Aram Khachaturian/Oscar Levant - Sabre Dance, from "Gayane" (audio + sheet music)

"Sabre Dance" is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane (1942), where the dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's best known and most recognizable work worldwide.
Its middle section is based on an unnamed Armenian folk song. According to Tigran Mansurian, it is a synthesis of an Armenian wedding dance tune from Gyumri tied in a saxophone counterpoint "that seems to come straight from America."
"Sabre Dance" is considered one of the signature pieces of 20th-century popular music. It was popularized by covers by pop artists, first in the US in 1948 and later elsewhere. Its use in a wide range in films and television over the decades have significantly contributed to its renown. "Sabre Dance" has also been used by a number of figure skaters from at least five countries in their performances. Tom Huizenga of NPR describes it as "one of the catchiest, most familiar-perhaps most maddening-tunes to come out of the 20th century." Critics Peter G. Davis and Martin Bernheimer have called it "infamous" and "obnoxious." A New York Times obituary noted that Khachaturian "never disowned the 'Sabre Dance', but he did feel, apparently, that it deflected attention from his other works."
After World War II, records of dances from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane reached the west and the "Sabre Dance" "caused an immediate sensation and straight away becoming a popular classical hit." In 1948, three records of the "Sabre Dance" reached number one in the Billboard Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists: by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Artur Rodziński), by the New York Philharmonic (conducted by Efrem Kurtz), and by the pianist Oscar Levant (Columbia Records). These records made them one of the Billboard Year's Top Selling Classical Artists. A record by the Boston Pops Orchestra also made it to the classical chart. "Sabre Dance" became the first million-selling record of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
According to the Current Biography Yearbook, it was Levant's performance that "received popular attention." Levant published a piano solo version of it and played the piece five times on Kraft Music Hall between December 1947 and December 1948. He also played it on the piano in the 1949 film The Barkleys of Broadway.
(Wikipedia)
Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.
Original audio: Nathan Schaumann
( • Khachaturian - Sabre D... )
Original sheet music: en.scorser.com/...