainians, Poles) and
Middle Eastern (Turks, Kurds) peoples.[F] His first ballet, Happiness, incorporates a
Ukrainian gopak, Georgian, Armenian and Russian dances and a Lezginka, an energetic dance
of many Caucasian peoples.[73] The Masquerade Suite includes a Mazurka, a Polish folk dance
music.[74] The ballet Gayane, like its predecessor, features a Lezginka.[74] Act II of Gayane "is filled
with Kurdish dances".[75]
Russian classical music[edit]
Khachaturian is cited by musicologists as a follower of Russian classical traditions.[G] According
to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he "carried forward into the twentieth century the colourful,
folk-inspired style of such nineteenth-century Russian composers as Rimsky-
Korsakov and Tchaikovsky".[76] Like the members of The Five, especially Alexander Borodin and
Rimsky-Korsakov, whose works to some extent served him as a model, Khachaturian drew
heavily upon "Eastern" and "Oriental" material in creating compositions in various classical
genres and styles of European origin. But Khachaturian's cultural identity and rigorous musical
training within the Soviet establishment allowed him to penetrate more deeply to the essence of
Eastern and Caucasian music and to incorporate it more fully in his mature work, including the
ballets.[77] "Never dissociating himself from the traditions of Russian music, he came to be
regarded in Moscow as a mouthpiece of the entire Soviet Orient, gathering up all the diverse
traditions into a grand generalization," concludes Marina Frolova-Walker.[66]

Legacy[edit]
From left to right: Khachaturian depicted on Soviet (1983), Russian (2003) and Armenian (2003) postage
stamps

Recognition[edit]
Khachaturian is generally considered one of the leading composers of the Soviet
Union.[5]Alongside Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, he has been generally cited as one
of the three greatest composers of the Soviet era.[78][79] As early as 1957
the Time magazine called Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Khachaturian "the three modern giants
[of the Soviet Union]".[80]They are sometimes collectively referred to as the three "titans" of Soviet
music.[81][82] "Whether or not history will support the verdict, Khachaturian in his lifetime ranked as
the third most celebrated Soviet composer after Shostakovich and Prokofiev," wrote the music
critic Ronald Crichton in 1978.[23] According to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, "his works do not
enjoy the international reputation that those of" Shostakovich and Prokofiev do.[57] With the two
aforementioned composers and Dmitry Kabalevsky, Khachaturian "was one of the few Soviet
composers to have become known to the wider international public".[83] According to music
historian Harlow Robinson, "his proletariat origins, non-Russian ethnic origins and Soviet training
[made him] a powerful symbol within the Soviet musical establishment of the ideal of a
multinational Soviet cultural identity, an identity which the composer enthusiastically embraced
and exploited both at home and abroad". Unlike Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Khachaturian was
"entirely a creation of the Soviet musical and dance establishment".[84]
Josef Woodard, writing for the Los Angeles Times, suggests that he has "long [been] considered
a lighter-weight participant among 20th-century composers",[85] while classic music
broadcaster Norman Gilliland describes him as a "major" composer of the 20th century.[86] In a
2003 interview, conductor Marin Alsop expressed the opinion that Khachaturian is "a very
underperformed composer and ... somewhat underrated as well". She said: "His music, of
course, has a little bit of the edginess of the 20th-century sound, the dissonances coming in. But
at the same time it marries this beautiful neo-romanticism and lush orchestration and the over-
the-top approach, so I think, he can be quite relevant these days."[7] According to The Guardian's
Tim Ashley
Khachaturian's popularity has dipped of late [in the West], probably because we think of him, post-
glasnost, as one of Soviet music's "yes-men". Such a view is simplistic, given that he had a major
brush with the authorities in 1948. But it's also easy to see how he acquired his awkward reputation
when you hear his Violin Concerto, dating from 1940. It's an immensely attractive work, full of his
trademark Armenian folk flourishes, and the swaying, hypnotic Andante is notably beautiful. But the
unforced optimism of the outer movements now seems unthinking when we realise it was composed
at a time when Stalin was giving Prokofiev and Shostakovich hell."[87]

In Armenia[edit]

Khachaturian's statue near the Yerevan Opera Theater

Khachaturian was the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century,[9] and the most
famous representative of Soviet Armenian culture.[88] He has been described as "by far the most
important Armenian composer",[59] the "Armenian Tchaikovsky",[89] and "considered by some to be
the central figure in 20th-century Armenian culture".[90] He remains the only Armenian composer
to rise to international significance.[H] Khachaturian is highly regarded in Armenia[91] and
considered a "national treasure".[12] Khachaturian is embraced and celebrated by the Armenian
people "as a famous son who earned world-wide recognition".[92] ahan Arzruni has described
Khachaturian as "the musical ambassador of Armenian culture".[93]
He had a great influence on the development of Armenian music in the 20th century. "Naturally,
he immediately became an example for young national composers and a hero in Armenia,"
suggests Maya Pritsker.[22] Khachaturian's influence can be traced in nearly all trends of
Armenian classical music traditions (symphonic and chamber), including on Arno Babajanian, a
significant Armenian composer of the late Soviet period.[94] His unique symphonic interpretation
has influenced Edvard Mirzoyan, Konstantin Orbelyan and others.[95] Khachaturian is credited for
bringing Armenian music recognized worldwide.[13] Poet Hamo Sahyan said about Khachaturian:
"He became the big denial of our myth of smallness, [he] became the symbol of measuring our
small people with the great ones... [He] became our certificate of civilization."[96]
Posthumous honors and tribute[edit]
The philharmonic hall of the Yerevan Opera Theater is officially called the Aram Khachaturian
Grand Concert Hall since 1978.[10] The House-Museum of Aram Khachaturian in Yerevan was
inaugurated in 1982.[97]
Music schools are named after Khachaturian in Tbilisi,[98] Moscow (established in 1967, named
after him in 1996),[99] Yerevan,[51] Martuni in Nagorno-Karabakh,[100] and Watertown,
Massachusetts, US (run by the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural
Society).[101] Streets in Yerevan,[102] Tbilisi,[103] Moscow
(ru), Astana (Kazakhstan)[104]and Simferopol (Crimea)[105] are named after Khachaturian.
On 31 July 1999 a three-and-a-half meter high statue of Khachaturian in 19th-
century realist style[106] by Yuri Petrosyan was unveiled before the Khachaturian Hall of
the Yerevan Opera Theater in attendance of President Robert Kocharyan, Speaker Karen
Demirchyan and leading poet Silva Kaputikyan.[107] A statue of Khachaturian by Georgiy
Frangulyan was unveiled in Moscow on 31 October 2006. Notable attendees included Armenian
President Kocharyan, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Russia's First Lady Lyudmila
Putina.[108] On 30 April 2013, a bust of Khachaturian erected by sculptor Gevorg Gevorgyan was
opened in the street named after him in Yerevan's Arabkir district by Yerevan Mayor Taron
Margaryan on his 110th anniversary.[109]

Khachaturian appeared on the 50-dram banknote (19982004)[110]

In 1998, the Central Bank of Armenia issued 50-dram banknotes depicting Khachaturian's
portrait and the Yerevan Opera Theater on the obverse and an episode from the
ballet Gayane and Mount Ararat on the reverse. It remained in use until 2004 when it was
replaced by a coin.[110] He is the only composer to be depicted on Armenian currency.
In 1983, the Yerevan Studio produced a TV documentary film on Khachaturian.[111] In 2003, an
83-minute-long documentary about Khachaturian with unique footage was directed by Peter
Rosen and narrated by Eric Bogosian.[112] The film won the Best Documentary at the
2003 Hollywood Film Festival.[113] In 2004, TV Kultura, Russia's government-owned art channel,
made a documentary on Khachaturian entitled Century of Aram Khachaturian (
).[114]
In 1993 the festival of symphonic music Aram Khachaturian-93 was held in Yerevan.[51] The Aram
Khachaturian International Competition ( ) is
held annually in Yerevan since 2003.[115]
In 2009, Russia's flag carrier, Aeroflot, named one of its Airbus A319-112 planes after
Khachaturian.[116]
In 2013,[117] UNESCO inscribed a collection of Khachaturian's handwritten notes and film music in
the Memory of the World Register.[118]

Awards & titles[edit]

A mural of Khachaturian painted by Robert Nikoghosyan near the Yerevan Vernissage in July 2015[119]

Soviet Union[70][120]

Hero of Socialist Labor (1973)

Orders of Lenin (1939, 1963, 1973)
People's Artist of the USSR (1954), Russian SFSR (1947), Armenian
SSR (1955), Georgian SSR (1963), Azerbaijan SSR (1973)
Honored Art Worker of the Armenian SSR (1938), Russian SFSR (1944), Uzbek SSR (1967)
Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1945, 1966)
Order of the October Revolution (1971)
Lenin Prize (1959) for the ballet Spartacus
USSR State Prize (1941 for Violin Concerto, 1943 for ballet Gayane, 1946 for the Second
Symphony, 1950 for the film The Battle of Stalingrad, 1971 for the Triad of Concerto-
Rhapsodies: for violin and orchestra; for cello and orchestra; for piano and orchestra)
Other states[120]

Order of the Science of Art of the United Arab Republic (1961, "for outstanding musical
achievements")
Medal of Pope John XXIII (1963)
Medal of the Iranian Shah (1965)
Honored Art Worker of People's Republic of Poland (1972, "for contribution to the Polish
culture")
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) and title of Commandeur (1974)
Academic titles[17]

Professor of Music 1950

Honorary Member of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, Italy 1960
Corresponding Member of the Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic 1961
Honorary Professor of the Conservatorio Nacional de Msica, Mexico 1960
Full Member (Academician) of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR 1963
Doctor of Arts ( ), Academy of Sciences of the USSR 1965[13]