View source for Aram Khachaturian

{{Short description|Soviet Armenian composer (1903–1978)}}
{{Redirect for|Khachaturian|other people with this name|Khachaturian (surname)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Aram Khachaturian
| native_name        = {{ubl|style=font-weight: normal|{{native name|ru|Арам Хачатурян|italics=no|nolink=yes|paren=omit}}|{{native name|hy|Արամ Խաչատրյան|italics=no|nolink=yes|paren=omit}}}}
| image              = Aram Khachaturian 1971.jpg
| image_upright         =
| image_caption      = Khachaturian in 1971
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1903|06|06|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [[Tiflis]] or [[Kojori]], Russian Empire
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1978|05|01|1903|06|06|df=yes}}
| death_place        = Moscow, Soviet Union
| works              = [[List of compositions by Aram Khachaturian|List of compositions]]
| burial_place       = [[Komitas Pantheon]], Yerevan, Armenia
| alma_mater         = {{ubl|[[Gnessin State Musical College|Gnessin Musical Institute]]|[[Moscow Conservatory]]}}
| years_active       = 1926–1978
| style              = 
| party              = [[CPSU]] (from 1943)
| movement           = 
| spouse             = {{marriage |[[Nina Makarova]] |1933 |1976 |end=d.}}
| children           = 2
| awards             = {{see below|{{slink||Awards and honors}}}}
| signature          = Aram Khachaturian signature.svg
| signature_size     = 150px
}}
'''Aram Ilyich Khachaturian''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ær|ə|m|_|ˌ|k|ɑː|tʃ|ə|ˈ|t|ʊər|i|ə|n}};<ref>{{cite web |title=Khachaturian |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/khachaturian |work=[[Collins English Dictionary]] Complete & Unabridged 10th ed. |date=2009}}</ref>{{efn-ua|{{langx|ru|Арам Ильич Хачатурян}}; {{IPA|ru|ɐˈram ɨˈlʲjitɕ xətɕɪtʊˈrʲan|Ru-Aram Ilyich Khachaturian.ogg|links=yes}}<br>{{langx|hy|Արամ Խաչատրյան}}, {{Transliteration|hy|ISO|Aram Xačatryan}}; {{IPA|hy|ɑˈɾɑm χɑtʃʰɑt(ə)ˈɾjɑn|IPA}}<br>{{transliteration|hy|ISO|Xačatryan}} is the [[Romanization of Armenian#ISO 9985 (1996)|standard transliteration]] of his last name.<ref>{{cite web |title=Khatchatourian, Aram (1903–1978) |url=http://catalogue.bnf.fr/servlet/RechercheEquation?TexteCollection=HGARSTUVWXYZ1DIECBMJNQLOKP&TexteTypeDoc=DESNFPIBTMCJOV&Equation=IDP%3Dcb13895967s&host=catalogue |publisher=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]] |quote=Xačatryan, Aram (1903–1978) forme internationale translit.-ISO arménien }}.</ref> It is sometimes spelled ''Khachatryan'' by official Armenian sources.<ref>{{cite web |title=Aram Khachatryan 110-Anniversary Celebrations Committee Holds Meeting |url=http://www.gov.am/en/news/item/6645/ |publisher=Government of Armenia |date=27 March 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=110th anniversary of Aram Khachatryan celebrated in Yerevan |url=http://armenpress.am/eng/news/721607/ |agency=[[Armenpress]] |issue=6 June 2013 }}</ref>}} {{OldStyleDate|6 June|1903|24 May}}{{spaced ndash}}1 May 1978) was a Soviet [[Armenians|Armenian]] composer and conductor.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema|author=Peter Rollberg|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2009|place=US|isbn=978-0-8108-6072-8|pages=334–336}}</ref> He is considered one of the leading [[Music of the Soviet Union#Classical music of the Soviet Union|Soviet composers]].<ref name="Huang" /><ref name="Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century" />{{sfn|New York Times obituary|1978}}

Born and raised in [[Tbilisi]] (now the capital of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]), he moved to Moscow in 1921 following the [[Sovietization]] of the [[Caucasus]]. Without prior music training, he enrolled in the [[Gnessin State Musical College|Gnessin Musical Institute]], and subsequently studied at the [[Moscow Conservatory]] in the class of [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]], among others. His first major work, the [[Piano Concerto (Khachaturian)|Piano Concerto]] (1936), popularized his name within and outside the Soviet Union. It was followed by the [[Violin Concerto (Khachaturian)|Violin Concerto]] (1940) and the [[Cello Concerto (Khachaturian)|Cello Concerto]] (1946). His other significant compositions include the ''[[Masquerade (Khachaturian)|Masquerade Suite]]'' (1941), the [[Anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Anthem of the Armenian SSR]] (1944), three symphonies (1935, 1943, [[Symphony No. 3 (Khachaturian)|1947]]), and around 25 film scores. Khachaturian is best known for his ballet music: ''[[Gayane (ballet)|Gayane]]'' (1942) and ''[[Spartacus (ballet)|Spartacus]]'' (1954). His most popular piece, the "[[Sabre Dance]]" from ''Gayane'', has been used extensively in popular culture and has been performed by a number of musicians worldwide.<ref name="npr" /> His style is "characterized by colorful harmonies, captivating rhythms, virtuosity, improvisations, and sensuous melodies".{{sfn|Bakst|1977|p=339}}

During most of his career, Khachaturian was approved by the Soviet government and held several high posts in the [[Union of Soviet Composers]] from the late 1930s, although he joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] only in 1943. Along with [[Sergei Prokofiev]] and [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], he was officially denounced as a "[[Formalism (music)|formalist]]" and his music dubbed "anti-people" in 1948 but was restored later that year. After 1950 he taught at the Gnessin Institute and the Moscow Conservatory and turned to conducting. He traveled to Europe, Latin America, and the United States with concerts of his own works. In 1957 Khachaturian became the Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, a position he held until his death.

Khachaturian composed the first Armenian [[ballet music]], symphony, concerto, and film score.{{efn-ua|{{lang|hy|"Նա ազգային առաջին բալետի, սիմֆոնիայի, գործիքային կոնցերտների հեղինակն է, հայկ. կինոերաժշտության հիմնադիրը:"}} He is the author of the first national ballet, symphony, concerto, first Arm. film score.{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}}<br />{{lang|ru|"В 1939 году Арам Хачатурян сочинил музыку к первому армянскому балету «Счастье»."}} In 1939 Aram Khachaturian wrote the music to the first Armenian ballet ''Happiness''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Гаянэ |trans-title=Gayane |url=http://www.mariinsky.ru/ru/playbill/playbill/2014/7/22/1_1930/ |publisher=[[Mariinsky Theatre]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140817055900/http://www.mariinsky.ru/ru/playbill/playbill/2014/7/22/1_1930/ |archive-date=17 August 2014 |language=ru |date=22 July 2014 }}</ref>}} He is considered the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century. While following the established musical traditions of Russia, he broadly incorporated [[Music of Armenia|Armenian]] and, to a lesser extent, [[Peoples of the Caucasus|Caucasian]], Eastern and Central European, and Middle Eastern peoples' folk music into his works. He is [[#Recognition in Armenia|highly regarded in Armenia]], where he is considered a "national treasure".{{sfn|Frolova-Walker|1998|p=371}}

==Biography==

===Background and early life (1903–1921)===
[[File:93 Uznadze Tbilisi.jpg|thumb|The building at 93 Uznadze Street in Tbilisi, where Khachaturian lived between 1906 and 1922]]

Aram Khachaturian was born on 6 June (24 May in [[Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe|Old Style]]){{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=18}} 1903 in the city of Tiflis (present-day [[Tbilisi]], Georgia) into an [[Armenians|Armenian]] family.<ref name="britannica">{{cite encyclopedia|first=Dutta|last=Promeet|title=Aram Khachaturian|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/316019/Aram-Khachaturian|date=18 November 2013|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313165044/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/316019/Aram-Khachaturian|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref><ref name="Randel"/> Some sources indicate [[Kojori]], a village near Tiflis, as his birthplace.<ref name="Geodakyan 1981"/><ref name="mosconsv">{{cite web|title=Хачатурян Арам Ильич [Khachaturian Aram Ilyich]|url=http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/person.aspx?id=45795|publisher=[[Moscow Conservatory]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815010335/http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/person.aspx?id=45795|archive-date=15 August 2014|language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century-Volume 3|year=2009|publisher=Salem Press|isbn=9781587655159|page=766|editor=Cramer, Alfred W.|quote=The Life Aram Ilich Khachaturian was born on June 6, 1903, in Kodjori, a suburb of Tbilisi.}}</ref> Khachaturian himself said he was born in Kojori.{{efn-ua|At 5:15: "Это селение Коджори, под Тбилиси, км 20. Я в Коджорах родился."<ref name="77doc"/>}} His father, Yeghia (Ilya), was born in the village of [[Aza, Azerbaijan|Upper Aza]] near [[Ordubad]] in [[Nakhichevan uezd|Nakhichevan]] (present-day [[Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic]], Azerbaijan) and moved to Tiflis at the age of 13; he owned a bookbinding shop by the age of 25. His mother, Kumash Sarkisovna, was from [[Azadkənd, Nakhchivan|Lower Aza]], also a village near Ordubad. Khachaturian's parents were betrothed before knowing each other, when Kumash was 9 and Yeghia was 19. They had five children, one daughter and four sons, of whom Aram was the youngest.<ref name="family">{{cite web|url=http://www.khachaturian.am/eng/tree.htm|title=Family tree|publisher=Virtual Museum of Aram Khachaturian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312175914/http://www.khachaturian.am/eng/tree.htm|archive-date=12 March 2014}}</ref> From 1906 to 1922, Khachaturian lived at [[:File:93 Uznadze Tbilisi.jpg|93 Uznadze Street]] in Tbilisi.{{efn|A commemorative plaque in Georgian only<ref>{{cite news |title=Ովքեր են ապրում Թբիլիսիի այն տանը, որտեղ ապրել է Արամ Խաչատրյանը, ինչ են պատմում նրանք. մանրամասներ (լուսանկարներ) |url=https://armtimes.com/hy/article/196294 |work=The Armenian Times |date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129014206/https://armtimes.com/hy/article/196294 |archive-date=29 January 2023 |language=hy}}</ref> was placed in 1999.<ref>{{cite news |title=Khachaturian Memorial Plaque Put Up in Tbilisi – Asbarez.com |url=https://asbarez.com/khachaturian-memorial-plaque-put-up-in-tbilisi/ |work=[[Asbarez]] |agency=(via Noyan Tapan) |date=June 11, 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004161546/https://www.asbarez.com/khachaturian-memorial-plaque-put-up-in-tbilisi/ |archive-date=4 October 2022}}</ref> It was replaced with a [[:File:93 Uznadze plaque.jpg|trilingual one]] (Georgian, Armenian, English) in 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=A memorial plaque of the famous composer Aram Khachaturian was opened in Tbilisi |url=http://tbsakrebulo.gov.ge/index.php?m=255&news_id=7412&news=%E1%83%97%E1%83%91%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%E1%83%A8%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%AA%E1%83%9C%E1%83%9D%E1%83%91%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%99%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9D%E1%83%96%E1%83%98%E1%83%A2%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1,%20%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%90%E1%83%9B%20%E1%83%AE%E1%83%90%E1%83%A9%E1%83%90%E1%83%A2%E1%83%A3%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%90%E1%83%9C%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%20%E1%83%9B%E1%83%94%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%90%E1%83%9A%E1%83%A3%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%93%E1%83%90%E1%83%A4%E1%83%90%20%E1%83%92%E1%83%90%E1%83%98%E1%83%AE%E1%83%A1%E1%83%9C%E1%83%90&lng=eng |website=tbsakrebulo.gov.ge |publisher=Tbilisi City Assembly |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240109082220/http://tbsakrebulo.gov.ge/index.php?m=255&news_id=7412&news=%E1%83%97%E1%83%91%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%E1%83%A8%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%AA%E1%83%9C%E1%83%9D%E1%83%91%E1%83%98%E1%83%9A%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%99%E1%83%9D%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9E%E1%83%9D%E1%83%96%E1%83%98%E1%83%A2%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1,%20%E1%83%90%E1%83%A0%E1%83%90%E1%83%9B%20%E1%83%AE%E1%83%90%E1%83%A9%E1%83%90%E1%83%A2%E1%83%A3%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%90%E1%83%9C%E1%83%98%E1%83%A1%20%E1%83%9B%E1%83%94%E1%83%9B%E1%83%9D%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%E1%83%90%E1%83%9A%E1%83%A3%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98%20%E1%83%93%E1%83%90%E1%83%A4%E1%83%90%20%E1%83%92%E1%83%90%E1%83%98%E1%83%AE%E1%83%A1%E1%83%9C%E1%83%90&lng=eng |archive-date=9 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Arayik Harutyunyan attends the opening ceremony of the memorial plaque dedicated to Aram Khachatryan in Tbilisi |url=https://www.gov.am/en/news/item/10434/ |website=gov.am |publisher=Government of Armenia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240109081203/https://www.gov.am/en/news/item/10434/ |archive-date=9 January 2024 |date=27 November 2023}}</ref>}} Khachaturian received primary education at the commercial school of Tiflis, a school for merchants.{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}} He considered a career either in medicine or engineering.<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/>

In the 19th and early 20th centuries and throughout the early Soviet period, Tiflis (known as Tbilisi after 1936) was the largest city and the administrative center of the [[Caucasus]]. In Tiflis, which has historically been multicultural, Khachaturian was exposed to various cultures.<ref name="Pritsker"/> The city had a large [[Armenians in Tbilisi|Armenian population]] and was a major Armenian cultural center until the [[Russian Revolution]] and the following years. In a 1952 article "My Idea of the Folk Element in Music", Khachaturian described the city environment and its influence on his career: 
{{blockquote|I grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music: popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the life of the people always accompanied by music, the vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian songs and dances performed by folk bards <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Ashik|ashugs]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> and musicians — such were the impressions that became deeply engraved on my memory, that determined my musical thinking. They shaped my musical consciousness and lay at the foundations of my artistic personality... Whatever the changes and improvements that took place in my musical taste in later years, their original substance, formed in early childhood in close communion with the people, has always remained the natural soil nourishing all my work.<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/>}}

In 1917, the Bolsheviks rose to power in Russia in the [[October Revolution]]. After over two years of fragile independence, Armenia fell to Soviet rule in late 1920. Georgia was also Sovietized by the spring of 1921. Both countries [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR|formally became part]] of the Soviet Union in December 1922.<ref>{{cite book|last=Minahan|first=James|title=The Former Soviet Union's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook|date=2004|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=9781576078235|page=160}}</ref>

===Education (1922–1936)===
In 1921, the eighteen-year-old Khachaturian moved to Moscow to join his oldest brother, Suren, who had settled in Moscow earlier and was a stage director at the [[Moscow Art Theatre]] by the time of his arrival.{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}}<ref name="family"/> He enrolled at the [[Gnessin State Musical College|Gnessin Musical Institute]] in 1922, simultaneously studying biology at [[Moscow State University]].<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/><ref name="ria"/> He initially studied the cello under Sergei Bychkov and later under Andrey Borysyak.{{sfn|Shneerson|1959|p=24}}<ref name="Randel"/> In 1925, [[Mikhail Gnessin]] started a composition class at the institute, which Khachaturian joined.{{sfn|Shneerson|1959|p=25}}{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}} In this period, he wrote his first works: the ''Dance Suite'' for violin and piano (1926) and the Poem in C Sharp Minor (1927).<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/><ref name="ria"/> Beginning with his earliest works, Khachaturian extensively used Armenian folk music in his compositions.

In 1929, Khachaturian entered the [[Moscow Conservatory]] to study composition under [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]] and orchestration under [[Sergei Vasilenko]].{{sfn|Shneerson|1959|p=29}} He finished the conservatory in 1934 and went on to complete his graduate work in 1936.{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}}

===Early career (1936–1948)===
His Armenian-influenced First Symphony, which Khachaturian composed as a graduation work from the Moscow Conservatory in 1935, "drew the attention of prominent conductors and was soon performed by the best Soviet orchestras"<ref name="Pritsker"/> and was admired by Shostakovich.<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/> He began an active creative career upon completing his graduate studies at the conservatory in 1936.<ref name="ria"/> He wrote his first major work, the [[Piano Concerto (Khachaturian)|Piano Concerto]], that year.<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/> It proved to be a success, establishing him as a respected composer in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Randel"/> It was "played and acclaimed far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union",<ref name="Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century"/> and "established his name abroad".<ref name="Pritsker"/>

His Piano Concerto, along with the two later concertos—the [[Violin Concerto (Khachaturian)|Violin Concerto]] (1940), for which he won a [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Prize]], second class<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/><ref name="Pritsker"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Frolova-Walker |first1=Marina |title=Stalin's Music Prize: Soviet Culture and Politics |date=2016 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300208849 |pages=149–150 |author-link=Marina Frolova-Walker}}</ref> and the [[Cello Concerto (Khachaturian)|Cello Concerto]] (1946)—are "often considered a kind of a grand cycle".<ref name="Randel"/> The Violin Concerto "gained international recognition"<ref name="Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century"/> and became part of the international repertory.<ref name="Pritsker"/> It was first performed by [[David Oistrakh]].<ref name="Pritsker"/>

Khachaturian held important posts at the [[Union of Soviet Composers|Composers' Union]], becoming deputy chairman of the Moscow branch in 1937. He subsequently served as the Deputy Chairman of the Organizing Committee (Orgkom) of the Union between 1939 and 1948.<ref name="mosconsv"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Schwarz|first=Boris|title=Khachaturian, Aram|journal=[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]|location=London|year=1980|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> He joined the Communist Party in 1943.{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}} "Throughout the early and mid-1940s, Khachaturian used that position to help shape Soviet music, always stressing technically masterful composition. In fact, in his memoirs, he reported pride about leading an institution that organized creative work in many musical genres and especially in all Soviet republics."{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|pp=34–35}}

The years preceding and following World War II were very productive for Khachaturian. In 1939 he made a six-month trip to his native Armenia "to make a thorough study of Armenian musical folklore and to collect folk-song and dance tunes" for his first ballet, ''Happiness'' which he completed in the same year. "His communion with Armenia's national culture and musical practice proved for him, as he put it himself, 'a second conservatoire'. He learned a lot, saw and heard many things anew, and at the same time he had an insight into the tastes and artistic requirements of the Armenian people."{{sfn|Steyn|2009|p=11}} In 1942, at the height of the Second World War, he reworked it into the ballet ''[[Gayane (ballet)|Gayane]]''.{{sfn|Yuzefovich|1985|p=127}} It was first performed by the Kirov Ballet (today known as [[Mariinsky Ballet]]) in [[Perm, Russia|Perm]], while [[Siege of Leningrad|Leningrad was under siege]]. It was a great success that earned Khachaturian his second Stalin Prize, this time first-class.{{sfn|Frolova-Walker|2016|p=150}}<ref name="ria"/> Khachaturian returned the prize money to the state with a request to use it for building a tank for the Red Army.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Slonimsky|first1=Nicolas|author-link1=Nicolas Slonimsky|title=Soviet Music and Musicians|journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]]|date=1944|volume=3|issue=4|page=15|doi=10.2307/3020186|jstor=3020186}}</ref>

He composed the [[Symphony No. 2 (Khachaturian)|Second Symphony]] (1943) on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the [[October Revolution]] and incidental music to ''[[Masquerade (Khachaturian)|Masquerade]]'' (1944), "a symphonic suite in the tradition of lavish classical Russian music", on [[Mikhail Lermontov]]'s [[Masquerade (play)|play of the same title]].<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/> Both the ballet ''Gayane'' and the Second Symphony were "successful and were warmly praised by Shostakovich".<ref name="Randel"/> In 1944, Khachaturian composed the largely symbolic [[Anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic]].{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}}

===Denunciation and Restoration (1948)===
[[File:Aankomst Russische dirigent Khatsjatoerian op Schiphol, Khatsjatorian, Bestanddeelnr 916-6862.jpg|thumb|upright|Khachaturian in 1964]]

In mid-December 1947, the Department for Agitation and Propaganda (better known as [[Agitprop]]) submitted to [[Andrei Zhdanov]], the secretary of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party's Central Committee]], a document on the "shortcomings" in the development of Soviet music. On 10–13 January 1948, a conference was held at the [[Kremlin]] in the presence of seventy musicians, composers, conductors and others who were confronted by Zhdanov:<ref name="Fay">{{cite book|last=Fay|first=Laurel E.|title=Shostakovich: A Life|date=2005|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=New York|isbn=9780195182514|pages=[https://archive.org/details/shostakovichlife0000fayl/page/155 155–157, 160]|url=https://archive.org/details/shostakovichlife0000fayl/page/155}}</ref>
{{blockquote|We will consider that if these comrades [[Shostakovich]], [[Prokofiev]], [[Myaskovsky]], Khachaturian, [[Kabalevsky]] and [[Shebalin]] namely who are the principal and leading figures of the formalist direction in music. And that direction is fundamentally incorrect.}}

During the course of the conference, the newly appointed head of the Union of Soviet Composers, [[Tikhon Khrennikov]] complained that Khachaturian's ''Symphonic Poem'' had its premier in a half empty hall and that "everyone thought that Khachaturian's Cello Concerto was rubbish". In response, Khachaturian{{snd}} who admitted that speaking at such an event made him nervous{{snd}} conceded that composers of more complex work might be guilty of ignoring popular taste, thinking that it would catch up with them in time. Zhdanov interrupted to say that such an attitude was "extreme individualism".<ref>{{cite book |last1=McSmith |first1=Andy |title=Fear and the Muse Kept Watch, The Russian Masters – from Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein – Under Stalin |date=2015 |publisher=New Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-59558-056-6 |page=267}}</ref> Khachaturian and other leading composers were denounced by the Communist Party as followers of the alleged [[Formalism (music)|formalism]]<ref name="Randel"/> (i.e. "[a type of] music that was considered too advanced or difficult for the masses to enjoy")<ref name="Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century"/> and their music was dubbed "anti-people".<ref>{{cite book|last=Mazullo|first=Mark|title=Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues: Contexts, Style, Performance|date=2010|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|location=New Haven, Connecticut|isbn=9780300149432|page=14}}</ref> It was the Symphonic Poem (1947), later titled the [[Symphony No. 3 (Khachaturian)|Third Symphony]], that officially earned Khachaturian the wrath of the Party.<ref name="Fay"/><!-- "In one of the preliminary drafts of the resolution, specific works ... Khachaturyan's Symphony-Poem ... were singled out as exemplars of the formalistic trend."--><ref name="Greene's"/> Ironically, he wrote the work as a tribute to the 30th anniversary of the [[October Revolution]].<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/> He stated: "I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express the Soviet people's joy and pride in their great and mighty country."{{sfn|Yuzefovich|1985|p=191}}

Musicologist Blair Johnston believes that his "music contained few, if any, of the objectionable traits found in the music of some of his more adventuresome colleagues. In retrospect, it was most likely Khachaturian's administrative role in the Union [of Soviet Composers], perceived by the government as a bastion of politically incorrect music, and not his music as such, that earned him a place on the blacklist of 1948."<ref name="Johnston, AllMusic 2005"/> In March 1948,<ref name="Current Biography"/> Khachaturian "made a very full and humble apology for his artistic 'errors' following the Zhdanov decree; his musical style, however, underwent no changes".<ref name="Johnston, AllMusic 2005"/> He was sent to Armenia as a "punishment",<ref name="Randel"/> and continued to be censured.<ref name="Current Biography"/> [[Edward Rothstein]] argued that Khachaturian suffered less than Shostakovich and Prokofiev, "perhaps because of his folkloric and simple musical style."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rothstein |first1=Edward |author1-link=Edward Rothstein |title=Music Freedom and Why Dictators Fear It |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/arts/musical-freedom-and-why-dictators-fear-it.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 August 1981}}</ref>

By December 1948 (Zhdanov had died in August), he was restored to favor, receiving praise for his score for the film ''{{ill|Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (film)|ru|Владимир Ильич Ленин (фильм)|lt=Vladimir Ilyich Lenin}}'', a film biography of the Soviet leader.<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/><ref name="Current Biography"/>

===Later life (1950–1978)===
In 1950, Khachaturian began conducting<ref name="Johnston, AllMusic 2005"/> and started teaching composition at his alma maters—the [[Gnessin State Musical College|Gnessin Institute]] (since 1950), and later at the [[Moscow Conservatory]] (since 1951).<ref name="mosconsv"/> During his career as a university professor, Khachaturian emphasized the role of folk music to his students and instilled the idea that composers should master their nations' folk music heritage.<ref name="mosconsv"/>

In 1950, he began working on his third and last ballet, ''[[Spartacus (ballet)|Spartacus]]'' (1950–54), which later proved to be his last internationally acclaimed work.<ref name="Randel"/> He revised ''Spartacus'' in 1968.<ref name="Randel"/> He was named People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1954.<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/> Under [[Georgy Malenkov]]'s brief rule, in 1954, Khachaturian became a mouthpiece, along with [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], to "assure Soviet intellectuals that the ideological controls imposed by the draconic Zhdanov decrees of 1946–48 would be at least temporarily lifted."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fainsod |first1=Merle |author1-link=Merle Fainsod |title=The Soviet Union Since Stalin |journal=[[Problems of Communism]] |date=March–April 1954 |volume=3 |issue=2 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=G0hGAQAAIAAJ&dq=Ilya+Ehrenburg+and+Aram+Khachaturian+were+used+as+mouthpieces+to+assure+Soviet+intellectuals+that+the+ideological&pg=RA1-PA10 10]}}</ref>

After completing ''Spartacus'', since the late 1950s, Khachaturian focused less on composition, and more on conducting, teaching, bureaucracy and travel.<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/> He served as the President of the Soviet Association of Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with Latin American States from 1958{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=18}} and was a member of the [[Soviet Peace Committee]] (since 1962).<ref name="mosconsv"/> "He frequently appeared in world forums in the role of champion of an apologist for the Soviet idea of creative orthodoxy."<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004"/> Khachaturian toured with concerts of his own works in around 30 countries, including in all the [[Eastern Bloc]] states,{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}} Italy (1950), Britain (1955, 1977), Latin America (1957) and the United States (1960, 1968).<ref name="Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century"/><ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/>{{sfn|New York Times obituary|1978}} His January 1968 visit to U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. was a significant one. He conducted the [[National Symphony Orchestra]] in a program of his own works.<ref name="Johnston, AllMusic 2005"/> In a six-week tour he visited seven American cities.<ref name="Montreal"/>

Khachaturian went on to serve again as Secretary of the [[Union of Soviet Composers|Composers Union]], starting in 1957 until his death.{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=18}}<ref name="mosconsv"/> He was also a deputy in the fifth [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]] (1958–62).<ref name="ysu"/> In the last two decades of his life, Khachaturian wrote three concert rhapsodies—for violin (1961–62), cello (1963) and piano (1965)<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/>—and solo sonatas for unaccompanied cello, violin, and viola (1970s), which are considered to be his second and third instrumental trilogies.<ref name="Randel"/>

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Aram Khachaturian}}
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Sabre Dance by Khachaturian.ogg|title="Sabre Dance"|description=14-second sample}}
Khachaturian's works span a broad range of musical types, including ballets, symphonies, concertos, and film scores. Music critic [[Edward Greenfield]] expresses the opinion that Khachaturian "notably outshone other Soviet contemporaries in creating a sharply identifiable style, something which his successors have found impossible to emulate".<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/> He composed a great portion of his works in a ten-year span between 1936 and 1946, preceding and following the Second World War.{{sfn|Lebrecht|1996|p=431}} Despite his formal restoration after the 1948 denunciation, Khachaturian only succeeded in composing one internationally acclaimed work in the last 30 years of his life, the ballet ''Spartacus''.<ref name="Pritsker"/>

According to James Bakst, what made Khachaturian unique among Soviet composers is "the blending of national Armenian vocal and instrumental intonations with contemporary orchestral techniques".{{sfn|Bakst|1977|p=336}} Khachaturian's music is characterized by an active rhythmic development, which reaches either a mere repetition of the basic formula ([[ostinato]]) or "a game of emphasis within this formula".<ref>{{cite web|title=Хачатурян, Арам Ильич [Khachaturian, Aram Ilyich] |url=http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/HACHATURYAN_ARAM_ILICH.html |publisher=[[Krugosvet]] |language=ru |quote=Характернейшим качеством музыки Хачатуряна является активное ритмическое развитие, достигающееся часто простым повторением основной формулы (остинато) или игрой акцентов внутри этой формулы. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821203916/http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/HACHATURYAN_ARAM_ILICH.html |archive-date=21 August 2014 }}</ref>

[[File:RR5217-0028R.gif|thumb|The [[Central Bank of Russia]] issued a commemorative coin depicting ''Spartacus'' in 2001.]]

===Works===
====Ballet====
Khachaturian is best known internationally for his ballet music.{{efn-ua|"Khachaturian's world renown ... was due to his two Romantic ballets ''Gayaneh'' and ''Spartacus'', and his attractively melodious concertos."<ref name="Complete Classical Music Guide"/><br />"Khachaturian is principally known for his ballet music..."{{sfn|Rosenberg|1987|p=112}}<br />"...it is for his ballet music that he was and remains best known both in the Soviet Union and in the West".{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}}<br />"...his fame in the West rests chiefly on two ballets, ''Gayane'' (1942) and ''Spartacus'' (1954)...<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/>}} His second ballet, ''[[Gayane (ballet)|Gayane]]'', was largely reworked from his first ballet, ''Happiness''.<ref name="Greene's"/><ref name="laphil"/> [[Anna Kisselgoff]] called it "one of the staples of the Soviet and Eastern European ballet repertory."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kisselgoff |first1=Anna |author1-link=Anna Kisselgoff |title=Film: Khachaturian's Ballet 'Gayane': The Cast |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/28/archives/film-khachaturians-ballet-gayanethe-cast.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=November 28, 1979}}</ref> ''[[Spartacus (ballet)|Spartacus]]'' became his most acclaimed work in the post-Stalin period. These two compositions "remain his most successful compositions".<ref name="Adalian"/> According to Jonathan McCollum and Andy Nercessian, his music for these two ballets "can safely be included among the best known pieces of classical music throughout the world, a fact that is vitalized by perception that these are perhaps the only works through that the world really knows Armenian music".{{sfn|McCollum|Nercessian|2004|pp=95–96}}

''Spartacus'' was popularized when the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" was used as the theme for a popular [[BBC]] drama series ''[[The Onedin Line]]'' during the 1970s.<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/> The climax of ''Spartacus'' was also used in films such as ''[[Caligula (film)|Caligula]]'' (1979)<ref>{{cite book|title=Film and Television Scores, 1950–1979: A Critical Survey by Genre|first=Kristopher|last=Spencer|year=2008|page=125|publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]]|isbn=9780786452286}}</ref> and ''[[Ice Age: The Meltdown]]'' (2006).<ref name="imdb">{{cite web|title=Aram Khachaturyan|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006154/|publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]]}}</ref> [[Coen brothers|Joel Coen]]'s ''[[The Hudsucker Proxy]]'' (1994) also prominently featured music from ''Spartacus'' and ''Gayane'' (the "Sabre Dance" included).<ref name="imdb"/> ''Gayane''{{'}}s "Adagio" was used, among other films, in [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s futuristic film ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Why I love: the music in 2001: A Space Odyssey|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/7803529/Why-I-love-the-music-in-2001-A-Space-Odyssey.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/7803529/Why-I-love-the-music-in-2001-A-Space-Odyssey.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=4 June 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

====Orchestral music====
Khachaturian wrote three symphonies: the First in 1934/5, the [[Symphony No. 2 (Khachaturian)|Second]] in 1943, and the [[Symphony No. 3 (Khachaturian)|Third]] in 1947.<ref name="Randel"/><ref name="Merriam Webster's">{{cite book|contribution-url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CK1680132903&v=2.1&u=mlin_n_danvers&it=r&p=PPUS&sw=w&asid=eb69e5823e7e2abca2a9df431ae8b37d |chapter=Aram Ilich Khachaturian|title=Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary|location=Springfield, Massachusetts|publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]]|year=1995}}</ref> He also wrote three concertos: the [[Piano Concerto (Khachaturian)|Piano Concerto]] (1936), the [[Violin Concerto (Khachaturian)|Violin Concerto]] (1940), and the [[Cello Concerto (Khachaturian)|Cello Concerto]] (1946).<ref name="Randel"/>

====Other compositions====
Khachaturian wrote [[incidental music]] for several plays, including ''[[Macbeth]]'' (1934, 1955), ''[[The Widow from Valencia]]'' (1940), ''[[Masquerade (Khachaturian)|Masquerade]]'' (1941), ''[[King Lear]]'' (1958).<ref name="Randel"/>

Khachaturian was the first Soviet composer to write music for [[sound film]]s.<ref name="Gompper"/><ref name="Poole">{{cite news |last1=Poole |first1=Steven |author1-link=Steven Poole |title=Cinematic for the people |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/jun/12/artsfeatures |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=12 June 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911115901/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/jun/12/artsfeatures |archive-date=11 September 2014}}</ref> He produced around 25 [[film scores]].<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/><ref name="Merriam Webster's"/> Among them is ''[[Pepo (film)|Pepo]]'' (1935), the first Armenian sound film.<ref name="Adalian"/> In 1950 he was awarded the [[USSR State Prize|Stalin prize]] for the score of ''[[The Battle of Stalingrad (film)|The Battle of Stalingrad]]'' (1949).{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}}

===Influences===
{{Quote box
| quote = I do not see how modern composers could isolate themselves from life and not want to work among society. The more impressions that come from contact with life, the more and better the creative ideas.
| source = —Khachaturian<ref>{{cite web|title=Aram Khachaturian|url=http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2750&ttype=SNAPSHOT&ttitle=Snapshot|publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313221205/http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2750&ttype=SNAPSHOT&ttitle=Snapshot|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref>
| align = right
| width = 28%
}}

Musicologist [[Marina Frolova-Walker]] describes Khachaturian as the only internationally renowned Soviet composer "who emerged from the [[Musical nationalism|nationalist]] project".{{sfn|Frolova-Walker|1998|p=362}} James Bakst interpreted Khachaturian's views as follows: "Music is a language created by the people. The people create intonational music forms that reveal at once his national elements of an artwork."{{sfn|Bakst|1977|p=337}}

Composer [[Tigran Mansurian]] suggested that Khachaturian's music incorporates American characteristics and called the United States his "second homeland" in terms of musical influences, especially due to the sense of optimism in his works and lifestyle.<ref>In the documentary ''[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396087/ Khachaturian]'' (2003, directed by Peter Rosen), Tigran Mansurian states: "Every artist has a second homeland. When I think of Shostakovich Russia is his first homeland. But I can't help but think of Austro-Germanic music, which is his foundation. Prokofiev's second homeland is, of course, France. Khachaturian's second homeland, in my opinion, is America. That happiness, that health, that love of life, that way of saying 'No' to death, that strength that America has in its music." The film is available online {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20141006074554/http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/aram_khachaturian here]}}. Mansurian appears at around 33:50—34:30.</ref> Soviet musicologist Boris Yarustovsky argued that the influence from American culture was heard in some of the words of Khachaturian.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abrams |first1=Emily |editor1-last=Oja |editor1-first=Carol J. |editor2-last=Tick |editor2-first=Judith |editor1-link=Carol J. Oja |title=Aaron Copland and His World |date=2005 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691124704 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GoxzCgAAQBAJ&dq=It+is+my+impression+.+.+.+it+is+possible%E2%80%94perhaps+controversial%E2%80%94that+this+influence+was+heard+in+the+works+of+Aram+Khachaturian%2C+some+of+the+works&pg=PA384 384] |chapter=Aaron Copland Meets the Soviet Composers: A Television Special |quote= BY [Boris Yarustovsky]: "...our influence from (and impressions from) American culture became deeper and better. [...] It is my impression ... it is possible—perhaps controversial—that this influence was heard in the words of Aram Khachaturian, some of the works."}}</ref>

====Armenian folk music====
[[File:Komitas 1902.jpg|thumb|Khachaturian used the "raw material" made available by [[Komitas]] ''(pictured)'', who in the early 20th century collected thousands of pieces of Armenian folk music.<ref name="Soulahian Kuyumjian"/>]]
Khachaturian is widely known for his use of folk songs of various ethnic groups in his compositions, most notably those of Armenians.{{efn-ua|"Khachaturian's characteristic musical style draws on the melodic and rhythmic vitality of Armenian folk music."<ref name="Johnston, AllMusic 2005"/><br />"...Armenian folk [music] ... can be heard in nearly all Khachaturian's works."<ref name="Complete Classical Music Guide"/><br />"In these Khachaturian displays a characteristic vitality of rhythm, a penchant for rich orchestration and an effulgent melodic style, frequently owing much to the inflections of the folk music of his native Armenia."<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/><br />"The exotic lyrical patterns and improvisatory characteristics of Khachaturyan's music are the result of national Armenian intonations."{{sfn|Bakst|1977|p=336}}<br />"The influence of Armenian folk music can be seen in the frequent hectic ostinatos, in chords based on fourths and fifths (inspired by the open strings of the Armenian saz), and a rhapsodic improvisational form of melody."<ref name="Complete Classical Music Guide"/>}} Rosenberg argued that despite not having been born in Armenia, Khachaturian was "essentially an Armenian composer whose music exhibits his Armenian roots".{{sfn|Rosenberg|1987|p=112}} "[M]any of his compositions evoke an Armenian melodic line. However, his works markedly differed from the conventional orchestrations of folk themes", writes [[Rouben Paul Adalian]]. He suggests that Khachaturian's works carry "the vibrant rhythms and stirring pace of Caucasian dance music", but at the same time are "original compositions that reworked that cultural material through new instrumentation and according to European musical canons, resulting in a sound unique to the composer".<ref name="Adalian"/> [[Richard Taruskin]] argued that "Khachaturian's 'Armenian' style was largely adapted from Gnesin's all-purpose Orientalist idiom."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taruskin |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Taruskin |title=RECORDINGS VIEW; 'Jewish' Songs By Anti-Semites |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/21/arts/recordings-view-jewish-songs-by-anti-semites.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=21 September 1997}}</ref>

Khachaturian was particularly influenced by the folk-song collector, musicologist [[Komitas]],<ref name="Soulahian Kuyumjian">{{cite book|last=Soulahian Kuyumjian|first=Rita|title=Archeology of Madness: Komitas, Portrait of an Armenian Icon|year=2001|publisher=[[Gomidas Institute]]|location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=1-903656-10-9|page=26|quote=In the following decades [the songs of the Armenian peasantry transcribed by Komitas] served as a fertile source of raw material for future Armenian composers, among them Aram Khachadourian, whose ballets ''Kayane'' [''Gayane''] and Symphony No.2 contain important elements of folk melodies.}}</ref> and composers [[Alexander Spendiaryan]] and [[Romanos Melikian]].{{efn-ua|"Նրա արվեստը սերտորեն առնչվում է Կոմիտասի, Ա. Սպենիարյանի, Ռ. Մելիքյանի ստեղծագործություններին, հատկապես հայ ժող. երաժշտությանը:"{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|pp=18–19}}<br />"... he repeatedly acknowledged his Armenian predecessors (Komitas, for instance), he evolved his musical language from ethnic models, and he took as his creed the words of the Armenian pioneer Spendarian, who advised him to "study the music of your own people and drink in the sound of life".<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/>}} Khachaturian acknowledged that Komitas "singlehandedly laid the foundations for Armenia's classical tradition".<ref>{{cite news|last=Church|first=Michael|title=Komitas Vardapet, forgotten folk hero|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/21/komitas-vardapet-folk-music-armenia|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=21 April 2011}}</ref> In a 1969 article about Komitas, Khachaturian called him his "greatest teacher".<ref>{{cite news|title=none{{clarify|date=March 2023|reason=Did that article really have no title?}}|newspaper=[[Kultura (newspaper)|Kultura]]|location=Moscow|language=ru|year=1969|issue=10|pages=1–2}}</ref>

His plans to write an opera "on the destiny of the Armenian people, the tragic fate of Armenians scattered all over the world, their suffering and the struggle" never realized, and his "Armenian Rhapsody for mouth-organ and orchestra, intended for his close friend [[Larry Adler]] and the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]]" remained uncompleted. "Yet the intention, the spirit, was always there."<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/> Khachaturian emphasized his Armenian origin, stating:<ref name="Pritsker"/>
{{quote frame|No matter how I may waver between various musical languages, I remain an Armenian, but a European Armenian, not an Asian Armenian. Together with other [Armenian composers], we will make all of Europe and the whole world listen to our music. And when they hear our music, people are certain to say, 'Tell us about that people, and show us the country that produces such art.'}}

====Other folk music====
During his university years, Khachaturian [[Transcription (music)|transcribed]] Armenian, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish and other folk songs.{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=18}} In his mature works, Khachaturian used elements from folk songs of Caucasian (including, but not limited to [[Georgians]]), Eastern European ([[Ukrainians]], [[Polish people|Poles]]) and Middle Eastern ([[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Kurds]]) peoples.{{efn-ua|"...music which not only makes use of the folklore of Armenia, but also draws upon the national characteristics of Georgia, the Ukraine, Turkey, etc."{{sfn|Rosenberg|1987|p=112}}}} His first ballet, ''Happiness'', incorporates a Ukrainian [[gopak]], Georgian, Armenian and Russian dances and a [[Lezginka]], an energetic dance of many Caucasian peoples.{{sfn|Robinson|2013|p=25}} The ''Masquerade Suite'' includes a [[Mazurka]], a Polish folk dance music.<ref name="Manning"/> The ballet ''Gayane'', like its predecessor, features a Lezginka.<ref name="Manning">{{cite book|last=Manning|first=Lucy|title=Orchestral "Pops" Music: A Handbook|date=2013|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|isbn=9780810884236|page=140|edition=2nd}}</ref> Act II of ''Gayane'' "is filled with Kurdish dances".{{sfn|Robinson|2013|p=26}}

====Russian classical music====
Khachaturian is cited by musicologists as a follower of Russian classical traditions.{{efn-ua|"At the same time, Khachaturyan is closely associated with Russian music as an outstanding school of artistic craftsmanship, and with its humane lyricism."{{sfn|Bakst|1977|p=336}}<br />"Khachaturian's own musical style reflected his background. He was highly skilled and well trained in the Russian classical tradition, and he frequently utilize the rich folk music traditions of the Caucasus in his original compositions, especially the ballet."{{sfn|Tomoff|2006|p=34}}<br />"Khachaturian became a manifestation of one of the cornerstones of Soviet arts policy{{Snd}} the combination of the folk heritage of the various Socialist Republics with Russia's artistic traditions, embodied in music by composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov."<ref name="laphil"/>}} According to the [[Toronto Symphony Orchestra]], he "carried forward into the twentieth century the colorful, folk-inspired style of such nineteenth-century Russian composers as [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]] and [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]".<ref>{{cite web|title=Khachaturian: Waltz from Masquerade |url=http://tso.ca/en-ca/Plan-Your-Experience/Programme-Notes/Waltz-from-Masquerade.aspx?ID=1129&pID=2616&YearMonth=2013,12 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140310102023/http://tso.ca/en-ca/Plan-Your-Experience/Programme-Notes/Waltz-from-Masquerade.aspx?ID=1129&pID=2616&YearMonth=2013,12 |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 March 2014 |publisher=[[Toronto Symphony Orchestra]]}}</ref> Like the members of [[The Five (composers)|The Five]], especially [[Alexander Borodin]] and Rimsky-Korsakov, whose works to some extent served him as a model, Khachaturian drew heavily upon "Eastern" and "Oriental" material in creating compositions in various classical genres and styles of European origin. But Khachaturian's cultural identity and rigorous musical training within the Soviet establishment allowed him to penetrate more deeply to the essence of Eastern and Caucasian music and to incorporate it more fully in his mature work, including the ballets.{{sfn|Robinson|2013|p=24}} "Never dissociating himself from the traditions of Russian music, he came to be regarded in Moscow as a mouthpiece of the entire Soviet Orient, gathering up all the diverse traditions into a grand generalization", concludes [[Marina Frolova-Walker]].{{sfn|Frolova-Walker|1998|p=362}}

==Khachaturian's influence==
Khachaturian's notable students at the [[Gnessin State Musical College|Gnessin Institute]] and the [[Moscow Conservatory]] included foreign composers, such as [[Aziz El-Shawan]] from Egypt,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Castelo‑Branco |first1=Salwa El‑Shawan |title=Aziz El‑Shawan: A Cosmopolitan and Nationalist Composer in Twentieth Century Egypt |journal=Annales islamologiques |date=2019 |issue=53 |pages=95–112 |doi=10.4000/anisl.5611 |s2cid=242520370 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/anisl/5611 |quote=For El‑Shawan, their music, alongside that of Khachaturian, represented a model of molding what he referred to as “an oriental expression into a scientific style”.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sednaoui |first1=Selim |editor1-last=Zuhur |editor1-first=Sherifa |editor1-link=Sherifa Zuhur |chapter= Western Classical Music in Umm Kulthum's Country |title=Images of Enchantment: Visual and Performing Arts of the Middle East |date=1998 |publisher=[[American University in Cairo]] Press |isbn=9789774244674 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sd5g1ohkocAC&dq=Aram+Khachaturian+%2C+whose+influence+is+apparent+in+El+-+Shawan%27s+music+through+the+colorful&pg=PA132 132] |quote=El-Shawan (1916-1993) studied in Moscow with Aram Khachaturian, whose influence is apparent in El-Shawan's music through the colorful orchestration and use of the melodic line.}}</ref> [[Modesta Bor]] from Venezuela,<ref>{{cite web |title=Modesta Bor |url=https://www.sphinxmusic.org/composer-modesta-bor |publisher=[[Sphinx Organization]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230203131022/https://www.sphinxmusic.org/composer-modesta-bor |archive-date=3 February 2023 |quote=Bor studied with Khachaturian at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow}}</ref> Enrique Ubieta from Cuba,<ref>{{cite web |title=Enrique Ubieta |url=https://ctda.library.miami.edu/creator/7912 |website=ctda.library.miami.edu |publisher=Cuban Theater Digital Archive, [[University of Miami]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928013820/https://ctda.library.miami.edu/creator/7912 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |quote=After studying in the Soviet Union at the Moscow Conservatory with Aram Khachaturian in 1960}}</ref> [[Stefan Remenkov]] from Bulgaria,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pedigo |first1=Alan |title=International Encyclopedia of Violin-Keyboard Sonatas and Composer Biographies |date=1995 |publisher=Arriaga Publ |location=Booneville, Ark |isbn=978-0960635627 |page=[https://archive.today/C2NWn/2772bd3b3c8069415a1aa821eeba22138e9b848c.jpg 254] |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/internationalenc0000pedi}}</ref> and [[Anatol Vieru]] from Romania,{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}} and a number of Soviet composers: [[Tolib Shakhidi]],<ref>{{cite news|script-title=ru:Европейскую классическую музыку лучше всех теперь пишут сыны Востока|url=http://www.pravda.ru/news/culture/10-05-2006/83576-shahidi-0/|newspaper=[[pravda.ru]]|date=10 May 2006|language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407203411/https://www.pravda.ru/news/culture/83576-shahidi/ |archive-date=7 April 2019}}</ref> [[Georgs Pelēcis]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=McLellan |first1=Joseph |author1-link=Joseph McLellan |title=Rautavaara's modern tradition |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1996/06/02/rautavaaras-modern-tradition/28c37628-2dee-4656-8df4-f336cd280474/ |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=June 2, 1996 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230721134416/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1996/06/02/rautavaaras-modern-tradition/28c37628-2dee-4656-8df4-f336cd280474/ |archive-date=21 July 2023 |quote=...Latvian composer Georgs Pelecis, a student of Aram Khachaturian who shares his teacher's penchant for structural clarity, rhythmic vitality and tonally oriented melodic charm.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Арам Ильич Хачатурян и его ученики [Aram Ilyich Khachaturian and his students]|url=http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/concert.aspx?id=135447|publisher=[[Moscow Conservatory]]|language=ru|date=16 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814083149/https://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/concert.aspx?id=135447 |archive-date=14 August 2021}}</ref> [[Mark Minkov]],<ref>{{cite news|script-title=ru:Музыку Люблю Даже Больше, Чем Себя|url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/20982.html|newspaper=[[Novaya Gazeta]]|date=17 March 2003|language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907005251/https://novayagazeta.ru/society/20982.html |archive-date=7 September 2014}}</ref> [[Alexey Rybnikov]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ryback |first1=Timothy W. |author1-link=Timothy W. Ryback |title=MUSIC; East Woos West in a Romantic Soviet Rock Opera |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/arts/music-east-woos-west-in-a-romantic-soviet-rock-opera.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=7 January 1990 |quote=Composed by Aleksei Ribnikov, a protege of Aram Khachaturian...}}</ref> [[Andrei Eshpai]],{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}} [[Albert Markov]],<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hughes |first1=Allen |title=Emigré Violinist at Carnegie Hall |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/26/archives/emigre-violinist-at-carnegie-hall.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=26 October 1979 |quote=“I studied composition with Aram Khachaturian,” he says...}}</ref> {{ill|Nodar Gabunia|ru|Габуния, Нодар Калистратович}},<ref name="Geodakyan 1981"/> [[Edgar Hovhannisyan]],<ref name="Geodakyan 1981"/> [[Mikael Tariverdiev]],{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}} {{ill|Eduard Khagagortyan|ru|Хагагортян, Эдуард Арамович}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jaffé |first1=Daniel |title=Historical Dictionary of Russian Music |date=2022 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9781538130087 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fmBVEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA216 216] |edition=2nd}}</ref> Critic [[:ru:Акопян, Левон Оганесович (музыковед)|Levon Hakobian]] described Khachaturian as a "conservative and self-absorbed teacher".{{sfn|Hakobian|2016|p=287}}

He inspired young Armenian composers<ref name="Pritsker"/> and had a great influence on the development of Armenian music.<ref name="krugosvet"/> Khachaturian's influence can be traced on [[Chamber music|chamber]] and symphonic music traditions of Armenia, including on the works of [[Arno Babajanian]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Музыкальная энциклопедия. Том 1. А А – Гонг|trans-title=Musical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. A A – Gong|date=1973 |publisher=[[Soviet Encyclopedia]] |page=267 |language=ru |quote=На формирование стиля Б. раннем этапе оказали влияние творчество С. В. Рахманинова и музыка А. И. Хачатуряна с её романтич. приподнятостью.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |script-title=hy:Բաբաջանյան Առնո |trans-title=Babajanyan Arno|url=http://www.armeniaculture.am/am/Encyclopedia_babajanyan_arno|publisher=[[Yerevan State University]] Armenian Studies Institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313164534/http://www.armeniaculture.am/am/Encyclopedia_babajanyan_arno|archive-date=13 March 2014|language=hy|quote={{lang|hy|...նկատելի է Ա.Ե. Խաչատրյանի և Մ. Ռախմանինովի ոճերի ազդեցությունը:}}}}</ref> [[Edvard Mirzoyan]], and [[Konstantin Orbelyan]], among others.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rukhkian|first=Margarita|title=Идея формы или миф армянского симфонизма (к 100-летию со дня рождения Арама Ильича Хачатуряна) [The idea of form or the myth of Armenian symphonism (to Aram Khachatrian's 100th birth anniversary)]|journal=[[Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri]]|year=2003|volume=3|issue=3|page=149|url=http://lraber.asj-oa.am/47/|publisher=[[Armenian Academy of Sciences]]|location=Yerevan|language=ru|issn=0320-8117}}</ref> Early compositions of [[Loris Tjeknavorian]] evoke the work of Khachaturian.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Sarkisyan |first=Svetlana |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Tjeknavorian, Loris Haykasi |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |access-date=29 July 2021 |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.43437 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000043437 }} {{Grove Music subscription}} "In his early works (Dances fantastiques, the early concertos) and chamber music (Armenian Bagatelles, Ararat Suite) he handles elements of traditional dance music in styles reminiscent of Aram Khachaturian."</ref>

Khachaturian also influenced composers of Azerbaijan (such as [[Kara Karayev]])<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gutman |first1=David |title=KARAYEV Seven Beauties suite. Don Quixote |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/karayev-seven-beauties-suite-don-quixote |website=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231201105337/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/karayev-seven-beauties-suite-don-quixote |archive-date=1 December 2023 |date=2017 |quote=Karayev’s confections more usually resemble those of his Armenian-born neighbour Aram Khachaturian.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Kirill Karabits conducts orchestral work by Karayev |url=https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/kirill-karabits-conducts-orchestral-work-karayev |publisher=[[BBC Music Magazine]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718074530/https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/kirill-karabits-conducts-orchestral-work-karayev/ |archive-date=18 July 2023 |date=August 15, 2019 |quote=The Seven Beauties promises the Khachaturian touch, but retreats into insipidity (and there’s a rip-off of Gayaneh’s block-chord wind writing in the final Procession).}}</ref> and Central Asia.<ref name="krugosvet">{{cite web |title=Хачатрян Арам Ильич [Khachaturian Aram Ilyich] |url=https://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/HACHATURYAN_ARAM_ILICH.html |publisher=[[Krugosvet]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006083138/https://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/HACHATURYAN_ARAM_ILICH.html |archive-date=6 October 2021 |language=ru |quote=Сделавший очень много для развития армянской композиторской школы, Хачатурян оказал также значительное влияние на музыкантов Азербайджана, Туркмении и других стран Средней Азии.}}</ref> Critic Louis Biancolli noted in 1947 that Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have "borrowed" Khachaturian "on occasion for special research in national music."{{sfn|Bagar|Biancolli|1947|p=370}}

Khachaturian was a close friend of the Bulgarian composer of [[Pancho Vladigerov]] and Khachaturian admired his music.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Sotirova |editor1-first=Nadia |title=Vladigerov: Photos from the Study |date=2007 |publisher=Gutenberg |isbn=9789546170255 |page=43 |quote=Aram Khachaturian, Vladigerov's close personal and professional friend.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shneerson|1959|p=79}}: "Khachaturyan met and made friends with the outstanding Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov whose work he has always greatly admired."</ref><ref>{{cite web |title="Златен фонд": 120 години от рождението на Панчо Владигеров ["Gold Fund": 120 years since the birth of Pancho Vladigerov] |url=https://bnt.bg/bg/a/balgarskiyat-kompozitor-pancho-vladigerov-vzima-intervyu-ot-armenskiya-si-kolega-aram-hachaturyan-1969-godina |website=bnt.bg |publisher=[[Bulgarian National Television]] |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20230701180729/https://bnt.bg/bg/a/balgarskiyat-kompozitor-pancho-vladigerov-vzima-intervyu-ot-armenskiya-si-kolega-aram-hachaturyan-1969-godina |archive-date=1 July 2023 |language=bg |quote=Панчо Владигеров прави интервю с арменския си колега Арам Хачатурян, 1969 година |access-date=1 July 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref> Vladigerov's third piano concerto (1937), his most popular work, shows the influence of Khachaturian and Rachmaninoff.<ref>''[[American Record Guide]]'' (1992), Volume 55, Issues 1–3, page 160. <!-- "Vladigerov's melodic, national-romantic music, based on Bulgarian folk music, is life-affirming, expressing optimism, joy, happiness, and vital energy. At the core of Vladigerov's music are the five piano concertos, spanning the years 1918-63. The Third (in B-flat minor) was written in 1937 and is his most popular work. In its traditional fast-slow-fast movements the concerto reveals the influences of Rachmaninoff and Khachaturian." --></ref> [[:de:Eckhardt van den Hoogen|Eckhardt van den Hoogen]] called Vladigerov a sort of missing link between [[George Gershwin]] and Khachaturian.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tuttle |first1=Raymond |title=Pancho Vladigerov – Orchestral Works |url=http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cpo77125a.php |website=Classical Net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701075907/http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cpo77125a.php |archive-date=1 July 2017 |date=2007}}</ref>

===East Asia===
[[Harold C. Schonberg]] argued that Soviet-trained Chinese composers, such as [[Li Delun]], were part of a "school of music strongly indebted" to socialist-realist composers like Khachaturian.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schonberg |first1=Harold C. |author1-link=Harold C. Schonberg |title=China Asks Ozawa To Conduct, Teach |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/11/archives/new-jersey-pages-china-asks-ozawa-to-conduct-teach-cultural.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=11 May 1978 }}</ref> He suggested that they "came back full of the approved Soviet ideology of Socialist Realism and, much worse, full of the technique of such composers as Khachaturian."<ref name="Schonberg73">{{cite news |last1=Schonberg |first1=Harold C. |author1-link=Harold C. Schonberg |title=Yin Spoke Only Chinese, Ormandy Only English |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/14/archives/yin-spoke-only-chinese-ormandy-only-english-you-have-to-look-at-me.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 14, 1973}}</ref> Schonberg wrote that the Chinese ballet ''[[Red Detachment of Women (ballet)|Red Detachment of Women]]'' (1964) incorporates elements of Russian academism and Oriental exoticism, resulting in a sound that is reminiscent of socialist-realist ballets like Khachaturian's ''Spartacus''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schonberg |first1=Harold C. |author1-link=Harold C. Schonberg |title=The Music: Movie-Like |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/23/archives/the-music-movielike.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 February 1972}}</ref> Schonberg further suggested that ''[[Yellow River Piano Concerto]]'' (1970), created by [[Yin Chengzong]] and others under the guidance of Mao's wife [[Jiang Qing]],<ref name="Chin"/> is a "rehash of Rachmaninoff, Khachaturian, late Romanticism, bastardized Chinese music and Warner Bros climaxes."<ref name="Schonberg73"/> Chunya Chang suggested that it "carries many connections" with the works of Khachaturian, including "imitations of national instruments and applications of folk music."<ref name="Chang">{{cite web |last1=Chang |first1=Chunya |title=The Yellow River Piano Concerto: a pioneer of western classical music in modern China and its socio-political context |url=https://ir.ua.edu/items/e25b1649-a5cf-46b1-bc08-a0bf3dce29d4 |publisher=[[University of Alabama]] Libraries |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240110140740/https://ir.ua.edu/items/e25b1649-a5cf-46b1-bc08-a0bf3dce29d4 |archive-date=10 January 2024 |format=Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |date=2017}}</ref> The most popular piano concerto in China,<ref name="Chang"/> it "helped introduce Western-style orchestral music to millions of Chinese".<ref name="Chin">{{cite book |last1=Melvin |first1=Sheila |last2=Cai |first2=Jindong |title=Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese |date=2004 |publisher=Algora Publishers |location=New York |isbn=9780875861791 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=PxzNLwDPP0EC&pg=PA263 263]}}</ref>

The music of the Japanese composer [[Roh Ogura]] had the influence of Khachaturian in "its rhythms and scoring."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hughes |first1=Allen |title=Concert: Schuller Conducts New Japanese Music |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/24/arts/concert-schuller-conducts-new-japanese-music.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=24 February 1983}}</ref> So did the works of [[Yasushi Akutagawa]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Japanese Orchestral Favourites |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/japanese-orchestral-favourites |website=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240110085205/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/japanese-orchestral-favourites |archive-date=10 January 2024 |date=2002 |quote=Yasushi Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra‚ which seasons orientalism with syncopation and touches of Prokofiev and Khachaturian}}</ref> [[Donald Richie]] and Joseph Anderson noted in 1982 that composers of scores of "independently" produced Japanese films are "ordered to turn out music" that "strongly echo" Khachaturian and other Soviet composers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Joseph L. |last2=Richie |first2=Donald |author2-link=Donald Richie |title=The Japanese Film: Art and Industry |date=1982 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691007922 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=C2z3otM-y5kC&dq=japanese+khachaturian&pg=PA342 342] |edition=expanded}}</ref>

==Personal life and personality==
In a 1957 letter, Khachaturian hinted at his feelings on balancing music and heritage: "Bury me in Yerevan,” he wrote, “but bring the orchestra from Moscow."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=James C. |title=Back, with flash |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-14-ca-taylor14-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=September 14, 2003 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230722110751/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-14-ca-taylor14-story.html |archive-date=22 July 2023}}</ref>

Khachaturian was described as a "stocky bushy haired Armenian."<ref name="Montreal"/> In 1968 ''[[New York Post]]'' music critic Harriett Johnson characterized him as "sturdy, stocky and youthful."<ref name="NYPost68"/> [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] described his outlook as "a basically optimistic, life-asserting view of our reality."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Vivien |title=Energy From a Composer Can Fuel a Player's Flight |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/arts/music/14shah.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=13 November 2008}}</ref> In ''[[Testimony (Volkov book)|Testimony]]'', attributed by [[Solomon Volkov]] to Shostakovich, the author wrote: "Meeting Khachaturian means, first of all, eating a good, filling meal, drinking with pleasure, and chatting about this and that. That's why, if I have the time, I never turn down a meeting with him."<ref>{{cite news |title=Improvising Under Stalin's Baton |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/07/archives/improvising-under-stalins-baton.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=7 October 1979 |page=31}}</ref> The German conductor [[Kurt Masur]], who met him several times, said Khachaturian was "sometimes an uncomfortable person."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mermelstein |first1=David |title=MUSIC; A Big Hit In Need Of Revival |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/23/arts/music-a-big-hit-in-need-of-revival.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 September 2001}}</ref>

He played tennis and watched football in the stadium, was an "avid theater-goer".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lvov |first1=G. |title=Aram Khachaturian, Soviet Composer |journal=USSR Information Bulletin |date=February 11, 1948 |volume=VIII |issue=3 |page=[https://www.google.am/books/edition/USSR_Information_Bulletin/dETTAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=music+contains+little+evidence+of+Khachaturian%27s+Armenian+background+,+as+it+was+written+to+convey&pg=PA96&printsec=frontcover 96-97] |publisher=[[Embassy of Russia, Washington, D.C.|Embassy of the USSR in Washington, D.C.]]}}</ref> He maintained a lifelong interest in cinema.<ref name="Gompper"/>

===Family===
Khachaturian married twice. He had a daughter, Nune, from his first marriage with Ramel. Nune was a pianist.<ref name="TassEnc">{{cite web |title=Энциклопедия: Хачатурян, Арам Ильич |url=https://tass.ru/encyclopedia/person/hachaturyan-aram-ilich |publisher=[[TASS]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718082411/https://tass.ru/encyclopedia/person/hachaturyan-aram-ilich |archive-date=18 July 2023 |language=ru}}</ref>

Khachaturian married the composer [[Nina Makarova]], a fellow student from Myaskovsky's class at the Moscow Conservatory, in 1933.<ref name="Complete Classical Music Guide"/><ref name="Curtis67"/> [[Charlotte Curtis]] described her as "a bulky Russian woman with naturally pink cheeks, black hair" who is "widely known as one of the Soviet Union's most popular women composers."<ref name="Curtis67"/> Makarova said of their differences: "He is Armenian — temperamental, strong and a bit Oriental. I am Russian and lyric."<ref name="Curtis67"/> They had a son, Karen, who was an art critic.<ref name="TassEnc"/> His nephew, [[Karen Khachaturian]], was also a composer.<ref name="Randel"/>

[[File:Komitas Pantheon, Yerevan, Aram Khachaturyan Grave 05.JPG|thumb|Khachaturian's tombstone at the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan]]

===Health and death===
In early October 1965, Khachaturian was briefly admitted into a hospital in [[Geneva]] after a heart attack.<ref>{{cite news |title=Khachaturian Has Attack |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/04/archives/khachaturian-has-attack.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 October 1965}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Khachaturian Improving |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/05/archives/khachaturian-improving.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=5 October 1965}}</ref> He died in Moscow on 1 May 1978, after a long illness,{{sfn|New York Times obituary|1978}}<ref name="Montreal"/> just short of his 75th birthday.<ref name="The Musical Times 1978"/> He was buried at the [[Komitas Pantheon]]<ref>[http://hush.am/index.php?route=product/hush&grave_id=hush734cd78d88f4c53&gcemetery=Komitas+Pantheon Khachaturian's memorial tombstone at Komitas Pantheon]</ref> in [[Yerevan]] on 6 May, next to other distinguished Armenians.{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}}

===Views===
[[File:Khachaturian Supreme Soviet credentials.jpg|thumb|Aram Khachaturian's credentials for the [[Supreme Soviet]] on display at the [[House-Museum of Aram Khachaturian]].]]
Khachaturian was reportedly an [[atheist]]{{efn|When asked about his visit to the [[Vatican City|Vatican]], Khachaturian has been quoted by [[Solomon Volkov]] as having said: "I'm an atheist, but I'm a son of the [Armenian] people who were the first to officially adopt Christianity and thus visiting the Vatican was my duty."<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Solomon Volkov|first=Solomon|last=Volkov|script-title=ru:Они сократили целых 4 такта моей музыки!|url=http://nv.am/lica/27820--4-|work=[[The New Times (Russia)|Novoye Vremya]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822161100/http://nv.am/lica/27820--4-|archive-date=22 August 2014|location=Yerevan|language=ru|quote=По поводу поездки в Рим композитор отметил: "Я — атеист, но являюсь сыном народа, первым в истории официально принявшим христианство, и потому посещение Ватикана было моим долгом".}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Arakelov|first1=Sergey|title=Воспоминания о маэстро|url=http://noev-kovcheg.1gb.ru/article.asp?n=47&a=006|work=Noev Kovcheg Magazine|date=April 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227002653/http://noev-kovcheg.1gb.ru/article.asp?n=47&a=006|archive-date=27 December 2014|language=ru}}</ref>}} and remained enthusiastic about [[communism]].{{sfn|Steyn|2009|p=13}} Jeffrey Adams argues that he was a "loyal Communist ideologue" who was "devoted to making art relevant to the common worker."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Cinema of the Coen Brothers: Hard-Boiled Entertainments |date=2015 |publisher=[[Wallflower Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-17460-2 |page=98}}</ref> Khachaturian wrote: "the [[October Revolution]] fundamentally changed my whole life and, if I have really grown into a serious artist, then I am indebted only to the people and the Soviet Government."<ref name="Current Biography"/>

Khachaturian denied any censorship of his music in the Soviet Union and when asked about 1948 purges, he said: "Well, they thought my music was too loud, I did write for 15 trumpets and even [[Leopold Stokowski|Stokowski]] decided against our doing that music when he found out the instrumentation. But I wouldn't change it. The composer must stick to his conception."<ref name="NYPost68"/>

In January 1971, Khachaturian, along with Shostakovich, [[Igor Moiseyev]], [[Maya Plisetskaya]] called on President [[Richard Nixon]] to free [[Angela Davis]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Top Russian Musicians, Actors Ask Nixon To Free Angela Davis |journal=[[Jet (magazine)|Jet]] |date=28 January 1971 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wjcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA60 60]}}</ref> In 1973 he joined eleven Soviet composers in condemning the nuclear physicist and dissident [[Andrei Sakharov]] after he met with Western correspondents.<ref>{{cite news |title=Aram Khachaturian Raps Dissident |url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/QDzkw |work=[[The California Courier]] |date=13 September 1973 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220221125154/http://treasury.am/storage/media/auk0cRtx7HaIXhoo.jpg |archive-date=21 February 2022}}</ref>

==Recognition and reputation==
{{multiple image|align=right|direction=horizontal|footer=''From left to right:'' Khachaturian depicted on Soviet (1983), Russian (2003) and Armenian (2003) postage stamps|image1=1983 CPA 5394.jpg|width1=200|image2=StampRussia845.jpg|width2=190|image3=ArmenianStamps-284.jpg|width3=87}}

Khachaturian is generally considered one of the leading composers of the Soviet Union.<ref name="Huang">{{cite book|editor-last=Huang|editor-first=Hao|editor-link=Hao Huang (pianist)|title=Music in the 20th century: Volume 2|year=1999|publisher=[[M. E. Sharpe]]|isbn=9780765680129|page=[https://archive.org/details/musicin20thcentu0000unse/page/341 341]|quote=Aram Khachaturian was a leading Soviet composer...|url=https://archive.org/details/musicin20thcentu0000unse/page/341}}</ref> Alongside [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] and [[Sergei Prokofiev]], he has been generally cited as one of the three greatest composers of the Soviet era.{{refn|{{sfn|Steyn|2009|p=9|ps=: "Along with Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturyan is one of the great masters of the Soviet school of composition."}}<ref>{{cite news|title=Remembering Aram Khachaturian, A 'Titan' Of Soviet Music|url=http://www.rferl.org/media/photogallery/25005784.html|agency=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]|date=5 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Арам Хачатурян [Aram Khachaturian]|url=http://meloman.ru/composer/hachaturyan-aram-ilich-1903-1978/?|publisher=Moscow State Academic Philharmonic Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821205829/http://meloman.ru/composer/hachaturyan-aram-ilich-1903-1978/|archive-date=21 August 2014|language=ru|quote=Один из самых известных композиторов ХХ века, А. И. Хачатурян вместе с С. С. Прокофьевым и Д. Д. Шостаковичем вошел в блистательную триаду композиторов, ставших гордостью отечественной музыки ХХ века и определивших на многие годы ее облик.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Music: Moscow Music Congress|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,862552,00.html|newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=15 April 1957|quote=Zhdanov in effect put all Russian composers on trial, including the three modern giants—Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian.}}</ref>}} [[Ronald Crichton]] wrote on his death that, in his lifetime, Khachaturian "ranked as the third most celebrated Soviet composer after Shostakovich and Prokofiev."<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997"/>

According to the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]], "his works do not enjoy the international reputation that those of" Shostakovich and Prokofiev do.<ref name="laphil"/> With these two and [[Dmitry Kabalevsky]], Khachaturian "was one of the few Soviet composers to have become known to the wider international public".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Aram Ilyich Khachaturian|journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]|issue=125|page=46| date=June 1978|doi=10.1017/S004029820003028X|s2cid=172143931 }}</ref> According to music historian Harlow Robinson, "his proletariat origins, non-Russian ethnic origins and Soviet training [made him] a powerful symbol within the Soviet musical establishment of the ideal of a multinational Soviet cultural identity, an identity which the composer enthusiastically embraced and exploited both at home and abroad". Unlike Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Khachaturian was "entirely a creation of the Soviet musical and dance establishment".{{sfn|Robinson|2013|p=23}}

=== Reputation ===
''[[The Age]]'' wrote that he was the "last survivor among such household names as Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov" and his death marked the "end of an era of the great Soviet composers." At the same time, his obituary argued that "on the whole Khachaturian was a writer of popular classics rather than intellectual music."<ref name="TheAge"/> ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' critic [[Ivan March]] noted in 1985 that Khachaturian's "reputation has sagged".<ref name="March1985"/> He approved of the Violin Concerto and ''Gayane'',<ref name="March1985"/> but opined that "much of his music is disappointing."<ref>{{cite web |last1=March |first1=Ivan |author1-link=Ivan March |title=Khachaturian Gayaneh; Spartacus |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/khachaturian-gayaneh-spartacus |website=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726173839/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RzQfKocj1yMJ:https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/khachaturian-gayaneh-spartacus&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=am&lr=lang_en%7Clang_ru%7Clang_hy |archive-date=26 July 2023 |date=2011}}</ref> [[Richard Taruskin]] argued in 1996 that Khachaturian has not been "certified as [a] great artist by the promoters of classical music."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taruskin |first1=Richard |author1-link=Richard Taruskin |title=Stalin Lives On in the Concert Hall, but Why? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/25/arts/stalin-lives-on-in-the-concert-hall-but-why.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=25 August 1996 |quote=By the same token, I doubt that anyone would propose Khachaturian's stirring ''Poem About Stalin'' for performance at Lincoln Center. Why? Because Stravinsky and Prokofiev, not Holst and Khachaturian, have been certified as great artists by the promoters of classical music.}}</ref> Taruskin opined in 2003 that during his lifetime Khachaturian was "more popular than Shostakovich and rivaled only by Prokofiev — but these days it’s different." He argued that musicians never "thought much of Khachaturian" as he was "always a composer for the crowds."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=James C. |title=Back, with flash |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-14-ca-taylor14-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=September 14, 2003 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230722110751/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-sep-14-ca-taylor14-story.html |archive-date=22 July 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Aram Khachaturian mural in Yerevan.jpg|thumb|A [[mural]] of Khachaturian painted by Robert Nikoghosyan near the [[Yerevan Vernissage]] in July 2015<ref>{{cite news |script-title=hy:Հայ մեծերի դիմանկարները՝ Երևան քաղաքի պատերին|url=http://www.yerkirmedia.am/?act=news&lan=hy&id=28026|agency=[[Yerkir Media]]|date=25 July 2015|language=hy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313000000/http://yerkirmedia.am/?act=news&lan=hy&id=28026 |archive-date=13 March 2016}}</ref>]]

Josef Woodard, writing for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', suggests that Khachaturian has long been considered a "lighter-weight participant among 20th-century composers",<ref>{{cite news|last=Woodard|first=Josef|title=Khachaturian a la Thibaudet|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-23-et-bowl23-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=23 August 2008}}</ref> while classic music broadcaster [[Norman Gilliland]] describes him as a "major" composer of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilliland|first=Norman|title=Scores to Settle: Stories of the Struggle to Create Great Music|date=2009|publisher=NEMO Productions|location=Madison, Wisconsin|isbn=9780971509337|edition=1st|author-link=Norman Gilliland|quote=He would go on to become a teacher there on his way to becoming a major composer of the twentieth century.}}</ref> Tim Ashley wrote in ''[[The Guardian]]'' in 2009 that Khachaturian's popularity fell in the West, because of his image as one of Soviet music's "[[:wikt:yes man#English|yes-men]]". He argued, "Such a view is simplistic, given that he had a major brush with the authorities in 1948."<ref>{{cite news|last=Ashley|first=Tim|title=Khachaturian: Violin Concerto; Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jun/12/khachaturian-violin-concerto|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=11 June 2009}}</ref> In 2003 conductor [[Marin Alsop]] opined that Khachaturian is "very underperformed" and "somewhat underrated․"<ref name="npr"/>

[[Anne Midgette]] opined that Khachaturian is "remembered for Technicolor music, film-score-like in scale and sensibility."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Midgette |first1=Anne |author1-link=Anne Midgette |title=Forget greatness, enjoy the music: NSO revels in lyrical excess |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/forget-greatness-enjoy-the-music-nso-revels-in-lyrical-excess/2018/11/01/47cd28d0-de47-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=November 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108115610/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/forget-greatness-enjoy-the-music-nso-revels-in-lyrical-excess/2018/11/01/47cd28d0-de47-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html |archive-date=8 November 2020}}</ref> David Nice wrote in ''[[BBC Music Magazine]]'' that Khachaturian did best in dance and incidental music.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nice |first1=David |title=Khachaturian: Piano Concerto; Concerto Rhapsody etc |url=https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/concerto/khachaturian-piano-concerto-concerto-rhapsody-etc/ |website=[[BBC Music Magazine]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328203624/https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/concerto/khachaturian-piano-concerto-concerto-rhapsody-etc/ |archive-date=28 March 2023 |date=November 2, 2022}}</ref> [[Bernard Holland]] described ''Spartacus'' as "Socialist-Realism schlock", but argued that "Khachaturian writes inventive schlock—comfortably entertaining yet not without surprises."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Holland |first1=Bernard |author1-link=Bernard Holland |title=Review/Music; Armenian Orchestra in Mini-Tour |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/10/arts/review-music-armenian-orchestra-in-mini-tour.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=10 December 1989}}</ref> ''New York Times'' critic [[Harold C. Schonberg]] was often critical of Khachaturian. In 1968 he wrote that "Even at his best he was a minor figure, and his music these days has little to offer. Not because it is conventional, but because its materials and ideas are second-rate."<ref name="Schonberg68">{{cite news |last1=Schonberg |first1=Harold C. |author1-link=Harold C. Schonberg |title=Music: Khachaturian Leads the Washington National Symphony |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/01/29/archives/music-khachaturian-leads-the-washington-national-symphony-conducts.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=29 January 1968}}</ref> Although describing him as an important and highly popular composer and a "man of pronounced gifts", Schonberg argued on his death in 1978 that Khachaturian "frankly composed popular music" and that after being exposed to his work it becomes evident that it is mostly "formula writing". While praising his work as exotic and colorful, he described Khachaturian as a "bureaucratic composer, turning out well-crafted pieces of no particular personality, and certainly nothing that would rock the boat".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schonberg |first1=Harold C. |author-link1=Harold C. Schonberg |title=Exemplar of Socialist Realism |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/03/archives/exemplar-of-socialist-realism-appreciation-drew-on-folk-sources.html?_r=0 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 May 1978}} ([https://archive.org/details/AramKhachaturianObituaryNewYorkTimes archived])</ref> In 1968 ''[[New York Post]]'' music critic Harriett Johnson argued that while some may describe Khachaturian's style as "pop," she praised "the individuality of his melodies, infiltrated as they are with Oriental flavor of his Armenian heritage" and "the elemental surge of his rhythm which easily grows wild."<ref name="NYPost68"/> She described him as an "immense musician who believes in the peasant heart and who has said so unabashedly in his music."<ref name="NYPost68"/>

=== Recognition in Armenia ===
One of the "modern icons of Armenian pride",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Derluguian |first1=Georgi |last2=Hovhannisyan |first2=Ruben |authorlink1=Georgi Derluguian |title=The Armenian Anomaly: Toward an Interdisciplinary Interpretation |journal=[[Demokratizatsiya (journal)|Demokratizatsiya]] |date=Fall 2018 |volume=26 |issue=4 |page=454 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/707881 |quote=...a small Soviet republic that was linked to a parade of world luminaries and modern icons of Armenian pride: the composer Aram Khachaturian, the painter Martiros Sarian, the astrophysicist Victor Ambartsumian, the mathematician Sergei Mergelian, and the chess champion Tigran Petrosian, among others.}}</ref> Khachaturian is considered a national treasure,{{sfn|Frolova-Walker|1998|p=371}} and is celebrated by the Armenian people "as a famous son who earned world-wide recognition".{{sfn|Steyn|2009|pp=21–22}} Khachaturian was the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century,<ref name="Ricci">{{cite news|last=Ricci|first=James|title=Bustling Outpost of Armenian Culture|url=https://articles.latimes.com/2006/aug/10/local/me-armenian10/2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413132824/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/aug/10/local/me-armenian10/2|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 April 2014|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=10 August 2006|quote=...Aram Khachaturian, the most famous Armenian composer of the 20th century.}}</ref> and the most famous representative of Soviet Armenian culture.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Herzig, Edmund |editor2=Kurkchiyan, Marina|title=The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity|author-link=Ronald Grigor Suny|first=Ronald G.|last=Suny|chapter=Soviet Armenia, 1921–91|page=120|quote=The achievements of Soviet Armenian culture were respected both within the USSR and throughout the world. Most famous was the composer Aram Khachaturian...|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0700706396|year=2005}}</ref> He has been described as "by far the most important Armenian composer",{{sfn|McCollum|Nercessian|2004|pp=95-96}} the "Armenian [[Tchaikovsky]]",<ref>{{cite news|last=Ginell|first=Richard S.|title=Making sure Khachaturian gets his due|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-oct-01-et-ginell1-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=1 October 2003}}</ref> and deemed a key figure in 20th-century Armenian culture.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Aram Khatchaturian|url=http://armenianstudies.csufresno.edu/hye_sharzhoom/vol25/oct03/aram.htm|journal=Hye Sharzhoom|publisher=[[California State University, Fresno]]|volume=25|date=October 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313164516/http://armenianstudies.csufresno.edu/hye_sharzhoom/vol25/oct03/aram.htm|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> He remains the only Armenian composer to rise to international significance.{{efn-ua|"Aram Khachaturian was the first, and so far the only, Armenian composer to achieve world renown."<ref name="Complete Classical Music Guide"/>}} Khachaturian is credited for bringing Armenian music worldwide recognition.{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=18}} [[Şahan Arzruni]] has described him as "the musical ambassador of Armenian culture".<ref>{{cite news|last=Ziflioğlu|first=Vercihan|title=Virtuosos to sing works by Armenian musicians|url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/virtuosos-to-sing-works-by-armenian-musicians.aspx?PageID=238&NID=32216&NewsCatID=383|work=[[Hürriyet Daily News]]|date=12 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114211525/http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/virtuosos-to-sing-works-by-armenian-musicians.aspx?PageID=238&NID=32216&NewsCatID=383 |archive-date=14 November 2012}}</ref>

==Posthumous honors and tribute==
[[File:50 Armenian dram - 1998 (obverse).png|thumb|Khachaturian appeared on the 50-[[Armenian dram|dram]] banknote (1998–2004)<ref name="dram"/>]]

The [[philharmonic]] hall of the [[Yerevan Opera Theater]] has been officially called the Aram Khachaturian Grand Concert Hall since 1978.{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=19}} The [[House-Museum of Aram Khachaturian]] in Yerevan was inaugurated in 1982.<ref>{{cite web|title=House-Museum of Aram Khachaturian|url=http://www.khachaturian.am/eng/museum.htm|publisher=Virtual Museum of Aram Khachaturian}}</ref>

Two younger Armenian composers dedicated pieces to Khachaturian's memory. [[Arno Babajanyan]] composed an [[elegy]] inspired by [[Sayat-Nova]] upon his death,<ref>{{cite web |title=Arno Babajanian: Elegy |url=https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=701383711527528 |publisher=Aram Khachaturian Museum |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20231121131138/https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=701383711527528 |archive-date=21 November 2023 |date=January 21, 2023 |access-date=22 November 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref> while [[Edvard Mirzoyan]] composed ''Poem Epitaph In Memory of Aram Khachaturian, for string orchestra'' in 1988, on the 10th anniversary of his death.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stevenson |first1=Joseph |title=Edvard Mirzoyan: Poem Epitaph In Memory of Aram Khachaturian, for string orchestra |url=https://www.allmusic.com/composition/poem-epitaph-in-memory-of-aram-khachaturian-for-string-orchestra-mc0002573887 |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231121134725/https://www.allmusic.com/composition/poem-epitaph-in-memory-of-aram-khachaturian-for-string-orchestra-mc0002573887 |archive-date=21 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Էդվարդ Միրզոյան. Պոեմ – էպիտաֆիա / Edward Mirzoyan. Poem - Epitaph (1988) | date=24 September 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HzYDSs7z2E |publisher=Aram Khachaturian Museum |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231121121424/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HzYDSs7z2E |archive-date=21 November 2023}}</ref>

In 1998, the [[Central Bank of Armenia]] issued 50-[[Armenian dram|dram]] banknotes depicting Khachaturian's portrait and the Yerevan Opera Theater on the obverse and an episode from the ballet ''Gayane'' and [[Mount Ararat]] on the reverse. It remained in use until 2004 when it was replaced by a coin.<ref name="dram">{{cite web|title=Banknotes out of circulation{{Snd}} 50 drams|url=https://www.cba.am/en/sitepages/detailsncbrabanknotesnotcirculated.aspx?nominal=3|publisher=Central Bank of Armenia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313164703/https://www.cba.am/en/sitepages/detailsncbrabanknotesnotcirculated.aspx?nominal=3|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> He is one of the two composers depicted on the Armenian currency (the other is [[Komitas]], who is depicted on the 10,000 dram banknote since 2018).

In 2013, UNESCO inscribed a collection of Khachaturian's handwritten notes and film music in the [[Memory of the World Register|Memory of the World international register]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Collection of note manuscripts and film music of Composer Aram Khachaturian|url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/collection-note-manuscripts-and-film-music-composer-aram-khachaturian |publisher=UNESCO Memory of the World Programme|access-date=2025-04-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Aram Khachaturian's works included in UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register|url=http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/06/19/aram-khachaturians-works-included-in-unescos-memory-of-the-world-international-register/|agency=[[Public Radio of Armenia]]|date=19 June 2013}}</ref>

Music schools are named after Khachaturian in Tbilisi,<ref>{{cite web|title=A. Khachaturiani Musical School #10 in Tbilisi|url=http://georgia.yellowpg.com/listings/ge6852-a-khachaturiani-musical-school-10|publisher=Georgia Yellow Pages|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413123511/http://georgia.yellowpg.com/listings/ge6852-a-khachaturiani-musical-school-10|archive-date=13 April 2014}}</ref> Moscow (established in 1967, named after him in 1996),<ref>{{cite web|title=История школы [School's history]|url=http://khachaturian.music.mos.ru/about/history/|publisher=Moscow City Department of Culture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313185943/http://khachaturian.music.mos.ru/about/history/|archive-date=13 March 2014|language=ru}}</ref> Yerevan,<ref name="ysu"/> [[Martuni, Nagorno-Karabakh]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Balayan |first=Emma |script-title=hy:Մարտունու երաժշտական դրպոցը ապահովում է կայուն մակարդակ |url=http://www.artsakhtert.com/arm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6103:2013-11-26-05-56-41 |newspaper=Azat Artsakh |date=26 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313191201/http://www.artsakhtert.com/arm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6103%3A2013-11-26-05-56-41 |archive-date=13 March 2014 |language=hy |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Watertown, Massachusetts|Watertown]], Massachusetts, U.S. (run by the [[Hamazkayin]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=Aram Khachaturian School of Music|url=http://www.hamazkayin-usa.org/akhsm/about-us/|publisher=Hamazkayin USA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230205629/http://www.hamazkayin-usa.org/akhsm/about-us/|archive-date=30 December 2014}}</ref> Streets in Yerevan,<ref>{{cite web|title=Aram Khachatrian St Erevan, Armenia |url=https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Aram+Khachatrian+Street,+Yerevan,+Armenia&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x406abd440811c7b5:0xc3576909185f015,Aram+Khachatrian+St,+Erevan,+Armenia&gl=us&ei=3fIcU4PLFafz0QHb6IGIAg&ved=0CCsQ8gEwAA|publisher=Google Maps}}</ref> Tbilisi,<ref>{{cite web|title=Aram Khachaturiani St T'bilisi, Georgia |url=https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Aram+Khachaturiani+Street,+Tbilisi,+Georgia&nfpr=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=JdYcU-S1FqTq0AHXuICABA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ|publisher=Google Maps}}</ref> {{ill|Moscow|ru|Улица Хачатуряна (Москва)}} and elsewhere are named after Khachaturian.

The [[Aram Khachaturian International Competition]] has been held annually in Yerevan since 2003.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yerevan - Aram Khachaturian International Competition |url=https://www.wfimc.org/member-competition/yerevan-aram-khachaturian-international-competition |publisher=[[World Federation of International Music Competitions]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822174953/https://www.wfimc.org/member-competition/yerevan-aram-khachaturian-international-competition |archive-date=22 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Aram Khachaturian International Competition: About us|url=http://www.akhic.am/en/aboutus|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413160039/http://www.akhic.am/en/aboutus|archive-date=13 April 2014}}</ref>

===Statues===
[[File:Aram khachaturian yerevan opera.jpg|thumb|Khachaturian's statue near the [[Yerevan Opera Theater]] ]]
On 31 July 1999 a three-and-a-half meter high statue of Khachaturian in 19th-century [[Realism (arts)|realist]] style{{sfn|Steyn|2009|p=19}} by Yuri Petrosyan was unveiled before the Khachaturian Hall of the [[Yerevan Opera Theater]] in attendance of President [[Robert Kocharyan]], Speaker [[Karen Demirchyan]] and leading poet [[Silva Kaputikyan]].<ref>{{cite book|script-chapter=hy:Մայրաքաղաքի քարե վկաները. Արամ Խաչատրյան|trans-chapter=The Capital's Stone Witnesses. Aram Khachaturian|url=http://nakhshkaryan.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_8984.html|last=Khanjyan|first=Artyush|year=2004|script-title=hy:Երևանի արձանները|trans-title=Statues of Yerevan|publisher=VMV Print|location=Yerevan|language=hy|isbn=99941-920-1-9|access-date=10 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413124456/http://nakhshkaryan.blogspot.com/2013/08/blog-post_8984.html|archive-date=13 April 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 30 April 2013, a bust of Khachaturian erected by sculptor Gevorg Gevorgyan was opened in the street named after him in Yerevan's [[Arabkir district]] by Yerevan Mayor [[Taron Margaryan]] on his 110th anniversary.<ref>{{cite news |script-title=hy:Արաբկիր վարչական շրջանում բացվեց Արամ Խաչատրյանի կիսանդրին |trans-title=Aram Khachatryan's bust erected in Arabkir district|url=http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/156536/|date=30 April 2013|agency=[[PanARMENIAN.Net]]|language=hy}}</ref>

A statue of Khachaturian by [[Georgy Frangulyan]] was unveiled in Moscow on 31 October 2006. Notable attendees included Armenian President Kocharyan, Moscow Mayor [[Yury Luzhkov]] and Russia's First Lady [[Lyudmila Putina]].<ref>{{cite news|title=В Москве открыт памятник композитору Араму Хачатуряну [Statue of Aram Khachaturian unveiled in Moscow]|url=http://ria.ru/culture/20061031/55268534.html|date=31 October 2006|agency=[[RIA Novosti]]|language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403010026/https://ria.ru/20061031/55268534.html |archive-date=3 April 2019}}</ref> Busts of Khachaturian by the Armenian sculptor Mikael Soghoyan were erected at the [[Moscow Conservatory]] in 2017<ref>{{cite news |title=Бюст композитора Арама Хачатуряна открыли в Московской консерватории |url=https://www.m24.ru/articles/kulturnoe-nasledie/02022017/129223 |work=m24.ru |date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825132937/https://www.m24.ru/articles/kulturnoe-nasledie/02022017/129223 |archive-date=25 August 2021 |language=ru}}</ref> and in front of an arts school named after him in [[Nizhny Novgorod]] in August 2021.<ref>{{cite news |title=Monument to composer Khachaturian unveiled in Nizhny Novgorod near the School of arts, which bears his name |url=https://admgor.nnov.ru/news/9843 |work=admgor.nnov.ru |agency=Official website of the Nizhny Novgorod City Administration |date=5 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808130349/https://admgor.nnov.ru/news/9843 |archive-date=8 August 2021}}</ref>

===Films===
In 1977, a year before his death, [[Studio Ekran]] made a documentary on Khachaturian.<ref name="77doc">{{cite web |title=Арам Хачатурян (1977) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRtvGGWcAo0 |publisher=[[Gosteleradiofond]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224193807/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRtvGGWcAo0 |archive-date=24 February 2022 |language=ru |date=19 May 2020 |access-date=24 February 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1985, the Yerevan Studio produced another TV documentary on him.<ref>{{cite web|script-title=hy:Արամ Խաչատրյան. Արվեստագետ քաղաքացին|trans-title=Aram Khachaturian. The Artist-Citizen|url=https://www.1tv.am/hy/video/%D5%93-%D5%96-%D4%B1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B4-%D4%BD%D5%A1%D5%B9%D5%A1%D5%BF%D6%80%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6-%D4%B1%D6%80%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%BD%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%A5%D5%BF-%D6%84%D5%A1%D5%B2%D5%A1%D6%84%D5%A1%D6%81%D5%AB%D5%B6/145398|publisher=[[Public Television of Armenia]] Archives|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224193809/https://www.1tv.am/hy/video/%D5%93-%D5%96-%D4%B1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B4-%D4%BD%D5%A1%D5%B9%D5%A1%D5%BF%D6%80%D5%B5%D5%A1%D5%B6-%D4%B1%D6%80%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%BD%D5%BF%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%A5%D5%BF-%D6%84%D5%A1%D5%B2%D5%A1%D6%84%D5%A1%D6%81%D5%AB%D5%B6/145398|archive-date=24 February 2022|language=hy|access-date=24 February 2022|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2003, an 83-minute-long documentary about Khachaturian with unique footage was directed by Peter Rosen and narrated by [[Eric Bogosian]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Kehr|first=Dave|author-link=Dave Kehr|title=A Composer's Life, Beyond Vaudeville and Stalin|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2003/10/17/movies/17KHAT.html|newspaper=New York Times|date=17 October 2003}}</ref><ref>The film is available online: {{cite web |title=Khachaturian: The virtuous Soviet Armenian composer (2003) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJUWrcA6Hw |publisher=EuroArtsChannel on YouTube |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327122012/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJUWrcA6Hw |archive-date=27 March 2022 |date=29 July 2017 |access-date=24 February 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> The film won the Best Documentary at the 2003 [[Hollywood Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Khachaturian|url=http://emro.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=1753|agency=[[University at Buffalo, The State University of New York]]|year=2003|access-date=10 April 2014|archive-date=13 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413140444/http://emro.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=1753|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2004, [[Russia-K (TV channel)|TV Kultura]], Russia's government-owned art channel, made a documentary on Khachaturian entitled ''Century of Aram Khachaturian'' (Век Арама Хачатуряна).<ref>{{cite web|title=Век Арама Хачатуряна [Century of Aram Khachaturian]|url=http://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/30911|publisher=TV Kultura|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313164806/http://tvkultura.ru/brand/show/brand_id/30911|archive-date=13 March 2014|language=ru}}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
{{Col-begin}}{{Col-2}}
'''Soviet Union'''{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|pp=18–19}}<ref name="Titles, prizes, awards"/>
* [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin Prize]] second degree (1941) – for Violin Concerto
* [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin Prize]] first degree (1943) – for ballet ''Gayane''
* [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin Prize]] first degree (1946) – for the Second Symphony
* [[State Stalin Prize|Stalin Prize]] first degree (1950) – for the film ''[[The Battle of Stalingrad (film)|The Battle of Stalingrad]]'')
* [[USSR State Prize]] (1971) – for the Triad of Concerto-Rhapsodies: for violin and orchestra; for cello and orchestra; for piano and orchestra)
* [[Lenin Prize]] (1959) – for the ballet ''Spartacus''
* [[Hero of Socialist Labour]] (1973)
* [[Order of Lenin]] (1939, 1963, 1973)
* [[People's Artist of the USSR]] (1954), [[People's Artist of the RSFSR|Russian SFSR]] (1947), [[People's Artist of the Armenian SSR|Armenian SSR]] (1955), [[People's Artist of the Georgian SSR|Georgian SSR]] (1963), [[People's Artiste of the Azerbaijan SSR|Azerbaijan SSR]] (1973)
* Honored Art Worker of the Armenian SSR (1938), Russian SFSR (1944), [[Uzbek SSR]] (1967)
* [[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]] (1945, 1966)
* [[Order of the October Revolution]] (1971)
''Academic titles''<ref name="mosconsv"/>
* Professor of Music — 1950
* [[Academician|Full Member (Academician)]] of the [[Armenian National Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR]] — 1963
* [[Doctor of Arts]] (Доктор искусствоведения), Academy of Sciences of the USSR — 1965{{sfn|Geodakyan|1979|p=18}}
{{Col-2}}
'''Other states'''<ref name="Titles, prizes, awards">{{cite web|title=Titles, prizes, awards|url=http://www.khachaturian.am/eng/awards.htm|publisher=Virtual Museum of Aram Khachaturian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313165017/http://www.khachaturian.am/eng/awards.htm|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref> 
*Order of the Science of Art of the [[United Arab Republic]] (1961, "for outstanding musical achievements")
*Medal of Pope John XXIII (1963)
*Medal of the Iranian Shah (1965)
*Honored Art Worker of [[Polish People's Republic]] (1972, "[[Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture|for contribution to the Polish culture]]")
*[[Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]] (France) and title of Commandeur (1974)
''Honorary titles''<ref name="mosconsv"/>
*Honorary Member of the [[Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia]], Rome, Italy — 1960
*[[Academician#Corresponding Member|Corresponding Member]] of the [[Akademie der Künste der DDR|Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic]] — 1961
*Honorary Professor of the [[Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico)|Conservatorio Nacional de Música]], Mexico — 1960
{{Col-end}}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{notelist-ua|30em}}
'''Citations'''
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="ysu">{{cite web|title=Khachaturian Aram|url=http://www.armeniaculture.am/en/Encyclopedia_khachatryan_aram|publisher=[[Yerevan State University]] Institute for Armenian Studies|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313051131/http://www.armeniaculture.am/en/Encyclopedia_khachatryan_aram|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref>

<ref name="ria">{{cite web|title=Биография Арама Хачатуряна [Aram Khachaturian's biography]|url=http://ria.ru/spravka/20130606/941320685.html|publisher=[[RIA Novosti]]|language=ru|date=6 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313164303/http://ria.ru/spravka/20130606/941320685.html|archive-date=13 March 2014}}</ref>

<ref name="Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century">{{harvnb|Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century|2013}}</ref>

<ref name="Complete Classical Music Guide">{{harvnb|Complete Classical Music Guide|2012|p=301}}</ref>

<ref name="Johnston, AllMusic 2005">{{harvnb|Johnston, AllMusic|2005}}</ref>

<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004">{{harvnb|Encyclopedia of World Biography|2004}}</ref>

<ref name="Pritsker">{{harvnb|Pritsker|2003}}</ref>

<ref name="Greene's">{{harvnb|Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers|1985}}</ref>

<ref name="npr">{{harvnb|Huizenga, NPR|2003}}</ref>

<ref name="Orga Naxos 1997">{{harvnb|Orga|1997}}</ref>

<ref name="Randel">{{harvnb|Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|1996|p=445}}</ref>

<ref name="Geodakyan 1981">{{harvnb|Geodakyan|1981}}</ref>

<ref name="The Musical Times 1978">{{harvnb|The Musical Times|1978}}</ref>

<ref name="Adalian">{{cite book|last=Adalian|first=Rouben Paul|title=Historical Dictionary of Armenia|year=2010|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=978-0-8108-7450-3|author-link=Rouben Paul Adalian|page=381}}</ref>

<ref name="laphil">{{cite web|title=Sabre Dance from "Gayane"|url=http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/sabre-dance-from-gayane-aram-khachaturian|publisher=[[Los Angeles Philharmonic Association]]|access-date=10 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413141319/http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/sabre-dance-from-gayane-aram-khachaturian|archive-date=13 April 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Current Biography">{{harvnb|Current Biography Yearbook|1949}}</ref>

<ref name="NYPost68">{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Harriett |title=Khachaturian Debuts as Conductor |url=http://treasury.am/storage/media/1yGFrqezM1N7MbVN.jpg |work=[[New York Post]] |date=29 January 1968 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220212182529/http://treasury.am/storage/media/1yGFrqezM1N7MbVN.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 February 2022}}</ref>

<ref name="Curtis67">{{cite news |last1=Curtis |first1=Charlotte |author1-link=Charlotte Curtis |title=Even in Russia, A Wife Has to Cook |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/08/27/archives/even-in-russia-a-wife-has-to-cook.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=27 August 1967}}</ref>

<ref name="Montreal">{{cite news |title=Soviet Union's 'Mr. Sabre Dance' dies at 74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5j8wAAAAIBAJ&dq=Khachaturian+sabre+dance&pg=PA36&article_id=4400,709745 |work=[[The Montreal Gazette]] |publisher= (via [[UPI]]-[[Associated Press|AP]]) |date=May 3, 1978 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715125722/https://books.google.am/books?id=5j8wAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA36&dq=Khachaturian+sabre+dance&article_id=4400,709745&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjRi42R64SAAxUARvEDHaBXCA4Q6AF6BAgDEAM#v=onepage&q=Khachaturian%20sabre%20dance&f=false |archive-date=15 July 2023}}</ref>

<ref name="TheAge">{{cite news |title=Death ends generation of Soviet composers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_pUAAAAIBAJ&dq=Khachaturian+sabre+dance&pg=PA2&article_id=1203,1310269 |work=[[The Age]] |date=May 4, 1978 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710191017/https://books.google.am/books?id=P_pUAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=Khachaturian+sabre+dance&article_id=1203,1310269&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjRi42R64SAAxUARvEDHaBXCA4Q6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q=Khachaturian%20sabre%20dance&f=false |archive-date=10 July 2023}}</ref>

<ref name="March1985">{{cite web |last1=March |first1=Ivan |author1-link=Ivan March |title=Khachaturian/Tchaikovsky Orchestral Works |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/khachaturiantchaikovsky-orchestral-works-0 |website=[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726173701/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Er4Mcvh4owEJ:https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/khachaturiantchaikovsky-orchestral-works-0&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=am&lr=lang_en%7Clang_ru%7Clang_hy |archive-date=26 July 2023 |date=1985}}</ref>

<ref name="Gompper">{{cite book  |editor1-last=Smorodinskaya |editor1-first=Tatiana |editor2-last=Evans-Romaine |editor2-first=Karen |editor3-last=Goscilo |editor3-first=Helena |title=Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture |date=2012 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=[https://www.google.am/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_Contemporary_Russian_Cul/ZXz2okCSfq8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Masquerade+(1941).+The+first+Soviet+composer+in+the+country+to+write+film+scores,+Khachaturian+maintained%22&pg=PA293&printsec=frontcover 293] |chapter=Khachaturian, Aram Ilich |last1=Gompper |first1=David}}</ref>

}}
{{notelist}}

==Bibliography==
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}

===Books and book chapters===
* {{cite book |last1=Bagar |first1=Robert |last2=Biancolli |first2=Louis |title=The Concept Companion: A comprehensive guide to symphonic music |date=1947 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.214408 |publisher=Whittlesey House |location=New York & London}}
*{{cite book|chapter=Khachaturyan|last=Bakst|first=James|title=A History of Russian-Soviet Music|date=1977|publisher=[[Greenwood Press]]|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=0837194229|edition=Reprint}}
*{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Harlow|year=2013|chapter=The Caucasian Connection: National Identity in the Ballets of Aram Khachaturian|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1sWMAQAAQBAJ&q=sabre+dance&pg=PA23|title=Identities, Nations and Politics After Communism|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=9781317968665|pages=23–32|editor=[[Roger Kanet|Kanet, Roger E.]]}}
*{{cite book|last=Shneerson|first=Grigory|year=1959|title=Aram Khachaturyan|others=Xenia Danko (translator)|location=Moscow|publisher=[[Foreign Languages Publishing House (Soviet Union)|Foreign Languages Publishing House]]}}
*{{cite book|last=Yuzefovich|first=Victor|year=1985|title=Aram Khachaturyan|others=Nicholas Kournokoff and Vladimir Bobrov (translators)|location=New York|publisher=Sphinx Press|isbn=0-8236-8658-2}}
*{{cite book |last1=Hakobian |first1=Levon |authorlink=:ru:Акопян, Левон Оганесович (музыковед) |title=Music of the Soviet Era: 1917-1991 |date=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London |isbn=9781317091875 |edition=2nd}}

===Dictionary and encyclopedia articles===
*{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Encyclopedia of World Biography|2004}}|chapter=Aram Ilich Khachaturian|chapter-url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Aram_Ilich_Khachaturian.aspx#1|title=Encyclopedia of World Biography|location=Detroit|publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]]|year=2004}}
*{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Complete Classical Music Guide|2012|p=301}}|chapter=Aram Khachaturian|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w5hGTCM8WE0C&q=aram+khachaturian&pg=PA301|title=The Complete Classical Music Guide|year=2012|publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]]|location=London|isbn=9781465401342|page=301}}
*{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century|2013}}|last=Blackwood|first=Alan|title=Encyclopedia of Music in the 20th Century|chapter=Aram Khachaturian|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8W2AgAAQBAJ&q=%22Khachaturian%22+%2220th+century%22&pg=PA341|date=2013|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=Abingdon, Oxon|isbn=978-1-57958-079-7|editor=Stacy, Lee|editor2=Henderson, Lol|page=341}}
*{{cite book|last=Geodakyan|first=Gevorg|author-link=Gevorg Geodakyan|chapter=Խաչատրյան Արամ [Khachatryan Aram]|title=Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia Volume 5|pages=[[:s:hy:Էջ:Հայկական Սովետական Հանրագիտարան (Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia) 5.djvu/18|18–20]]|year=1979|language=hy|location=Yerevan|publisher=Armenian Encyclopedia Publishing|title-link=Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia}}
*{{cite book|last=Geodakyan|first=Gevorg|title=Музыкальная энциклопедия|trans-title=Musical Encyclopedia|location=Moscow|language=ru|publisher=Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya and Sovetsky Kompozitor|year=1981|chapter=Хачатурян А. И. [Khachaturian A. I.] |chapter-url=http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_music/8125/%D0%A5%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%BD|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322003101/http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_music/8125/%D0%A5%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%BD|archive-date=22 March 2014}}
*{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Johnston, AllMusic|2005}}|title=All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music|date=2005|publisher=[[Backbeat Books]]|location=San Francisco|isbn=9780879308650|pages=685–6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nlDOICBmhbkC|editor=Woodstra, Chris|editor2=Brennan, Gerald|editor3=Schrott, Allen|last=Johnston|first=Blair|chapter=Aram Khachaturian: Artist Biography}}; also available online at [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/aram-khachaturian-mn0000033815/biography AllMusic]
*{{cite journal|ref={{harvid|Current Biography Yearbook|1949}}|journal=[[Current Biography|Current Biography Yearbook]]|year=1949|title=Khachaturian, Aram|volume=9|page=345|publisher=[[H. W. Wilson Company]]|location=New York}}
*{{cite book|last=Lebrecht|first=Norman|title=The Companion to 20th-century Music|chapter=Aram Khachaturian|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LG7iyR_qUGEC&q=%22Khachaturian%22+%2220th+century%22&pg=PA183|date=1996|publisher=[[Da Capo Press]]|location=New York|isbn=9780306807343|page=[https://archive.org/details/americancinemadi0000sarr_b3x5/page/183 183]|author-link=Norman Lebrecht|url=https://archive.org/details/americancinemadi0000sarr_b3x5/page/183}}
*{{cite book|last1=McCollum|first1=Jonathan|title=Armenian Music: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Discography|year=2004|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|location=Lanham, Maryland|isbn=9780810849679|pages=95–96|last2=Nercessian|first2=Andy|chapter=Aram Khachaturian|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79Anbtgi1ZcC&q=aram+khachaturian&pg=PA95}}
*{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers|1985}}|chapter=Khachaturian, Aram Ilyich|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3S7PIxe0mwC&q=1968+khachaturian&pg=PA1330|title=David Mason Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers|date=1985|publisher=Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation|location=Garden City, New York|isbn=9780385142786|pages=1329–30|edition=1st|editor=Petrak, Albert M.}}
*{{cite book|chapter=Khachaturian, Aram Il'yich|url=https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand|url-access=registration|quote=Khachaturian, Aram Il'yich.|title=The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|year=1996|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780674372993|editor=[[Don Michael Randel|Randel, Don Michael]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/445 445]|ref={{harvid|Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|1996|p=445}}}}
*{{cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Kenyon C.|chapter=Khachaturian, Aram|title=A Basic Classical and Operatic Recordings Collection for Libraries|year=1987|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|location=Metuchen, New Jersey|isbn=9780810820418|pages=111–112}}
*{{cite book|last=Tomoff|first=Kiril|title=Creative Union: The Professional Organization of Soviet Composers, 1939-1953|year=2006|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=9780801444111|pages=34–35}}

===Journal articles===
*{{cite journal|last=Chebotaryan|first=Gayane|title=OA Portal in Armenia |author-link=Gayane Chebotaryan |script-title=hy:Արամ Խաչատրյան (Ծննդյան 60-ամյակի առթիվ) |journal=[[Patma-Banasirakan Handes]]|volume=3|issue=3|url=http://hpj.asj-oa.am/526/|year=1963|pages=109–114|publisher=[[Armenian Academy of Sciences]]|location=Yerevan|language=hy}}
*{{cite journal|author1=Ehrenburg, Ilya|author2=Khachaturian, Aram|author3=Pomerantsev, V.|journal=[[Soviet Studies]]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=1954|title=Three Soviet artists on the present needs of Soviet art|volume=5|issue=4|pages=412–445|doi=10.1080/09668135408409919|author-link1=Ilya Ehrenburg}}
*{{cite journal|title="National in Form, Socialist in Content": Musical Nation-Building in the Soviet Republics|first=Marina|last=Frolova-Walker|author-link=Marina Frolova-Walker|journal=[[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]|volume=51|issue=2|pages=331–337|date=Summer 1998|publisher=[[University of California Press]] on behalf of the [[American Musicological Society]]|doi=10.2307/831980|jstor=831980}}
*{{cite journal|title=Soviet Music Today|jstor=943199|first=Georgi|last=Keldysh|journal=[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]|volume=32|issue=32|pages=23–28|date=Summer 1954|doi=10.1017/S0040298200051883|s2cid=145524684 }}
*{{cite journal|ref={{harvid|The Musical Times|1978}}|journal=[[The Musical Times]]|title=Aram Khachaturian|first=G.|last=N.|volume=19|issue=1625|date=July 1978|page=619|publisher=Musical Times Publications|jstor=958852}}
*{{cite web|last=Orga|first=Ates|title=Aram Il'yich Khachaturian (1903–1978)|url=http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.550799&catNum=550799&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English|publisher=[[Naxos Records]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312180517/http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.550799&catNum=550799&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English|archive-date=12 March 2014|year=1997}}
*{{cite journal|author-link=Dmitri Shostakovich|first=Dmitri|last=Shostakovich|title=Яркий талант [Bright talent]|journal=[[Music Academy (journal)|Music Academy]]|year=1959|issue=6|language=ru}} [an essay praising Khachaturian]
*{{cite journal|last=Steyn|first=Carol|title=Khachaturyan in Armenia today: his presence in Armenian music, art and architecture, rooted in Socialist Realism|journal=South African Journal of Art History|date=2009|volume=24|issue=3|pages=9–23|url=http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/17623/Steyn_Khachaturyan(2009).pdf|issn=0258-3542|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814013657/http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/17623/Steyn_Khachaturyan%282009%29.pdf|archive-date=14 August 2014}}
*{{cite journal|last1=Ter-Ghazarian|first1=Zara |title=OA Portal in Armenia |script-title=hy:Ա. Խաչատրյանի "Մակբեթ" ներկայացման պարտիտուրը |trans-title=The score of A. Khachaturian's play "Macbeth"|journal=[[Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri]]|date=1983|volume=6|issue=6|pages=23–28|url=http://lraber.asj-oa.am/4856/|publisher=Armenian Academy of Sciences|location=Yerevan|language=hy|issn=0320-8117}}
*{{cite journal|last=Tigranova|first=Irina G.|title=OA Portal in Armenia |author-link=Georgi Tigranov|script-title=hy:Արամ Խաչատրյանի ոճի մի առանձնահատկության մասին |trans-title=About a Certain Particuliarity of Aram Khachatourian's Style|journal=Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri|date=1970|volume=1|issue=1|pages=26–35|url=http://lraber.asj-oa.am/1588/|publisher=Armenian Academy of Sciences|location=Yerevan|language=hy}}

===Newspaper articles===
*{{cite news|ref={{harvid|New York Times obituary|1978}}|title=Khachaturian, a Leading Soviet Composer, Dies at 74|url=https://mobile.nytimes.com/1978/05/03/archives/khachaturian-a-leading-soviet-composer-dies-at-74-works-included.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=3 May 1978}} ([https://archive.org/details/AramKhachaturianObituaryNewYorkTimes archived])
*{{cite news|last=Holland|first=Bernard|title=Khachaturian Beckons With Little-Known Works|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/arts/music-review-khachaturian-beckons-with-little-known-works.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=14 October 2003|author-link=Bernard Holland}}
*{{cite news|ref={{harvid|Huizenga, NPR|2003}}|last=Huizenga|first=Tom|title=The 'Sabre Dance' Man|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1287262|date=5 June 2005|agency=[[NPR]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317171324/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1287262|archive-date=17 March 2014}}
*{{cite news|last=Pritsker|first=Maya|title=What Could Khachaturian Do Besides An Encore?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/05/arts/music-what-could-khachaturian-do-besides-an-encore.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=5 October 2003}}
{{div col end}}

==Further reading==
{{div col|colwidth=45em}}
*{{Cite book|last=Avetisyan|first=Nelly|title=Aram Khachaturian and The Contemporary World|publisher="Amrots Group", "Tigran Mec" Publishing|others=Aram Khachaturian Museum, Ministry of Culture of RA|year=2014|isbn=978-99941-31-80-8|editor-last=Grigoryan|editor-first=Armine|location=Yerevan|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|first=Gayane|last=Chebotaryan|author-link=Gayane Chebotaryan|title=Полифония в творчестве Арама Хачатуряна|trans-title=Polyphony in Aram Khachaturian's Works|year=1969|location=Yerevan|publisher=Hayastan Publishing|language=ru|oclc=9225122|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|last=Fay|first=Laurel E.|title=Aram Khachaturian: a complete catalogue|date=1990|publisher=[[G. Schirmer Inc.]]|location=New York|oclc=23711723|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|last=Geodakyan|first=Gevorg|author-link=Gevorg Geodakyan|title=Арам Хачатурян [Aram Khachaturian]|date=1972|publisher=Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences Press|location=Yerevan|language=ru|ref=none}}
*{{Cite book|last=Grigoryan|first=Armine|title=Album: Aram Khachaturian|publisher="Krunk" Publishing|others=Aram Khachaturian Museum, Ministry of Culture of RA|year=2012|editor-last=Shahmanyan|editor-first=Anahit|location=Yerevan|ref=none}}
*{{Cite book|editor-last=Grigoryan|editor-first=ArmineCite book|title=Aram Khachaturian. Arrangements for Piano Trio|publisher="Komitas" Publishing|others=Arranged by Avetik Pivazyan and Ruben Asatryan. Aram Khachaturian Museum, Ministry of Culture of RA|year=2016|location=Yerevan|ismn=979-0-801-600-79-0|editor-last2=Shahgaldyan|editor-first2=Karen|editor-last3=Kocharyan|editor-first3=Karen|ref=none}}
*{{Cite book|editor-last=Grigoryan|editor-first=Armine|script-title=hy:Արամ Խաչատրյան. նամականի |trans-title=Aram Khachaturian: Complete Collection of Letters|publisher="Grakan Hayreniq", "Hayastan" Publishing|others=Aram Khachaturian Museum, Ministry of Culture of RA|year=2017|isbn=978-5-540-02446-4|location=Yerevan|language=hy|editor-last2=Shahmanyan|editor-first2=Anahit|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|last=Karagiulian|first=E.|title=Симфоническое творчество А. Хачатуряна [Symphonic Oeuvre of A. Khachaturian]|publisher=Armgosizdat|location=Yerevan|language=ru|year=1961|oclc=25716788|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|last=Kharajanian|first=R.|title=Фортепианное творчество Арама Хачатуряна [Aram Khachaturian's piano music]|date=1973|publisher=Hayastan Publishing|location=Yerevan|language=ru|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|first=Georgii|last=Khubov|year=1939|title=Арам Хачатурян. Эскиз характеристики [Aram Khachaturian. Sketches of characteristics]|language=ru|location=Moscow|publisher=Gosudarstvennoe muzykal'noe izdatel'stvo|oclc=29138604|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|first=Georgii|last=Khubov|year=1967|title=Арам Хачатурян:монография [Aram Khachaturian: monography]|edition=2nd|language=ru|location=Moscow|publisher=Muzyka|oclc=4940007|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|last=Rybakova|first=S.|title=Арам Ильич Хачатурян: Сборник статей [Aram Khachaturian: Collection of articles]|date=1975|publisher=Sovetsky Kompozitor|location=Moscow|language=ru|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|first=Georgiĭ|last=Tigranov|title=Арам Ильич Хачатурян: очерк жизни и творчества [Aram Khachaturian: Outline of Life and Work]|location=Leningrad|publisher=Muzyka|year=1978|language=ru|oclc=8495433|ref=none}}
*{{cite book|first=Georgiĭ|last=Tigranov|title=Арам Ильич Хачатурян [Aram Ilʹich Khachaturi︠a︡n]|location=Moscow|publisher=Muzyka|year=1987|language=ru|oclc=17793679|ref=none}}
{{div col end}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Aram Khachaturian}}
*[http://www.khachaturian.am Virtual Museum of Aram Khachaturian]
*{{cite news|last=Kocharova|first=Anna|title=100 лет автору "Танца с саблями" [100th anniversary of the author of the "Sabre Dance"]|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/entertainment/newsid_2967000/2967874.stm|agency=[[BBC Russian Service]]|date=6 June 2003|location=Moscow|language=ru|ref=none}}
*{{cite web|last=Suchý|first=Ondřej|author-link=:cs:Ondřej Suchý|title="Танец с саблями" по-чешски [The "Sabre Dance" in Czech]|url=http://www.radio.cz/ru/rubrika/mojarosija/tanec-s-sablyami-po-cheshski|publisher=[[Radio Prague]]|language=ru|date=24 February 2007|ref=none}}
*{{IMDb name|6154}}

{{Aram Khachaturian}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khachaturian, Aram}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Armenian musicians]]
[[Category:Soviet classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century male composers]]
[[Category:Concert band composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Tbilisi]]
[[Category:People from Tiflis Governorate]]
[[Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members]]
[[Category:Fifth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Gnessin State Musical College alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Gnessin State Musical College]]
[[Category:Moscow Conservatory alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory]]
[[Category:Armenian atheists]]
[[Category:Armenian classical musicians]]
[[Category:Ballet composers]]
[[Category:Composers for piano]]
[[Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres]]
[[Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour]]
[[Category:People's Artists of Armenia]]
[[Category:People's Artists of Azerbaijan]]
[[Category:People's Artists of Georgia]]
[[Category:People's Artists of the RSFSR]]
[[Category:People's Artists of the USSR]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lenin Prize]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the USSR State Prize]]
[[Category:Pupils of Nikolai Myaskovsky]]
[[Category:Armenian male classical composers]]
[[Category:Male conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Male film score composers]]
[[Category:National anthem writers]]
[[Category:Armenian classical composers]]
[[Category:Armenian communists]]
[[Category:Armenian conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Armenian film score composers]]
[[Category:Soviet academics]]
[[Category:Soviet Armenians]]
[[Category:Soviet atheists]]
[[Category:Soviet classical musicians]]
[[Category:Soviet communists]]
[[Category:Soviet conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Soviet film score composers]]
[[Category:Soviet male classical composers]]
[[Category:Soviet music educators]]
[[Category:Burials at the Komitas Pantheon]]
[[Category:Armenian ballet composers]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia]]
[[Category:Classical composers from Georgia (country)]]