Khachaturian Poem about Stalin - Soviet Music @ Lewes U3A Summer Shorts: a sequence of pieces from the 1930s - U3A Site Builder
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Soviet Music @ Lewes U3A
Summer Shorts: a sequence of pieces from the 1930s
Khachaturian
Poem about Stalin
Aram Khachaturian (1903 – 78) was a Soviet-Armenian composer who built a strong international profile.
His reputation isn’t enhanced by this toe-curling sycophantic work, a symphonic poem culminating in a hymn
praising Stalin – “leader of the country… who lights up the expanse like the sun”.
It’s fascinating that a wide range of artists contributed such works during the Stalin era.
There would be a good commission for a composer, and repeat performances would bring royalties.
But it is not safe to assume that cynicism was the only driver for such art!
The song dates from 1937, and the entire symphonic work was first heard on 29 November 1938.
© 2021 Terry Metheringham terrymetheringham@btinternet.com +44 7528 835 422Soviet Music: Summer Shorts Khachaturian Poem about Stalin Page 2
Khachaturian’s background
Born in Tiflis (now called Tbilisi) in Georgia – but identified as Armenian. (Yes, this area is known as Trans Caucasus.)
His father was a bookbinder.
He grew up in a cosmopolitan mix of influences, later writing:
“Old Tiflis was a city of sounds. If you wandered away from the main street you were quickly plunged into a world
of vivid musical incense from a variety of sources”.
Moved to Moscow in 1922 to study biology and music.
Soon he was focusing solely on music, gaining formal composition training to support his gift for improvisation.
His teachers were:
Gnesin
Glière
Myaskovsky.
Glière was perhaps the most significant of these teachers in terms of the development of his personal style
He was the Soviet-era master of the re-emergence of (predominantly ersatz) Russian orientalism.
Khachaturian had soon established his own style, which fellow Armenian Levon Hakobian summarises as:
a spectacular flourish followed by “a plain course of further development, a misuse of repeating structures and
rather wearisome instrumental flourishes.”
[Hakobian Music of the Soviet Era 2017 p114]
Boris Asafyev, writing in 1945, likened Khachaturian to Rubens:
sumptuousness of life-enjoying melodies… resplendence of orchestra … abundance in bunches of melodies and
adornments… He is the Rubens of our music, the Rubens of oriental tales; for the musician Khachaturian originates
from the land of superb colourful poems and admirable embellished melodies.
© 2021 Terry Metheringham terrymetheringham@btinternet.com +44 7528 835 422Soviet Music: Summer Shorts Khachaturian Poem about Stalin Page 3
Poem about Stalin
This composition was first heard in November 1937 as a choral setting of the poem – a hymn to Stalin.
The lyrics are by Mirza Bayramov (1888-1960) an Azerbaijani ashug from Tauz.
(An ashug is a folk singer-poet… a sort of bard.)
The orchestral element, a rhapsodic symphonic poem, was added
and the entire work was first performed on 29 November 1938, in Moscow, conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.
There are three movements:
I Prologue
This lasts about 15 minutes, two-thirds of the duration of the entire work
It alternates song-like sections with dance sections.
II Allegro
Short and dramatic.
III Epilogue
Here the choir joins with the magnificent hymn.
A contemporary review by Danilevich says:
This song is a real flood of feelings. It expresses with tremendous force the enthusiastic jubilation of the
masses, who salute their leader. It also expresses a wonderful pride of the rejuvenated people:
The country flourishes like a garden;
In which the gardener is Comrade Stalin.
© 2021 Terry Metheringham terrymetheringham@btinternet.com +44 7528 835 422Soviet Music: Summer Shorts Khachaturian Poem about Stalin Page 4
Assessment
Modern commentators mostly avoid speaking of this piece.
Hakobian is characteristically blunt:
The best and worst elements of Khachaturian’s style – the moments of genuine uplift and delicate lyricism, and
those of sheer tastelessness – are united in Poem about Stalin in an idiosyncratic manner, which is itself not devoid
of a certain charm.
In its time Khachaturian’s symphonic poem was seen as one of the most successful musical tributes to Stalin…
surpassed only by Prokofiev’s cantata: Zdravitsa.
When Stalin Prizes were first awarded, in 1941, Poem about Stalin was briefly considered for prize,
but instead the music sub-committee submitted Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto.
The explanation for this decision, as recorded in the minutes, is extremely revealing…
Despite its undoubted worth, we didn’t submit Poem about Stalin because by granting it a prize, we would be
saying: here is a work which offered a fine rendition of this huge theme in the language of its art. But we didn’t
consider the work to be on the scale of the finale of Ivan Susanin [= Glinka’s Life for the Tsar], or the finale of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. That is why we are submitting Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto.
[words of Goldenweiser, in Frolova-Walker Stalin’s Music Prize 2016 p50]
Unpack that remarkable statement…
Rendering Stalin in art is a huge theme…
to succeed a composition would need to be at the level of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
© 2021 Terry Metheringham terrymetheringham@btinternet.com +44 7528 835 422Soviet Music: Summer Shorts Khachaturian Poem about Stalin Page 5
Поэма о Сталине / Poem about Stalin – lyrics by Mirza Bayramov (1888-1960)
Вождь страны, о тебе выше гор Leader of the country, about you above the mountains
Поднимается слава в народе, Your glory rises among the people,
Осветил ты, как солнце, простор, You light up the expanse like the sun,
Хорошо нам теперь на свободе. It's good for us now to be free.
Скоро мир весь откроет глаза Soon the whole world will open its eyes
И поднимет знамя твое, And raise your banner,
Это знает ашуг Мирза, Ashug Mirza* knows this,
Потому так легко поет. That is why he sings so readily.
Песней радости и труда Songs of joy and labour
Огласятся широкие дали; Sound across wide expanses;
С нами имя твое всегда, Your name is always with us
Словно знамя, товарищ Сталин! Like a banner, Comrade Stalin!
Вождь народов, я славлю твой ум Leader of the nations, I praise your mind
Твою волю, что крепче стали. Your will is stronger than steel.
У меня в голове много дум I have in my head many thoughts
О тебе, мой любимый Сталин! About you, my beloved Stalin!
Я смотрю на народ, в душе весна, I look at the people, there is spring in my soul,
Нет ни бедности, ни печали. There is no poverty no sorrow.
Расцветает, как сад, страна; The country flourishes like a garden;
В нем садовник — товарищ Сталин. In which the gardener is Comrade Stalin.
Тебе всегда мы будем песнь слагать, We will always write songs about you,
Твоею жизнью весь народ богат. Your life enriches all people.
Живи же вечно среди нас, наш брат, Live among us, forever our brother,
Учитель, друг, бесценный вождь наш Сталин! Teacher, friend, priceless leader, our Stalin!
* Ashug Mirza – the poet, Mirza Bayramov (an ashug is singer and poet; a sort of bard)
© 2021 Terry Metheringham terrymetheringham@btinternet.com +44 7528 835 422Soviet Music: Summer Shorts Khachaturian Poem about Stalin Page 6
LINK
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SGErJewnrk
Khachaturian Poem about Stalin
An anonymous performance from 1938
Possibly conducted Aleksandr Gauk?
© 2021 Terry Metheringham terrymetheringham@btinternet.com +44 7528 835 422You can also read
