I am pretty sure every single one of my readers is familiar with the work of Soviet-Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. I would actually bet money on this. If you think you are not familiar with his work stop reading this post now and call me on the phone and bet me some money on this. A lot of money, I would put it up. The reason I am so confident in this is because if you have ever been to the circus and seen dogs jumping through hoops, or a person spinning plates on TV, or a guy on a unicycle Khachaturian's Sabre Dance has probably been playing in the background. It has also been used in the Simpsons, and is the theme music for the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. If you are still unsure how Sabre Dance goes here is a youtube clip:
Now if you recognize this and are a friend of mine, chances are you have experienced my favorite pop culture reference to Sabre Dance. Remember Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Remember that amazing scene of Pee-Wee making his breakfast and then pouring Mr. T cereal all over his waffles? OK, so the music playing isn't Sabre Dance. It is Breakfast Machine by Danny Elfman (who scores all of Tim Burton's films), but check out the scene below and pay attention to the music (it also plays throughout the rest of the movie). There is no way that Sabre Dance wasn't the direct influence for the mood and character of Breakfast Machine. See for yourself:
So there is your introduction to the great composer Aram Khachaturian. Although Sabre Dance is his most well-known work I would definitely not consider it his finest. I haven't actually heard the Cello Concerto recommended by Huff in it's entirety, just this clip of a child-prodigy playing one movement of it on Youtube (sorry for all the youtube today).
The clip did interest me enough to download the whole three-movement work when my downloads refresh on emusic.com. If you are looking to expand your classical horizons you could do worse than to start with the work of Khachaturian. The larger-scale orchestral works might be a good place to begin. The Suite from Spartacus is another very popular work which has been featured in a number of movies. Additionally, Sabre Dance is just one small part of the ballet Gayane, and although I have beaten the Youtube clips into the ground today one more example of Khachaturian's work, also from Gayane, is this classic scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssy:
Additionally since the whole basis of this blog is recommendations and since I already mentioned Danny Elfman in this post, I would urge you to check him out as well. My personal favorite is the score to Edward Scissorhands, but there are plenty of others out there as well (the original Batman, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Big Fish all come to mind immediately).
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2 comments:
There is a movie about Khachaturian, I think it's called "Khachaturian: A Musician and his Fatherland," that has a lot of great perforamances of his music. I'm pretty sure Rostropovich performs the cello concerto. I don't remember if he plays the entire thing. Definitely worth checking out and it is available through Netflix.
this movie is good. real gosh darn good. you can find it on tv sometimes, i think PBSish or the history channel?
you can also find it in my collection of archaic VHS tapes in the box in my closet.
kudos also to our host for his more than primo, detailed description of the content recommended.
also - this site has taught me how to properly spell "recommend" after 27 years.
also - the fred frith - if you like it - go see the film, its almost as intriguing visually as it is sonically. also, the anthony braxton duo adam mentioned is worth your ears, as is the album PRINTS, and a whole slew of others - but i'd start with those
also - the khachaturian - don't stop at the cello concerto, his 2nd symphony is scary
also - thats it i think
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