Libretto by K. Derzhavin. Choreographer N. Anisimova.
Characters
Hovhannes, chairman of the collective farm. Gayane, his daughter. Armen, shepherd. Nune. Karen. Kazakov, head of the geological expedition. Unknown. Giko. Aisha. Ishmael. Agronomist. Geologists. Head of the Border Guard.
Dark night. An unknown figure appears in a thick network of rain. Listening warily and looking around, he frees himself from the parachute lines. After checking the map, he makes sure that he is at the goal.
The rain is subsiding. Far away in the mountains the lights of the village flicker. The stranger takes off his overalls and remains in a tunic with stripes for wounds. Limping heavily, he goes towards the village.
Sunny morning. Spring work is in full swing in the collective farm gardens. Slowly, lazily stretching, Giko goes to work. The girls of the best brigade of the collective farm are in a hurry. With them is the foreman - a young, cheerful Gayane. Giko stops the Girl. He tells her about his love, wants to hug her. A young shepherd, Armen, appears on the Road. Gayane joyfully runs towards him. High in the mountains, near the shepherds' camp, Armen found shiny pieces of ore. He shows them to the Girl. Giko looks jealously at Armen and Gayane.
During rest hours, collective farmers start dancing. Suitable o. He wants Gayane to dance with him and tries to hug her again. Armen protects the girl from annoying advances. Giko is furious. He is looking for a reason to quarrel. Grabbing a basket of seedlings, Giko throws it furiously. He doesn't want to work. The collective farmers reproach Giko, but he does not listen to them and attacks Armen with raised fists. Gayane comes between them. She demands that Giko leave immediately.
Collective farmers are outraged by Giko's behavior. A young collective farmer, Karen, comes running. He reports that guests have arrived. A group of geologists led by the head of the expedition, Kazakov, enters the garden. An unknown person follows them. He hired out to carry the geologists' luggage and stayed with them.
Collective farmers warmly welcome visitors. The restless Nune and Karen begin to dance in honor of the guests. Gayane also dances. The guests also watch with admiration the dance of the shepherd Armen. The signal to start work sounds. Hovhannes shows visitors the collective farm gardens. Gayane is left alone. Everything pleases her eyes. The girl admires the distant mountains and the fragrant gardens of her native collective farm.
Geologists are returning. Gayane advises Armen to show them the ore he brought. Armen's find interested geologists. They are ready to go on reconnaissance now. Armen shows the route on the map and undertakes to accompany the geologists. At this moment, an unknown person appears. He closely monitors Armen and the geologists.
Packing for the trip is over. Gayane tenderly says goodbye to Armen. Giko, who approaches, sees this. Seized with jealousy, he threatens to follow the shepherd. An unknown hand rests on Giko's shoulder. He pretends to sympathize with Giko, and, inciting his hatred, insidiously offers friendship and help. They leave together.
After work, friends gathered at Gayane's place. Karen plays the tar. Girls perform an ancient Armenian dance. Kazakov enters. He stayed at Hovhannes's house.
Gayane and her friends show Kazakov the flowery carpet they have woven and start a game of blind man's buff. A drunk Giko arrives. The game gets upset. The collective farmers are trying to persuade Giko, who is again pursuing Gayane, and advise him to leave. After seeing the guests off, the collective farm chairman tries to talk to Giko. But he does not listen to Hovhannes and annoyingly pesters Gayane. The angry girl drives Giko away.
Geologists return from the hike with Armen. Armen's discovery is not an accident. A rare metal deposit was discovered in the mountains. Kazakov decides to examine him in detail. Giko, who lingers in the room, witnesses this conversation.
Mineral prospectors are getting ready to hit the road. Armen tenderly gives his beloved girl a flower brought from the mountain slope. Giko sees this as he walks past the windows with the unknown man. Armen and Hovhannes go with the expedition. Kazakov asks Gayane to keep the bag with ore samples. Gayane hides it.
Night has come. An unknown person enters Gayane's house. He pretends to be sick and falls exhausted. Gayane helps him get up and hurries to get water. Left alone, he jumps up and begins to look for materials from the geological expedition.
Returning Gayane understands that she faces an enemy. Threatening, the unknown person demands that she tell her where the geologists' materials are located. During the fight, the carpet covering the niche falls. There is a bag with pieces of ore. An unknown person ties up Gayane, takes the bag and, trying to hide traces of the crime, sets the house on fire.
Fire and smoke fill the room. Giko jumps out the window. There is horror and confusion on his face. Seeing a stick forgotten by an unknown person, Giko realizes that the criminal is his recent acquaintance. He carries the girl out of the house engulfed in flames.
Starlight Night. High in the mountains there is a camp of collective farm shepherds. A squad of border guards passes by. Shepherd Ishmael entertains his beloved girl Aisha by playing the pipe. Aisha begins a smooth dance. Attracted by the music, the shepherds gather. And here comes Armen. He brought geologists. Here, at the foot of the cliff, he found precious ore. Shepherds perform the folk dance “Khochari”. They are replaced by Armen. Burning torches in his hands cut through the darkness of the night.
A group of mountaineers and border guards arrives. The mountaineers carry the parachute they found. The enemy has penetrated Soviet soil! There was a glow over the valley. There is a fire in the village! Everyone rushes there.
The flames are raging. The figure of an unknown person flashed in the reflections of the fire. He tries to hide, but collective farmers are running from all sides towards the burning house. The unknown person hides the bag and gets lost in the crowd.
The crowd subsided. At this moment, an unknown person overtakes Giko. He asks him to remain silent and gives him a wad of money for this. Giko throws money in his face and wants to apprehend the criminal. Giko is wounded but continues to fight. Gayane runs up to help. Giko falls. The enemy points his weapon at Gayane. Armen arrives in time and snatches a revolver from the enemy, who is surrounded by border guards.
Autumn. The collective farm reaped a bountiful harvest. Everyone comes together for the holiday. Armen hurries to Gayane. On this wonderful day he wants to be with his beloved. Armena stops the kids and starts a dance around him.
Collective farmers carry baskets of fruit and jugs of wine. Guests invited to the celebration from the fraternal republics arrive - Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians.
Finally Armen sees Gayane. Their meeting is full of joy and happiness. People flock to the square. Here are the old friends of the collective farmers - geologists and border guards. The best brigade is awarded a banner. Kazakov asks Hovhannes to let Armen go to study. Hovhannes agrees.
One dance gives way to another. Nune and her friends dance, striking the ringing tambourines. Guests perform their national dances - Russian, dashing Ukrainian hopak, Lezginka, warlike mountain dance with sabers and others.
Tables are set right there in the square. With their glasses raised, everyone praises free labor, the indestructible friendship of the Soviet peoples, and the beautiful Motherland.
Page 1
The ballet “Gayane” was written by Khachaturian in 1942. In the harsh days of the Second World War, the music of “Gayane” sounded like a bright and life-affirming story. Shortly before Gayane, Khachaturian wrote the ballet Happiness. In a different storyline revealing the same images, the ballet was, as it were, a sketch for “Gayane” in theme and music: the composer introduced the best numbers from “Happiness” into “Gayane”.
The creation of “Gayane,” one of Aram Khachaturian’s wonderful works, was prepared not only by the first ballet. The theme of a person’s happiness—his living creative energy, the completeness of his worldview—was also revealed by Khachaturian in works of other genres. On the other hand, the symphonic nature of the composer’s musical thinking, the bright colors and imagery of his music.
The libretto of “Gayane,” written by K. Derzhavin, tells the story of how the young collective farmer Gayane emerges from the power of her husband, a deserter who undermines work on the collective farm; how she exposes his treacherous actions, his connection with saboteurs, almost becoming a victim of a target, almost becoming a victim of revenge, and finally, how Gayane learns a new, happy life.
1 action.
A new harvest is being harvested in the cotton fields of an Armenian collective farm. Among the best, most active workers is collective farmer Gayane. Her husband, Giko, quits his job on the collective farm and demands the same from Gayane, who refuses to fulfill his demand. Collective farmers expel Giko from their midst. This scene is witnessed by the head of the border detachment, Cossacks, who arrived at the collective farm.
Act 2.
Relatives and friends try to entertain Gayane. Giko's appearance in the house forces the guests to leave. 3 strangers come to see Giko. Gayane learns about her husband’s connection with saboteurs and his intention to set fire to the collective farm. Gayane's attempts to prevent the criminal plan are in vain.
Act 3.
Proud camp of the Kurds. A young girl Aisha is waiting for her lover Armen (Gayane’s brother). Armen and Aisha's date is interrupted by the appearance of three strangers looking for the way to the border. Armen, having volunteered to be their guide, sends for Kazakov’s detachment. The saboteurs were detained.
In the distance, a fire flares up - it is a collective farm that has been set on fire. Cossacks with a detachment and Kurds rush to the aid of collective farmers.
4 action.
The collective farm, reborn from the ashes, is preparing to begin its working life again. On this occasion there is a holiday on the collective farm. With the new life of the collective farm, Gayane’s new life begins. In the struggle with her deserter husband, she asserted her right to an independent working life. Now Gayane has learned a new, bright feeling of love. The holiday ends with the announcement of the upcoming wedding of Gayane and Kazakov.
The action of the ballet develops in two main directions: the drama of Gayane, pictures of folk life. As in all of Khachaturian’s best works, the music of “Gayane” is deeply and organically connected with musical culture Transcaucasian peoples and, most of all, his native Armenian people.
Khachaturian introduces several authentic folk melodies into the ballet. They are used by the composer not only as bright and expressive melodic material, but in accordance with the meaning they have in folk life.
The compositional and musical-dramatic techniques used by Khachaturian in “Gayane” are extremely diverse. Integral, generalized musical characteristics acquire predominant importance in ballet: portrait sketches, folk and genre pictures, pictures of nature. They correspond to complete, closed musical numbers, in the sequential presentation of which bright suite-symphonic cycles often develop. The logic of development that unites independent musical images into a single whole is different in different cases. Thus, in the final picture, a large cycle of dances is united by the ongoing celebration. In some cases, the alternation of numbers is based on figurative, emotional contrasts of lyrical and cheerful, impetuous or energetic, courageous, genre and dramatic.
Musical and dramatic means are clearly differentiated in their characteristics characters: solid portrait sketches of episodic characters are contrasted with end-to-end dramatic musical development in Gayane’s part; various dance rhythms underlying musical portraits Gayane's friends and family are opposed by Gayane's improvisationally free, lyrically rich melody.
Khachaturian consistently applies the principle of leitmotifs in relation to each of the characters, which imparts musical value and stage specificity to the images and the entire work. Thanks to the diversity and development of Gayane’s melodies, her musical image acquires much greater flexibility in comparison with other ballet characters. The image of Gayane is revealed by the composer in a consistent development, as her feelings evolve: from hidden sorrow (“Dance of Gayane”, No. 6) and the first glimpses of a new feeling (“Dance of Gayane”, No. 8), through a struggle full of drama (Act 2) - to a new bright feeling, a new life (introduction to Act 4, No. 26).
Artist N. Altman, conductor P. Feldt.
The premiere took place on December 9, 1942 at the S. M. Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater (Mariinsky Theater), Molotov (Perm).
Characters:
- Hovhannes, chairman of the collective farm
- Gayane, his daughter
- Armen, shepherd
- Nune, collective farmer
- Karen, collective farmer
- Kazakov, head of the expedition
- Unknown
- Giko, collective farmer
- Aisha, collective farmer
- Agronomist, collective farmers, geologists, border guards and the head of the border guard
The action takes place in Armenia in the 1930s of the 20th century.
Dark night. An unknown figure appears in a thick network of rain. Listening warily and looking around, he frees himself from the parachute lines. After checking the map, he makes sure that he is at the goal. The rain is subsiding. Far away in the mountains the lights of the village flicker. The stranger takes off his overalls and remains in his tunic with stripes for being wounded. Limping heavily, he goes towards the village.
1. Sunny morning. Spring work is in full swing in the collective farm gardens. Taking his time, Giko lazily goes to work. The girls of the best brigade of the collective farm are in a hurry. With them is the foreman - a young, cheerful Gayane. Giko stops her, talks about his love, wants to hug her. A young shepherd Armen appears on the road. Gayane joyfully runs towards him. High in the mountains, near the shepherds' camp, Armen found pieces of ore and shows them to Gayane. Giko watches them jealously.
During rest hours, collective farmers start dancing. Giko wants Gayane to dance with him and tries to hug him. Armen protects the girl from annoying advances. Giko is furious and is looking for a reason to quarrel. Grabbing a basket of seedlings, Giko furiously throws it and rushes at Armen with his fists. Gayane stands between them and demands that Giko leave.
A young collective farmer, Karen, comes running and announces the arrival of guests. A group of geologists led by the head of the expedition, Kazakov, enters the garden. An unknown person follows them. He hired out to carry the geologists' luggage and stayed with them. Collective farmers warmly welcome visitors. The restless Nune and Karen begin to dance in honor of the guests. Gayane also dances. The guests watch Armen's dance with admiration. The signal to start work sounds. Hovhannes shows visitors the gardens. Gayane is left alone. She admires the distant mountains and gardens of her native collective farm.
Geologists are returning. Armen shows them the ore. The find of the shepherd has interested geologists and they are going to explore. Armen undertakes to accompany them. An unknown person is watching them. Gayane tenderly says goodbye to Armen. Giko, seeing this, is overcome with jealousy. The unknown person sympathizes with Giko and offers friendship and help.
2. After work at Gayane’s friends gathered. Kazakov enters. Gayane and her friends show Kazakov the carpet they have woven and start a game of blind man's buff. A drunk Giko arrives. The collective farmers advise him to leave. After seeing the guests off, the collective farm chairman tries to talk to Giko, but he does not listen and annoyingly pesters Gayane. The girl angrily drives Giko away.
The geologists and Armen return from the hike. Armen's discovery is not an accident. A rare metal deposit was discovered in the mountains. Giko, who lingers in the room, witnesses the conversation. Geologists are getting ready to go. Armen tenderly gives Gayane a flower brought from the mountain slope. Giko sees this as he walks past the windows with the unknown man. Armen and Hovhannes set off along with the expedition. Kazakov asks Gayane to keep the bag with ore samples.
Night. An unknown person enters Gayane's house. He pretends to be sick and falls exhausted. Gayane helps him get up and hurries to get water. Left alone, he begins to look for materials from the geological expedition. Returning Gayane understands that she faces an enemy. Threatening, the unknown person demands that Gayane hand over the materials. During the fight, the carpet covering the niche falls. There is a bag with pieces of ore. An unknown person takes the bag, ties Gayane and sets the house on fire. Fire and smoke fill the room. Giko jumps out the window. There is horror and confusion on his face. Seeing a stick forgotten by an unknown person, Giko realizes that the criminal is his recent acquaintance. Giko carries Gayane out of the house engulfed in flames.
3. Starry night. High in the mountains there is a camp of collective farm shepherds. A squad of border guards passes by. Shepherd Ishmael entertains his beloved Aisha by playing the pipe. Aisha begins a smooth dance. The shepherds gather. Armen arrives, he brought geologists. Here, at the foot of the cliff, he found ore. Shepherds perform the folk dance “Khochari”. They are replaced by Armen. Burning torches in his hands cut through the darkness of the night.
A group of mountaineers and border guards arrives. The mountaineers carry the parachute they found. The enemy has penetrated Soviet soil! There was a glow over the valley. There is a fire in the village! Everyone rushes there.
The flames are raging. In its reflections the figure of an unknown person flashed. He tries to hide, but collective farmers are running from all sides towards the burning house. The unknown person hides the bag and gets lost in the crowd. The crowd subsided. An unknown person catches up with Giko, asks him to remain silent and gives him a wad of money for this. Giko throws money in his face and wants to apprehend the criminal. Giko is wounded but continues to fight. Gayane comes running to help. Giko falls. The enemy points his weapon at Gayane. Armen arrives in time and snatches a revolver from the enemy, who is surrounded by border guards.
4. Autumn. The collective farm reaped a bountiful harvest. Everyone comes together for the holiday. Armen hurries to Gayane. Armena stops the kids and starts a dance around him. Collective farmers carry baskets of fruit and jugs of wine. Guests invited to the holiday from the fraternal republics arrive - Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians. Finally Armen sees Gayane. Their meeting is full of joy and happiness. People flock to the square. Here are the old friends of the collective farmers - geologists and border guards. The best brigade is awarded a banner. Kazakov asks Hovhannes to let Armen go to study. Hovhannes agrees. One dance gives way to another. Nune and her friends dance, striking the ringing tambourines. The guests perform their national dances - Russian, dashing Ukrainian hopak.
Tables are set right there in the square. With their glasses raised, everyone praises free labor, the indestructible friendship of the Soviet peoples, and the beautiful Motherland.
At the end of the 1930s, Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) received an order for music for the ballet “Happiness”. The performance, with a traditional plot for that time about a happy life “under the Stalinist sun,” was being prepared for the Decade of Armenian Art in Moscow. Khachaturian recalled: “I spent the spring and summer of 1939 in Armenia, collecting material for the future ballet “Happiness.” It was here that the deepest study of the melodies of my native land began, folk art" Six months later, in September, the ballet was staged at the Armenian Opera and Ballet Theater. A. A. Spendiarov, and a month later they showed it in Moscow. Despite its great success, shortcomings in the writing and musical dramaturgy were noted.
A few years later, the composer returned to work on music, focusing on a new libretto written by Konstantin Derzhavin (1903-1956). A revised ballet named after main character“Gayane” was preparing for production at the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov, but the Great Patriotic War ruined all my plans. The theater was evacuated to the city of Molotov (Perm), where the composer arrived to continue work.
“In the fall of 1941, I returned to work on the ballet,” Khachaturian recalled. - Today it may seem strange that in those days of severe trials we could talk about a ballet performance. War and ballet? The concepts are truly incompatible. But as life has shown, there was nothing strange in my plan to depict the theme of a great national upsurge, the unity of people in the face of a formidable invasion. The ballet was conceived as a patriotic performance, affirming the theme of love and loyalty to the Motherland. At the request of the theater, after finishing the score, I completed “Dance of the Kurds” - the same one that later became known as “Dance with Sabers”. I started composing it at three o'clock in the afternoon and worked without stopping until two o'clock in the morning. The next morning the orchestral voices were transcribed and a rehearsal took place, followed in the evening by a dress rehearsal for the entire ballet. “The Saber Dance” immediately made an impression on the orchestra, the ballet, and those present in the hall.”
The first performers of the successful premiere in Molotov were Natalya Dudinskaya (Gayane), Konstantin Sergeev (Armen), Boris Shavrov (Giko).
Music for the ballets "Gayane" and "Spartacus" is one of the best works Khachaturyan. The music of “Gayane” is distinguished by its wide symphonic development with the use of leitmotifs, bright national color, temperament and colorfulness. It organically includes authentic Armenian melodies. Gayane's lullaby, imbued with a tender feeling, is memorable. For many decades, the “Sabre Dance”, full of fire and courageous strength, was a real hit, reminiscent of “Polovtsian Dances” from the opera “Prince Igor” by Borodin. The constant trampling rhythm, sharp harmonies, and whirlwind tempo help create a vivid image of a strong, courageous people.
Musicologist Sofya Katonova wrote: “Khachaturian’s merit was both the reproduction of the characteristic traditions and genres of ancient Armenian art, and their transmission in a specific style of folk performance. It was important for the composer, turning to a modern theme in “Gayane,” to capture not only the authentic features of the era, but also the appearance and mental makeup of his nation, borrowing its inspired creative manner of reflecting the surrounding life.”
The choreographer of the play "Gayane" Nina Anisimova (1909-1979) was a student of the famous Agrippina Vaganova, an outstanding character dancer of the Kirov Theater from 1929 to 1958. Before working on Gayane, Anisimova had experience staging only a few concert numbers.
“The theater’s appeal to this musical work,” wrote ballet scholar Marietta Frangopulo, “expressed the aspirations of Soviet choreographic art to embody heroic images and, in connection with this, an appeal to large symphonic forms. Khachaturian's vibrant music, full of drama and lyrical sounds, is replete with Armenian folk melodies, developed in the techniques of a broad symphonic development. Based on the combination of these two principles, Khachaturian created his music. Anisimova set herself a similar task. "Gayane" is a performance with rich musical and choreographic content. Some ballet numbers - such as the duet of Nune and Karena, Nune's variation - were later included in many concert programs, just like “The Saber Dance,” the music of which is often performed on the radio. However, the inferiority of the ballet’s dramaturgy greatly weakened its impact on the viewer, which led to the need to rework the libretto several times and, in accordance with this, the stage appearance of the performance "
The first changes in the plot basis occurred already in 1945, when the Kirov Theater, returning to Leningrad, finalized “Gayane”. The prologue disappeared from the play, the number of saboteurs increased to three, Giko became Gayane’s husband. New heroes appeared - Nune and Karen, their first performers were Tatyana Vecheslova and Nikolai Zubkovsky. The scenography also changed, Vadim Ryndin became the new artist. The play was reworked at the same theater in 1952.
In 1957, the ballet “Gayane” was staged at the Bolshoi Theater with a new illustrative and naturalistic script by Boris Pletnev (3 acts, 7 scenes with a prologue). Choreographer Vasily Vainonen, director Emil Kaplan, artist Vadim Ryndin, conductor Yuri Fayer. The main roles at the premiere were danced by Raisa Struchkova and Yuri Kondratov.
Until the end of the 1970s, the ballet was successfully performed on Soviet and foreign stages. Among the interesting decisions, one should note Boris Eifman’s graduation performance (1972) at the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theater (the choreographer later created new editions of the ballet in Riga and Warsaw). The choreographer, with the consent of the music author, abandoned spies and scenes of jealousy and offered the viewer a social drama. The plot told about the first years of the formation of Soviet power in Armenia. Gayane Giko's husband - the son of the kulak Matsaka - cannot betray his father. Gayane, who grew up in a poor family, sincerely loves her husband, but supports the new government headed by Armen. I remember how the “red wedge” of Komsomol members “historically” crushed Matsak. A concession to old stereotypes was the murder of his own son by a rich father. The premiere was danced by Tatiana Fesenko (Gayane), Anatoly Sidorov (Armen), Vasily Ostrovsky (Giko), German Zamuel (Matsak). The play ran for 173 performances.
In the 21st century, the ballet “Gayane” disappeared from theater stages, primarily due to an unsuccessful script. Certain scenes and numbers from Nina Anisimova’s performance continue to be performed annually in graduation performances of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. “Sabre Dance” remains a frequent guest on concert stages.
A. Degen, I. Stupnikov
Ballet in four acts. The author of the ballet is Aram Ilyich Khachaturian. Libretto by K. Derzhavin.In the fall of 1941, A. Khachaturian began working on the score for a new ballet. The work took place in close collaboration with the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater, which was located in Perm at that time. The premiere took place on December 3, 1942 and was a great success. In 1957, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, it was performed new production ballet The libretto was changed, and Khachaturian rewrote more than half of the previous music. Ballet entered the history of ballet art in our country. The music for it formed the basis of three large symphonic suites, and individual numbers of the suites, for example, “Sabre Dance,” became world famous.
The ballet “Gayane” is a work deeply folk in spirit, integral in musical language, marked by the extraordinary colorfulness of the instrumentation.
Plot:
Gayane, the daughter of the collective farm chairman Hovhannes, helps to catch and neutralize the Unknown, who secretly entered the territory of Armenia in order to steal the secrets of geologists. Her friends and her loving Gayane Armen help her in this. Armen's rival Giko pays with his life for unwittingly assisting the enemy.
Dark night. An unknown figure appears in a thick network of rain. Listening warily and looking around, he frees himself from the parachute lines. After checking the map, he makes sure that he is at his destination. The rain subsides. Far away in the mountains the lights of the village flicker. The stranger takes off his overalls and remains in a tunic with stripes for wounds. Limping heavily, he leaves towards the village. Sunny morning. Spring work is in full swing in the collective farm gardens. Slowly, lazily stretching, Giko goes to work. The girls of the best brigade of the collective farm are in a hurry. With them is the foreman - a young, cheerful Gayane. Giko stops the Girl. He tells her about his love, wants to hug her. A young shepherd, Armen, appears on the Road. Gayane joyfully runs towards him. High in the mountains, near the shepherds' camp, Armen found shiny pieces of ore. He shows them to the Girl. Giko looks jealously at Armen and Gayane. During rest hours, the collective farmers start dancing. They leave together. After work, Gayane’s friends gathered. Karen plays the tar. Girls perform an ancient Armenian dance. Kazakov enters. He stayed at Hovhannes's house. Gayane and her friends show Kazakov the flowery carpet they have woven and start a game of blind man's buff. A drunk Giko arrives. The game gets upset. The collective farmers are trying to persuade Giko, who is again pursuing Gayane, and advise him to leave. After seeing the guests off, the collective farm chairman tries to talk to Giko. But he does not listen to Hovhannes and annoyingly pesters Gayane. The angry girl drives Giko away. The geologists return from the hike with Armen. Armen's discovery is not an accident. A rare metal deposit was discovered in the mountains. Kazakov decides to examine him in detail. Giko, who lingered in the room, witnesses this conversation. The mineral prospectors are getting ready to set off. Armen tenderly gives his beloved girl a flower brought from the mountain slope. Giko sees this as he walks past the windows with the unknown man. Armen and Hovhannes go with the expedition. Kazakov asks Gayane to keep the bag with ore samples. Gayane hides it. Night has come. An unknown person enters Gayane's house. He pretends to be sick and falls exhausted. Gayane helps him get up and hurries to get water. Left alone, he jumps up and begins to look for materials from the geological expedition. Gayane, who has returned, realizes that she is facing an enemy. Threatening, the unknown person demands that she tell her where the geologists' materials are located. During the fight, the carpet covering the niche falls. There is a bag with pieces of ore. An unknown person ties up Gayane, takes a bag and, trying to hide traces of the crime, sets the house on fire. Fire and smoke fill the room. Giko jumps out the window. There is horror and confusion on his face. Seeing a stick forgotten by an unknown person, Giko realizes that the criminal is his recent acquaintance. He carries the girl out of the house engulfed in flames. Starry night. High in the mountains there is a camp of collective farm shepherds. A squad of border guards passes by. Shepherd Ishmael entertains his beloved girl Aisha by playing the pipe. Aisha begins a smooth dance. Attracted by the music, the shepherds gather. And here comes Armen. He brought geologists. Here, at the foot of the cliff, he found precious ore. Shepherds perform the folk dance “Khochari”. They are replaced by Armen. Burning torches in his hands cut the darkness of the night. A group of mountaineers and border guards arrives. The mountaineers carry the parachute they found. The enemy has penetrated Soviet soil! There was a glow over the valley. There is a fire in the village! Everyone rushes there. The flames are raging. The figure of an unknown person flashed in the reflections of the fire. He tries to hide, but collective farmers are running from all sides towards the burning house. The unknown man hides the bag and gets lost in the crowd. The crowd subsides. At this moment, an unknown person overtakes Giko. He asks him to remain silent and gives him a wad of money for this. Giko throws money in his face and wants to apprehend the criminal. Giko is wounded but continues to fight. Gayane runs up to help. Giko falls. The enemy points his weapon at Gayane. Armen arrives in time and snatches a revolver from the enemy, who is surrounded by border guards. Autumn. The collective farm reaped a bountiful harvest. Everyone comes together for the holiday. Armen hurries to Gayane.
The melodies of “Gayane” are permeated with intonations and singing of folk songs; they are characterized by the peculiarities of the modal structure of Armenian music, rhythmic patterns, orchestral timbres, as if reproducing the sound of folk instruments. Some features of Khachaturian's music originate in the performing style characteristic of folk singers and instrumentalists. In the ballet “Gayane” dance rhythms play a huge role. This is not only due to the genre of ballet; here there was a direct dependence on Armenian folk song, for which dance rhythms are extremely characteristic. That is why folk song and dance melodies sound naturally and figuratively not only in festive scenes of fun, but also in sketches of the working life of collective farmers, and in the images of characters. The compositional and musical-dramatic techniques used by Khachaturian in “Gayane” are extremely diverse. Integral, generalized musical characteristics acquire predominant importance in ballet: portrait sketches, folk and genre pictures, pictures of nature. They correspond to complete musical numbers, in the sequential presentation of which the features of a symphonic suite are often seen. The logic of development that unites independent musical images into a single whole is different. Thus, in the final picture, the larger dance cycle is united by the ongoing celebration. In some cases, the alternation of numbers is based on figurative, emotional contrasts of lyrical and cheerful, impetuous or energetic, courageous, genre and dramatic (see the first scenes of acts I and II). In the moments of the greatest tension of the action, for example in the scene of Gayane with Giko (from Act II), when Gayane reveals his sabotage plans and tries to counteract them, in the scenes of the revelation of the conspiracy and fire (III Act), Khachaturian gives large symphonic episodes of end-to-end musical development, which corresponds to the very drama of the action. Musical and dramatic means are also clearly differentiated in the characteristics of the characters: integral portrait sketches of episodic characters are contrasted with the end-to-end dramatic musical development in Gayane’s part; The varied dance rhythms that underlie the musical portraits of Gayane’s friends and relatives are contrasted by Gayane’s improvisationally free, lyrically rich melodies. Khachaturian consistently applies the principle of leitmotifs to each of the characters, which imparts musical integrity and stage specificity to the images and the entire work.
Aram Khachaturian introduced the Armenian song to the world,
refracted through the prism of great talent.
Avetik Isahakyan
At the beginning of 1939, Khachaturian received from the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater named after A.A. Spendiarov's proposal to write a ballet for the ten days of Armenian art in Moscow.
“The first stage of my work,” the composer wrote, “was familiarization with the material with which I had to operate. This included recording various melodies and listening to these melodies performed by various groups of the Armenian Philharmonic.” A wealth of impressions, direct contact
with the life and culture of the people determined the inspiration and speed of the creative process.
“Work on the ballet,” recalls Khachaturian, “went unusually intensively, I would say, on a conveyor belt. The music I wrote (I, as always, wrote it down immediately in the score) was immediately transferred in parts to the copyists, and then to the orchestra. The performance followed, so to speak, on the heels of the composition, and I could immediately hear individual pieces of the created music in real sound.
The orchestra was led by a wonderful, experienced conductor K. S. Saradzhev, who provided me with great assistance in the process of work.”
The premiere took place in September of the same year.
The ballet “Happiness,” written to a libretto by G. Ovanesyan, tells the story of the life, work and struggle of border guards, collective farmers, and village youth. The ballet touches on topics that were relevant to Soviet literature and art of the 1930s - themes of labor, national defense, and patriotism. The action of the ballet takes place in an Armenian collective farm village, in the flowering gardens of the Ararat Valley, at a border outpost; In the center of the plot is the love of the collective farm girl Karine and the young border guard Armen.
Along with the Mass Scenes, some of the actors also received minor musical characteristics in the ballet. faces. First of all, this refers to the lyrical image of the main character, Cornice, marked by femininity and charm. The image of Karine is developed in a number of her solo dances and dances with her friends (for example, in a solo imbued with soft sadness in Act I or a smooth, graceful dance in Act III), in the mass harvest scene, in the farewell scene of Karine and Armen (Act I ). There are some successful passages in the musical depiction of Armen (in particular, in the scene of his fight against saboteurs), the old man Gabo-bidza (this image is endowed with features of truly folk humor), the joker and the merry fellow Avet.
The ballet contains symphonized musical scenes that help reveal the most dramatic situations. Such, for example, is the symphonic painting “Border”, built on the collision and confrontation of the main leitmotifs of the ballet - the strong-willed, energetic motive of struggle, the sinister, angular motive of saboteurs and the melodious theme of love. Like some other Soviet composers, Khachaturian, trying to expand the scope of the ballet genre and enhance its expressiveness, introduced a chorus in the finale glorifying the Motherland.
The main advantage of the music of the ballet “Happiness” is its great emotionality, lyricism, and its genuine nationality. “ Ashtaraki" - "Ashtarak" (in the dance of Gabo-Bidza), original and rhythmically interesting
“Shalaho” and others, as well as Ukrainian hopak, lezginka, Russian dance.
The musical fabric of the ballet is rich in folk intonations. It attracts the variety of rhythm, which goes back to the rich rhythm of Armenian folk dances (original, for example, is the three-beat rhythm of the chords, combined with the two-beat trumpet theme in “Shalakho”, the mismatched accents in different voices in “Grape Harvesting”). Using a symphony orchestra, the composer subtly conveys the timbres of folk musical instruments of the Caucasus.
The public and the press gave a positive assessment to the ballet music, noting Khachaturian’s initiative in solving a current topic in the art of music and choreography. At the same time, the shortcomings of ballet were also noted. They mainly concerned the libretto, which suffered from schematic plot points, loose dramaturgy, and poor character development of the characters.
To a certain extent, this also applied to music. Attention was drawn to the fact that not all musical images are sufficiently developed, that some scenes suffer from illustrativeness, musical drama is fragmented, and individual colorful numbers of the ballet are not united to the necessary extent by end-to-end symphonic development.
The composer himself felt the shortcomings of the composition, In 1940, the Leningrad Academic Onera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov invited Khachaturian to create new ballet
. In the same year, in accordance with the wishes of the composer, K. I. Derzhavin wrote the libretto “Gayane”. Based on a new plot outline, it at the same time retained some of the dramatic situations and characters of the ballet “Happiness”. The libretto of "Gayane" was distinguished by a deeper development of the plot, dramatic conflict and images of the main characters than the libretto of "Happiness", although it also contained a number of shortcomings.
The libretto enabled the composer to preserve all the best from the music of “Happiness”, including the Dance of the Pioneers, the Dance of the Conscripts, “Farewell”, “The Exit of Old Men and Women”, “Karine with Friends”, the finale of Act I, “Grape Harvesting”, Dance of Karine with grapes, Crane Dance, Gopak, “Shalaho”, Lezginka, symphonic picture “Border”, etc.
But the music of the ballet “Gayane” is much richer, more generalized, more developed and organic in its symphonic development. Khachaturian wrote a new act (III), many new musical numbers, including the widely popular Saber Dance, the musical image of the main character was significantly enriched, and the leitmotifs were more widely developed.
The score for "Gayane" was completed at the end of 1942. On December 3, the ballet was staged on the stage of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov, which was then located in Perm. “We can happily say,” wrote D. Kabalevsky, “that “Gayane” enters new page
into the history of Soviet music and Soviet ballet."
The ballet opens with a brief orchestral introduction. In his uplifting majorga music, one can hear intonations and rhythms that can be recognized in many of the musical themes of the ballet. Here, for the first time, the appealing and fanfare strong-willed motive of struggle appears. Changing depending on the situation, it will also be associated with the characteristics of one of the main characters of the ballet - the border guard Kazakov. In another edition of the score, an ominous motif of enemy forces is carried out in the introduction.
The first act of the ballet is a genre everyday painting painted in rich colors. The burning midday sun floods a wide-spread valley in one of the border regions of Soviet Armenia with its rays. In the distance you can see a chain of snowy mountains. A new harvest is being harvested at the Shchastye collective farm. The workers are led by a young collective farmer Gayane and her brother Armen.
In a single stream of symphonic development, mass dances alternate: “Cotton Picking”, Cotton Dance, Dance of Men. They introduce you to the stage action, create a feeling of the joy of free labor, the generous abundance of nature’s gifts.
Due to the brightness of the colors, these dances involuntarily evoke associations with the sunny paintings of M. Saryan.
The music of the first dance (No. 1 and 1-a) is based on the melody of the Armenian folk song “Pshati Tsar” (“Spare Tree”):
The composer masterfully uses the techniques of rhythmic and intonation variation and modal nuances characteristic of Armenian folk music (the features of the Dorian and Aeolian minor are emphasized). With each new performance, the melody acquires figurations, echoes that arise from its own motivic elements and acquire independent melodic contours. On this basis, various polymelodic formations are created.
Music is dynamized by rhythmic interruptions introduced into the ostinato rhythm of the dance, asymmetrical beats, polyrhythmic elements, mismatched accents in different voices, etc.
Presented first with wood, then with brass, the main theme of the dance achieves (in chordal presentation) great power of sound. All this gives a special full-bloodedness to dance music.
The next one - slow, full of grace, capriciously rhythmic, decorated with soft melismas - Cotton Dance (No. 2) is also based on folk motifs. The composer surprisingly organically combined the melody of the lyrical folk dance “Gna ari man ari” (“Go and come back”) with the motifs of circular dances - “gyends”: “Ashtaraki” (“Ashtarak”) and “Dariko oinar”, creating a unique form on their basis rondo. The first dance melody plays the role of a refrain (As-dur), and the other two - episodes (f-mall).
The clap dance contrasts with the first dance, but it also draws attention to Khachaturian’s favorite techniques of polyrhythmic combinations and layers of independent melodic lines. Let us point out, for example, the performance of an expressive playing of a flute and a trumpet (with a mute) in simultaneous sound with the main theme (stated by the violin):
The third dance (No. 3, Dance of Men) is also built on a folk basis.
It wonderfully conveys the coloring of Armenian heroic and wedding dances and the character of the sound of folk instruments (the composer also introduced a folk percussion instrument, the dayra, into the score). This is one of the most symphonically developed mass ballet dances. The lapidary theme of the folk dance “Trigi” sounds invitingly from the horns.
Capturing more and more new registers and groups of the orchestra in its accelerating movement, the music grows to a powerful sound. The dance will be given a special masculinity and impetuosity by energetic rhythmic interruptions, temperamental chants of the tonic, second-by-second shifts in degrees of mode, persistent intonation repetitions, reminiscent of the piercing, seemingly choking zurna tunes.
This dance of strength and youth leads to scenes (3-a-3-a), where the main characters of the ballet are exposed and a dramatic conflict begins.
At this time, the commander of the border detachment Cossacks arrives at the collective farm, accompanied by two soldiers. Giko disappears. Collective farmers greet the border guards, give them flowers and treats. Kazakov chooses a large red raza and gives it to Gayane. After Kazakov and the fighters leave, Giko appears again. He again demands that Gayane quit her job and rudely insults her. Outraged collective farmers drive Giko away.
To characterize each character, the composer creates portrait dances, finds individual intonations and leitmotifs. Armen’s dance (No. 7), which is close in character to Armenian folk dances such as “Kochari,” is noted for its courageous, energetic marching rhythms and strong accents. I would like to note the melodious, softening motor skills of the dance contrasting voice (horns and cellos).
The fourth and eighth numbers (“Kazakov’s Arrival” and “Departure”) are full of strong-willed, inviting intonations, galloping rhythms, fanfare signals, and dynamic build-ups.)
Even in the introduction to the ballet, a decisive, heroic motive sounded (beginning with an active ascending fifth). In these scenes, it acquires the meaning of Kazakov’s leitmotif.
In the dance of Nune and Karen, full of life and temperament (No. 5), Gayane’s friends are depicted - the joker, the merry fellow Karen and the perky Nune. The scherzo character of the duet is conveyed by lively playing motifs (strings and then wood), and a bizarre rhythm beaten out by timpani, small and large drums, and piano.
In the music of the quarrel scene (No. 3-a), a leitmotif arises that characterizes the enemy forces; (here he is associated with Giko, and later will be associated with images of attackers). Either ominously creeping (on the basclarinet, bassoon, double basses), or threateningly attacking, it sharply contrasts with the intonations with which positive images are associated.
This motif develops especially intensively in the symphonic painting “Fire”;
when presented in thirds, sixths and, finally, tritones, it acquires an increasingly threatening character. The image of Gayane is exhibited with the greatest completeness in Act I. To the depiction of her beautiful, deeply human nature, to the revelation of her spiritual experiences, Khachaturian gave all the expressive power of his melody, all the richness of shades of the lyrical sphere of his music. It is in connection with Gayane in
The music that characterizes Gayane seems to have absorbed the intonations of many of Khachaturian’s lyrical themes, in particular from the piano and violin concertos. In turn, many lyrical pages of the Second Symphony, the cello concerto, as well as the ballet “Spartacus” (the image of Phrygia) will be associated with this area.
The image of Gayane is in the full sense of the word the central image of the ballet.
It is inextricably linked with mass couplings. For the first time, Gayane’s characterization is given in Act I in the scene of a quarrel with her husband (No. 3-a) and in her two dances (No. b and 8). In the quarrel scene, a motif arises (in the violins, cellos and horns), which will later be associated with the most active sides of Gayane’s nature. Saturated with emotional strength, full of inner drama, it conveys Gayane’s feelings, her anger, indignation, and perseverance in the struggle.
At the most dramatic moments in the ballet, this motive of Gayane and the motive of enemy forces will collide more than once (in Act II No. 12, 14, in Act III - No. 25).
In the final episode of the quarrel scene, other aspects of Gayane’s character are also embodied: femininity, tenderness. This episode is an emotional climax.
After a short improvisational introduction based on the sadly alarmed phrases of the bassoon, an expressive, soulful melody of the solo violin appears against the backdrop of evenly rhythmic chords of the harp and string quintet.
Melodious, amazingly plastic, she draws a beautiful picture, full of tenderness and poetry.
Gayane's appearance creates a feeling of moral purity and spiritual nobility.
This melody takes on the meaning of Gayane’s leittheme and will appear repeatedly in the ballet music, changing and varying depending on the development of the musical stage action.
Further disclosure of the image of Gayane in Act I; occurs in two of her dances (Nos. 6 and 8). In the first of them, the above leittheme is presented by cellos, and then is developed in a two-voice invention (violins with mutes). The music is saturated with the intonations of prayer, restrained
heartache
. The second dance, based on the tremulously excited arpeggio of the harp, permeates with light sadness.
Act II takes the viewer to Gayane's house. Relatives, girlfriends, friends are trying to entertain her. The first dance of the carpet-makers is full of charm and grace (No. 9). With its subtle weaving of melodies, soft echoes, imitations, colorful modal comparisons (the sustained tonic in the bass is superimposed in other voices with motifs located in different modal spheres), and finally, with its amazing melodiousness, this dance is reminiscent of some maiden lyrical choirs and dances of Komitas or Spendiarov.
The compositional structure of the dance approaches the rondo form.
The musical themes are very diverse and close in composition to Armenian folk music (one of the themes is based on a fragment of the original folk melody “Kalosi Irken” - “Rim of the Wheel”). The second-to-second tonal comparisons of the episodes add freshness to the sound.
The Dance of the Carpet Weavers is followed by “Tush” (No. 10) with its upbeat and festive intonations and full of playfulness and simple-minded slyness Variations of Nune (No. 10-a) with their capricious and whimsical rhythm and intonations of Sayat-Nova’s famous song “Kani vur janem” ( "As long as I'm your darling") In accordance with the image of Nune, the composer gave Sayat-Nova’s lyrical melody a cheerful, lively character.
The variations give way to the rather heavy comedy Dance of the Old Men (No. 11), which uses two folk dance melodies that are close in rhythm.
The listed dances represent, in the apt expression of G. Khubov, a kind of “introductory intermezzo”, which sharply contrasts with the intense drama of subsequent numbers with its soft lyricism and purely peasant humor.
The guests are leaving. Gayane rocks the baby. The listener's attention is switched to her emotional experiences. Gayane's Lullaby (No. 13) begins - one of the most inspired numbers of the ballet.
Rocking the child, Gayane surrenders to her thoughts. The lullaby genre, widespread in Armenian folk music, is translated here into a deeply psychological plane. The Lullaby begins with sobbing phrases of the oboe against the background of sad descending thirds of the clarinets. Next (at the flute against the background of the harp and bassoon, and then at the violin against the background of the horn) a gentle, soulful melody flows.
The music reaches great expression in the middle part. The intonations of the oboe, sharpened by ascending sequential passages and intensely sounding chords, grow into music of passionate emotional outpouring, despair and grief.
A fragment of the folk lyrical song “Chem krna hagal” (“I can’t play”) is organically woven into the music of the Lullaby:
Intruders come to Giko. He informs them of his decision to set fire to the collective farm. In vain Gayane tries to block their path, to keep her husband from committing a crime;
she calls for help. Giko pushes Gayane away, locks her up and escapes with the criminals.
This scene (No. 14) is marked by intense drama; it is a continuation and development of the quarrel scene from Act I. The motives of Giko and Gayane also collide in it. But “here the clash takes on a much more conflicting character. It is embodied in a dynamic symphonic development. The theme of enemy forces in chordal presentation, in polyphonic combinations, with the intensive use of brass sounds menacing, ominous.
It is opposed by the alarming-sounding moaning intonations of the Lullaby, the canonically developed leitmotif of Gayane. Finally, on the ostiatal phrase of the harp, the distorted (stated by the bass clarinet) theme of Gayane enters.
This musical number flows seamlessly into the final episode, revealing the image of a shocked young woman. Act III
The act takes place in a highland Kurdish village. Already in the orchestral introduction a new range of intonations appears: lively, energetic Kurdish dances sound.
As in previous acts, the musical and stage action develops on the basis of contrasts. "The fast-paced dance music of the introduction gives way to a colorful picture of dawn (No. 15).
Overlay of various tonal layers (colorful polytonal relationships arise), coverage of the extreme registers of the orchestra, “shimmering”, tremulous octaves in the upper voices of the strings, harmonics of the violas, languid sighs of the cellos and harps, like frozen organ points in the bass, and finally, the introduction of melody (in the solo piccolo flute), close to the mugham “Gedzhas” - everything creates a feeling of air, space, awakening nature.
The intonational image of Aisha emerges directly from the music of dawn. The dance of the Kurdish girl (No. 16), with its waltz rhythm and expressive, poetic melody from the violins, is full of grace and elegance. A special feeling of languor and tenderness is given to the dance by the downward movement accompanying the main melody (in the lower voice) and the gentle echoes of the flutes.
The Kurdish dance begins (No. 17). It is characterized by courageous, strong-willed rhythms (sharply emphasized by percussion instruments), and militant intonations.
Strong accents and sharp tonal shifts create a feeling of uncontrollable, spontaneously erupting energy.
And again the tender music of Aisha (No. 18) sounds: her waltz is repeated in a compressed form. An expanded three-part form is formed, uniting sharply contrasting images.
Next comes the love duet of Aisha and Armen (No. 19). It is based on Armen's motive and Aisha's expressive melody.
After a small scene (No. 20, Ismail’s jealousy and his reconciliation with Armen), the Armenian-Kurdish dance (No. 21) comes full of energy and strength, reminiscent of the folk dance “Kochari”.
The following episodes (No. 22-24, scene, Armen's Variations, the appearance of the attackers and their fight with Armen) prepare the culmination of the act, which is at the same time the denouement of the dramatic conflict.
In these scenes, the music reaches great dramatic tension, a truly symphonic development. The ominous motive of the enemy forces sounds again, ever growing, cutting through the powerful tutti of the orchestra. It is opposed by the heroic motive associated with the image of Kazakov, but here receiving a more generalized meaning.
Each new implementation of the motive of enemy forces gives rise to new motives counteracting it, strengthening and expanding the circle of heroic images of struggle.
One of these motifs is associated with the sound of the alarm theme in Khachaturian’s Second Symphony, and the other will later be included as an intonation fragment in the National Anthem of the Armenian SSR written by the composer.
In the fire scene, the motives of Giko and the enemy forces collide again with the motives of anger and Gayane’s fortitude.
Marked rhythms, syncopated shifts of emphasis, howling chord passages in the upper registers, strong build-up of ascending sequences, increasing dynamics to powerful fortissimo, and finally, alarming cries of brass - all this creates the image of a raging element, enhancing dramatic tension. This dramatized musical scene turns into Gayane's lyrical statement (Adagio) - the emotional conclusion of the entire picture. Gayane's lyrical theme here takes on the character of a mournful lamentation; it develops from the sad melody of the cor anglais (against a backdrop of tremolo violins and groaning seconds of violins and violas) to a dramatically tense orchestral tutti.
The last, IV act is the semantic conclusion of the ballet.
Framed by joyfully sounding dance tunes, Gayane’s theme appears again. Now it is growing into a romantically poetic, wide-ranging cantilena. In it, sorrowful, sorrowful intonations disappear and everything bright and jubilant blossoms (major arpeggios in triplets on the harp, coloring tonal comparisons, light registers of the “tree”). (See example 15).
Adagio Gayane gives way to the graceful Dance of the Pink Girls and Nune (No. 27), the mass scene (No. 28), built on the music of Act I (from No. 4), and the sedate Dance of Old Men and Women (No. 29).
What follows is an extensive dance suite based on dance melodies of various nations - danced by guests who arrived from the fraternal republics.
The suite begins with the fiery temperamental Lezginka (No. 30). Using techniques of motivic development, sharp rhythmic interruptions, characteristic tonal shifts for a second, the introduction of echoes, asymmetrical sentences, Khachaturian achieves a huge increase in dynamics.
The lively melody of balalaikas can be heard in the orchestra: the melody of a Russian dance song (No. 31) enters lazily, as if reluctantly.
With each new exercise it gains pace, strength, and energy.
The composer showed a subtle understanding of the characteristics of Russian folk music.
The dance is written in variation form. With great skill, the motives, rhythms, and timbres of the orchestra are varied, lively ornamental voices are introduced, sharp tonal shifts are used, etc.
Full of courageous strength, enthusiasm and prowess, the Russian dance is replaced by equally brilliantly orchestrated and symphonically developed Armenian dances: “Shalakho” (No. 32) and “Uzundara” (No. 33). I would like to note the exceptional rhythmic sharpness of these dances (in particular, the presence of mismatched accents and asymmetrical sentences), as well as their modal originality.
The composer achieves great effect by introducing into this frenzy the rhythm of a captivating melodious melody (in the alto saxophone, violins, violas, cellos), familiar to us even before the duet of Armen and Lishiv in Act III. The soft echoes of flutes based on the intonations of “Kalosi prken” give it a special charm. Noteworthy are the elements of polyrhythm: a combination of two- and three-beats in different voices.
melodious melody (alto saxophone, violins, violas, cellos), familiar to us from the duet of Armen and Lishiv in Act III. The soft echoes of flutes based on the intonations of “Kalosi prken” give it a special charm. Noteworthy are the elements of polyrhythm: a combination of two- and three-beats in different voices.
The act ends with a stormy Hopak (No. 36), written in a form approaching a rondo (in one of the episodes the Ukrainian folk song “As the goat went, went” was used), and a festively jubilant final March.
The ballet “Gayane” embodies the leading ideological motives of A. Khachaturian’s work.
These are the ideas of high Soviet patriotism, the blood connection in our society of personal and social interests. The ballet glorifies a happy working life, the fraternal friendship of peoples in our country, the high spiritual image of the Soviet people, and stigmatizes the crimes of the enemies of socialist society.
Having largely overcome everydayism, dramaturgical looseness, and in some places the far-fetchedness of the libretto, Khachaturian managed to translate the content of the ballet into music realistically, through clashes of human characters, against the backdrop of folk scenes and romantically poetic pictures of nature. The prosaism of the libretto gave way to the lyricism and poetry of Khachaturian’s music. The ballet “Gayane” is a realistic musical and choreographic story about Soviet people, “one of the amazing and rare phenomena of modern art in terms of emotional brightness.”
The theme of spiritual beauty and feat of the Soviet woman Gayane runs through the entire ballet. Having created a multifaceted image of Gayane, truthfully conveying her emotional experiences, Khachaturian came close to solving one of the most important and difficult tasks of Soviet art - the embodiment of the image positive hero, our contemporary. In the image of Gayane, the main humanistic theme of the ballet is revealed - the theme of a new man, a bearer of a new morality. And this is not a “reasoning figure”, not a bearer of an abstract idea, but an individualized image of a living person with a rich spiritual world and deep psychological experiences.
All this gave Gayane’s image charm, amazing warmth, and genuine humanity.
Gayane is shown in the ballet both as a tenderly loving mother, and as a brave patriot who finds the strength to expose her criminal husband before the people, and as a woman capable of great feeling. The composer reveals both the depth of Gayane’s suffering and the completeness of the happiness she conquered and found.
Gayane's intonation image is marked by great internal unity; it develops from a poetic monologue and two lyrical dances of Act I, through a quarrel scene and a Lullaby to an enthusiastic love adagio - a duet with Kazakov in the finale. We can talk about symphonism in the development of this image.
The music that characterizes Gayane is organically connected with the lyrical sphere of Armenian folk melodies. The most inspired pages of the ballet are dedicated to the heroine.
In them, the composer’s means of expression, usually rich and decorative, become softer, more tender, and more transparent. This is manifested in melody, harmony, and orchestration.
Gayane's friend Nune, the Kurdish girl Aisha, and Gayane's brother Armen have apt musical characteristics. Each of these images is endowed with its own range of intonations: Nune - playful, scherzoic, Aisha - tender, languid and at the same time marked by inner temperament, Armen - courageous, strong-willed, heroic.
Khachaturian bravely and talentedly solved the difficult creative task of achieving a true synthesis of traditions classical ballet and1 folk-national musical and choreographic art. The composer makes extensive use of various types and forms of “character dance,” especially in mass folk scenes.
Saturated with the intonations and rhythms of folk music, and often based on authentic examples of folk dances, they serve as a means of depicting a real everyday background or characterizing individual characters. Let us point out, for example, the male dance in Act I, the Kurdish dance in Act II, the girls’ dances full of grace and elegance, the musical characterization of Karen, etc. The portrait dances figuratively characterize the main characters - Gayane, Armen, Nune, etc. With living content The ballet is rich in classical forms of variations, adagio, pas de deux, pas de trois, pas (faction, etc. Let us recall, for example, such different variations of Armen, Nune, adagio Gayane, pas de deux Nune and Kareia - a comedy duet, evoking associations with Armenian folk duets such as “Abrban”, finally, the dramatic scene of a quarrel (Act II) - a kind of pas d action, etc. Especially in connection with the deeply human image of Gayane, the composer turns to musical and choreographic monologues, ensembles (“agreements " and "disagreements") - forms that later (in Spartak) will acquire special meaning.
There is an opinion that Khachaturian did not succeed in the finale, which was allegedly excluded from the end-to-end action and was of a diversionary nature. I think that this is not so. First of all, the history of the ballet genre has shown that divertissement not only does not contradict musical and choreographic dramaturgy, but, on the contrary, is one of its strong and impressive elements, but, of course, if it helps to reveal the concept of the work. This is exactly how the final divertissement seems to us - a competition of dances of different nations. These dances are written so brightly, colorfully, saturated with such emotional strength and temperament, so organically complement each other and merge into a single flow of sound growing towards the finale, that they are perceived in inextricable connection with the entire course of the event in the ballet, with its central idea.
Musical and choreographic suites play a big role in “Gayane”; they serve as a means of “promoting” action, outlining “typical circumstances,” and embodying the image of a collective hero. The suites appear in various forms - from the microsuite at the beginning of Act II to the extended final divertissement.
Following the classical traditions of ballet creativity, relying on the rich experience of Soviet musical and choreographic art, Khachaturian proceeds from the understanding of ballet as an integral musical and scenic work with internal musical dramaturgy, with consistently sustained symphonic development. Each choreographic scene must be subordinated to dramatic necessity, to reveal the main idea.
« Challenging task“For me it was to symphonize ballet music,” the composer wrote. “I firmly set this task for myself, and it seems to me that anyone who writes an opera or ballet should do this.”
Depending on the dramatic role of a particular scene, a particular number, Khachaturian turns to various musical forms - from the simplest verse, two- and three-part to complex sonata constructions. Achieving internal unity of musical development, he combines individual numbers into detailed musical forms and musical and choreographic scenes. Indicative in this regard are the entire I act, framed by an intonation and tonal arch, and the Clap Dance, close in its structure to the rondo form, and, finally, the II act, continuous in its dramatic growth.
Significant place In the musical dramaturgy of ballet, leitmotifs are occupied. They give the music unity and contribute to a more complete, ballet symphonization. These are the heroic leitmotifs of Armen, Kazakov, and the ominous leitmotif of Giko and the enemy forces, which sharply contrasts them.
Gayane's lyrical theme receives the most complete development: it sounded tenderly and softly in Act I, and later becomes more and more agitated;
dramatically tense. In the finale it sounds enlightened. Gayane’s leitmotif also plays an important role—the motive of her anger and protest.
They are found in ballet and leitintonations, such as, for example, the intonations of the folk song “Kalosi prken”, appearing in the Carpet Weavers’ Dance, in the duet of Armen and Aisha and in the Saber Dance. The strongest aspect of ballet music is its nationality. Listening to the music of “Gayane”, one cannot but agree with the words of Martiros Saryan: “When I think about the work of Khachaturian, the image of a mighty, beautiful tree arises in front of me, with powerful roots deeply rooted in native land
, having absorbed its best juices. The power of the Earth lives in the beauty of its “fruits and leaves, the majestic crown. Khachaturian’s work embodies the best feelings and thoughts of his native people, their deepest internationalism.” Authentic examples of folk music are widely used in “Gayane”. The composer turns to labor, comic, lyrical, heroic songs and dances, to folk music - Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Kurdish. Using
folk melodies
As already mentioned, in “Picking Cotton” the folk melody “Pshati Tsar” is used, subjected to intensive development: the composer boldly uses rhythmic and intonation variation, motivic fragmentation, and the combination of individual motivic “grains”. The clap dance is based on the melodies of the lyrical folk song-dance “Gna ari may ari” and two mass dances - gends. The Swift Dance of Men (Act I) grows out of the motifs of folk men's dances (“Trngi” and “Zokskaya Wedding”). The coloring of Armenian heroic and wedding dances, the nature of the sound of folk instruments are wonderfully conveyed (here the composer introduced folk instruments into the score percussion instruments
- dool, dayru). The music of this dance is also a typical example of the symphonic development of folk rhythmic intonations. Great symphonic development occurs in Act IV folk dances
“Shalaho”, “Uzun-dara”, Russian dance, hopak, as well as the Ukrainian song “As the goat went, went.” By enriching and developing folk themes, the composer showed excellent knowledge of the characteristics of the music of various peoples. “When processing folk (Armenian, Ukrainian, Russian) motifs,” writes K. Saradzhev, “the composer created his own themes that accompany (counterpoint) the folk ones, to such an extent stylistically related in spirit and color that their organic cohesion leads to amazement and makes admire."
Khachaturian often “inlays” individual chants and fragments of folk melodies into his music. Thus, in the Armen Variation (No. 23) a motivic fragment of the “Vagharshapat Dance” was introduced, in the Dance of Old Men and Old Women - the folk dance “Doi, Doi”, in the Dance of the Old Men - the folk dances “Kochari”, “Ashtaraki”, “Kandrbas”, and in Armenian-Kurdish dance - melodies. accompanying the folk wrestling game (Armenian “Koh”, Georgian “Sachidao”).
The composer turned to the motivic fragment of the folk song “Kalosi, prken” three times (in the Dance of the Carpet Weavers, in the duet of Armen and Aisha - the first section of the folk melody, in the Dance with Sabers - the last section), and each time it has a new rhythmic appearance.
The Nune Variations are also characteristic in this regard: - in the first bars there is a closeness to the initial rhythmic intonations of the folk dance songs “Sar Sipane Khalate” (“The top of Sipai in the clouds”) and “Pao mushli, mushli oglan” (“You are from Mush, from Mush the guy "), and in the second sentence (bars 31-46) - to the intonations of the folk song “Ah, akhchik, tsamov akhchik” (“Ah, the girl with a braid”) and the well-known Sayat-Nova song “Kani vur janem” (“Bye I'm your darling."
A wonderful example of the nationality of a musical language is the Lullaby.
Here, literally in every intonation, in the techniques of singing and intonation development, one can feel the features characteristic of Armenian folk lyrical songs. The introduction (bars 1-9) is based on the intonation of folk tales; the initial moves of the melody (bars 13-14, 24-G-25) are typical for the beginning of many folk lyrical songs (“Karmir vard” “Red Rose”, “Bobik mi kale, pushe” - “Bobik, don’t go, it’s snowy”, etc. .);. at the end of the middle section (bars 51-52 and 62-63), the motive of the poetic women's dance song “Chem, than krna hagal” (“No, I can’t dance”) is organically introduced.
With great skill, with deep penetration into the style of Armenian folk and ashug music, Khachaturian uses techniques characteristic of folk intonation: melodic singing of modal stops, the main motivic
“grains”, predominantly incremental movement of melodies, their sequential development, improvisational nature of presentation, methods of variation, etc.
The music of “Gayane” is a wonderful example of the processing of folk melodies. Khachaturian developed the traditions of the classics of Russian music and Spendiarov, who gave amazing examples of such processing. Typical for Khachaturian are also the techniques of maintaining a melody (with changing harmony and orchestration), combining several folk melodies or fragments thereof, and involving folk intonations in a powerful flow of symphonic development.
The entire modal intonation and meter-rhythmic aspects of ballet music are based on a folk basis.
The composer also masterfully uses mixed meters, asymmetrical structures, elements of polyrhythm (Cotton Dance, Uzundara, etc.), often found in Armenian folk music, various techniques and forms of rhythmic variation. Velika dynamic role rhythm in the Kurdish dance, Saber Dance and many other episodes.
In “Gayane” the richest world of Armenian dances came to life, sometimes tender, graceful, feminine (Dance of the Carpet Weavers) - sometimes scherzo (Dance. Nune and
Kareia, variations of Nune), then courageous, temperamental, heroic (Dance of Men, “Trn-gi”, Dance with Sabers, etc.). When you listen to ballet music, Gorky’s above words about Armenian folk dances involuntarily come to mind.
The national character of the ballet is also associated with Khachaturian’s deep comprehension of the modal features of Armenian music. Thus, in the dance “Shalaho” a minor scale is used, which is based on harmonic tetrachords (a scale with two increased seconds); in Waltz (No. 34) - major, with two increased seconds (low II and VI degrees), natural and lowered VII degree; in the Dance of Men - major with signs of Ionian and Mixolydian modes; in Aisha's Dance - minor with signs of natural, melodic and harmonic moods; in “Picking Cotton”—a minor natural in one voice and with a Dorian VI degree in the other; in the dance “Uzuidara” there is a harmonic minor in the melody and a minor with the Phrygian II degree in the harmony. Khachaturian also uses variable modes, common in Armenian music, with two or more foundations and centers, with different intonation “filling” for one tonic and different tonic centers for one scale.
By combining raised and lowered steps, using small seconds, and skipping thirds, the composer creates a sound effect that approaches the untempered structure of folk music.
Harmony is organically connected with the folk basis. This can be, in particular, traced in the logic of functional-harmonic and modulation relations and in chords based on the steps of folk modes. Numerous alterations in harmonies are in most cases caused by the desire to convey the features of extended, variable modes, modulations in Armenian folk music.
It should be emphasized the variety of methods of using and interpreting the major sphere of folk modes in the harmonies of “Gayane”.
“Each national melody must be correctly understood from the point of view of its internal mode-harmonic structure,” writes Khachaturian. In this, in particular, he saw “one of the most important manifestations of the activity of the composer’s ear.”
“In my personal quest for national definition of mode-harmonic means,” emphasizes Khachaturian, “I have more than once proceeded from the auditory idea of the specific sound of folk instruments with a characteristic structure and the ensuing scale of overtones. I really love, for example, the sound of the tar, from which virtuosos are able to extract amazingly beautiful and deeply moving harmonies; they contain their own pattern, their own hidden meaning.”
Khachaturian often uses fourths, quarto-fifth chords or sixth chords (with the top fourth being emphasized). This technique comes from the practice of tuning and playing on some eastern string instruments.
Various types of organ points and ostinatos, which also go back to the practice of folk performance, play a large role in the Gayane score. In some cases, organ points and bass ostinatos enhance dramatic tension and sound dynamics (introduction to Act III, the “Uncovering the Plot” scene, Saber Dance, etc.), in others they create a feeling of peace and silence (“Dawn”).
Khachaturian's harmonies are rich in small seconds. This feature, characteristic of the work of many Armenian composers (Komitas, R. Melikyan, etc.), has not only coloristic significance, but is associated with overtones that arise when playing some musical instruments peoples of Transcaucasia (Tar, Kamancha, Saz). The second tonal shifts sound very fresh in Khachaturian’s music.
Khachaturian often uses melodic chord connections; the vertical is often based on a combination of independent melodic voices (“singing harmonies”), and different modes and spheres are emphasized in different voices.
One of the characteristic features of Armenian folk modes - the change in mode centers - Khachaturian often emphasizes in harmony by using variable functions.
In contrast to this type of harmonies, mainly associated with poetic pictures of nature, the score of “Gayane” contains many examples of emphatically expressive harmony, which helps to reveal the emotional experiences of the characters,
These are harmonies that emphasize the lyrical, lyrical-dramatic nature of the melos. They are replete with expressive suspensions, altered consonances, dynamic sequences, etc. Examples include many pages of music that reveal the image of Gayane. Thus, in Gayane’s solo (scene No. 3-a), the composer uses a major subdominant in the minor key (along with the natural one), as well as an increased triad of the third degree, which brings some enlightenment to the sad structure of the melody. In Adagio Gayane (IV act) a tertian comparison of harmonies D-dur and b-moll, together with other expressive means, convey the delight that gripped the heroine. Emphasizing the spiritual drama of Gayane (scenes No. 12-14), Khachaturian makes extensive use of diminished and altered chords, replete with delays, sequences, etc.
A different type of harmony characterizes enemy forces. These are mainly sharp-sounding, dissonant chords, whole-tone, tritone-based harmonies, and rigid parallelisms.
For Khachaturian, harmony is an effective means of musical dramaturgy.
In “Gayane” Khachaturian’s penchant for polyphony was revealed. Its origins lie in certain features of Armenian folk music, in examples of classical and modern polyphony, and finally, in Khachaturian’s individual penchant for linearity, for the simultaneous combination of diverse musical lines. We must not forget that Khachaturian was a student of Myaskovsky, the greatest master of polyphonic writing, who perfectly sensed the dramatic possibilities of developed polyphony.
In addition, in creatively interpreting Armenian folk music, Khachaturian largely relied on the experience and principles of Komitas, who, as is known, was one of the first to give brilliant examples of polyphonic music based on Armenian folk mode intonations.
Khachaturian skillfully uses polyphonic techniques, presenting Armenian folk melodies. He surprisingly organically combines counterpoint lines - he introduces “complementary” chromatic or diatonic moves, sustained notes, ornamenting voices.
The composer often uses multi-layered constructions - melodic, rhythmic, timbre-register and much less often turns to inventional polyphony. As a powerful means of dramaturgy, confrontation of intonational images in music “Gayane” has contrasting polyphony (for example, in the symphonic painting “Fire”).
The enormous life-affirming force, the enormous charge of energy inherent in Khachaturian’s music was also manifested in the orchestration of “Gayane”. She is not particularly fond of watercolor tones. It amazes, first of all, with its intense colors, as if penetrated by the rays of the sun, rich colors, and is replete with contrasting juxtapositions. In accordance with the dramatic task, Khachaturian uses both solo instruments (for example, the bassoon at the beginning of the first Adagio of Gayane, the clarinet in her last Adagio), and powerful tutti (in emotional climaxes associated with the image of Gayane, in many mass dances, in dramatically intense scenes, such as “Fire”). We encounter in the ballet both transparent, almost openwork orchestration (wood, strings, harp in a wide arrangement in “Dawn”), and dazzlingly multicolored (Russian Dance, Saber Dance, etc.). Orchestration gives a special richness to genre, everyday scenes, landscape sketches. Khachaturian finds timbres that are close in color and character to the sound of Armenian folk instruments. The oboe in carrying out the theme in “Cotton Picking,” two flutes in the Dance of the Old Men, the clarinet in “Uzundara,” the trumpet and mute in the Cotton Dance, the saxophone in the Saber Dance resemble the sounds of the duduk and zurna. As noted, the composer also included genuine
folk instruments
With exceptional skill, orchestral timbres are used as a means of characterizing the characters. Thus, Gayane’s musical depiction is dominated by lyrical, emotionally expressive timbres of strings, wood, and harp. Let us recall the first Adagio Gayane with touching phrases of the bassoon and solo violin, the most poetic invention set forth by the strings in the Dance of Gayane (Act I, No. 6), the arpeggio of the harp in another dance from the same act (No. 8), the sad phrases of the oboe at the beginning and the cellos in at the end of the Lullaby, the enlightened sounds of wood against the background of arpeggios of the harp and sustained chords of the horns in the Adagio Gayane (Act IV). The characteristics of Armen and Kazakov are dominated by the light timbres of wood and “heroic” brass, while in Giko and the intruders the dark sounds of bass clarinets, contrabassoons, trombones, and tubas dominate.
The composer showed a lot of ingenuity and imagination in the orchestration of the playfully Scherzo Variations of Nune, the languid Waltz of Aisha, the Dance of the Carpet Weavers, the Dance of the Pink Girls and other numbers, full of charm.
Instrumentation plays a big role in enhancing the contrasts of melodic lines," in the relief of polyphonic imitations, in the combination or confrontation of musical images. Let us point out the comparison of brass (Armen's leitmotif) and strings (Aisha's leitmotif) in the duet of Armen and Aisha, bassoon (Giko's motif) and English horn (Gayane's theme) in the finale of Act III, to the “clash” of strings, wood and horn, on the one hand, trombones and trumpets on the other, at the culmination of the symphonic picture “Fire”.
Orchestral colors are used in a variety of ways when it is necessary to create strong emotional tensions, to unite individual numbers with end-to-end symphonic development, and to figuratively transform leitmotifs. Above, attention was drawn, for example, to the changes Gayane’s leitthema underwent, in particular due to changes in the orchestration: violin in the first Adagio, muted violins and cellos in the invention, harp in the dance (No. 8-a), solo bass clarinet in the finale of Act II, the dialogue between cor anglais and flute in the finale of Act III, the horn and then the cor anglais at the beginning of Act IV, solo clarinet, flute, cello, and oboe in the Adagio of Act IV. The score of “Gayane” showed the composer’s excellent mastery of “timbre dramaturgy.”
As stated, the ballet gives a vivid idea of the deeply creative implementation of the traditions of Russian classical music: This is reflected in the mastery of the development and enrichment of folk themes and the creation of detailed musical forms on their basis, in the techniques of symphonization of dance music, in rich genre sound writing, in the intensity of lyrical expression, finally, in the interpretation of ballet as a musical and choreographic drama. “Thus, “The Awakening of Aisha,” where daringly bold combinations of extreme registers are used, makes us recall the picturesque palette of Stravinsky, and the Saber Dance, in its insane energy and joy of sharp sound, goes back to the great prototype - Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. Along with this, Lezginka revives Balakirev’s manner, and the second Adagio Gayane “and the Lullaby conceal the tenderly sad outlines of Rimsky-Korsakov’s oriental melodies.”
But whatever the influences and influences, no matter how broad and organic the composer’s creative ties with folk and classical music, always and invariably in each note, first of all, one can recognize the unique originality of Khachaturian’s individual creative appearance, his own style. In his music, first of all, one can hear intonations and rhythms born of our modernity.
The ballet has firmly entered the repertoire of Soviet and foreign theaters. For the first time, as already mentioned, it was staged by the Leningrad Theater named after S. M. Kirov.2 New productions were carried out by the same theater in 1945 and 1952. In the spring of 1943, “Gayane” was awarded the State Prize.
Subsequently, the ballet was staged at the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater named after A. A. Spendiarov (1947), at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR (1958) and in many other cities of the Soviet Union. “Gayane” is a success on stages in foreign countries. Three suites for symphony orchestra composed by Khachaturian from the music of the ballet "Gayane" are performed by orchestras all over the world. Already the first production of the ballet evoked enthusiastic responses from the press: “The music of Gayane captivates the listener with its extraordinary fullness of life, light, and joy. She was born of love for her homeland, for her wonderful people
, to its rich, colorful nature,” wrote Kabalevsky.—. The music of “Gayane” has a lot of melodic beauty, harmonic freshness, and metro-rhythmic ingenuity. ballet has developed in a unique way. In almost every production, attempts were made to correct the shortcomings of the libretto and to find a stage solution that more fully corresponded to Khachaturian’s score. Various stage editions arose, which in some cases led to some changes in the music of the ballet.
In some productions, stage provisions were introduced that gave individual scenes a topical character. Partial plot and dramatic changes were made, sometimes even conflicting with the character and style of Khachaturian’s music.
A one-act version of the ballet is being performed at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Opera and Ballet Theater; radical plot changes were made at the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theater.
To stage the ballet on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, V. Pletnev compiled a new libretto. Telling about the life of hunters in the mountains of Armenia, it glorifies love and friendship, loyalty and courage, and stigmatizes betrayal, selfishness, and crimes against duty.
The new libretto required the composer not only to radically redesign the ballet score, but also to create many new musical numbers. First of all, this is a series of dramatized dance episodes created on the basis of symphonically developed popular songs by the composer himself. Thus, the beginning of Act I is a picture of an Armenian landscape illuminated by the sun, as well as a similar episode in last picture built on the famous Khachaturian “Song of Yerevan”. This song is one of the best examples of the composer's vocal lyrics.
In its entire mode-intonation structure, organic connections with the Armenian ashug melos (in particular, the passionately enthusiastic songs of Sayat-Nova) and Soviet mass song are easily recognizable. “Song of Yerevan” is a heartfelt anthem of free Armenia and its beautiful capital.
In the new score, the system of leitmotifs was greatly developed. Let us point out the temperamental marching motif of the young hunters. It appears in the introduction and is subsequently greatly dramatized. In the first dance duet of Armen and George, the leitmotif of friendship sounds. Depending on the plot development, it undergoes great changes, especially in the quarrel scene, in the final episodes associated with George’s crime (here it sounds mournful and tragic).
The motive of friendship is opposed to the motive of crime, reminiscent of Giko's theme in previous editions of the ballet. Gayane's leittheme, based on Aisha's intonations from previous editions of the ballet, is of central importance in the score.
It sounds either passionately, enthusiastically (in the love Adagio of Gayane and George), then scherzo (Waltz), or sadly, pleadingly (in the finale). The leitmotifs of love, George’s experiences, thunderstorms, etc. also received intensive development. Considering the first edition of the ballet to be the main one, Khachaturian nevertheless specifically emphasized that he did not deny theaters the right to continue searching for new stage, choreographic and plot solutions. In the preface to the publication of the clavier in a new edition (M., 1962), which is fundamentally different from the first, the composer wrote: “As an author, I am not yet completely convinced which of the plots is better and truer. It seems to me that time will decide this issue.” And further; “This publication, along with the existing first edition edition, will provide theaters and choreographers with options in future productions.” The ballet “Gayane” entered Soviet musical and choreographic art as one of the best works on a Soviet theme. “A. Khachaturian’s ballet “Gayane,” wrote Yu. V. Keldysh, “is one of the outstanding works of the Soviet