Gopak - MVSR0199 | Partitions

Aram Chatschaturjan (1903-1978) is one of the most famous composers of the former Soviet Union. Born at the Southern border of the UDSSR, in Armenia, he studied Music in Moscow from 1922 to 1937. From 1938 he received several awards and honorary titles and held several honorary offices in the Soviet composers' accositation. In 1951, he became professor for composition at the Moscow Conservatory and worked as a conductor during the 1950's and 1960's. Chatschaturjan is regarded as a giftet preservator of the Russian 19th century tradition. He composed symphonies, chamber music, ballets and incidental music ("Gajaneh", "Maskerade", "Spartakus"), songs and even 7 marches for wind band. (1937). His intuition for effective rhythms and his fondness of dance-like music were extraordinarily distict. The treasure of the Armenian folk music reflects in this musical oeuvre.

The dance "Gopak" - just like his famous "Sabre Dance" - is taken from his ballet "Gajaneh". Gopak is a traditional Ukrainian folk dance, only performed by men, which is very common beside Casatschok, Trepak and Meteliza. The solistic acrobatik stunts of the individual dancers are characteristic for this fast dance in 2/4 time.

Some notes concerning the music: It is important to make the dance "live". A relaxt way of playing and a fanciful interpretation of tempo will lead to a sweeping performance. The accerleration at the end of the piece will bring big effects. However, you can soften the tempo at some difficult passages and boost the voltage by increasing the tempo again after these passages.

"Gopak" is also a terrific encore!