"Sabre Dance"[a] is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane (1942), where the dancers display their skill with sabres.[2] It is Khachaturian's best known and most recognizable work worldwide.[3][4] In the composer’s own words, the “Dance of the Kurds”, which subsequently became the “Sabre Dance”, originated with the insistence of the Director of the Kirov Theatre already after the rehearsal process had commenced. Although Khachaturian considered the score to be complete, he reluctantly agreed to add another dance in the last act.[5][6][7]
"Sabre Dance" is considered one of the signature pieces of 20th-century popular music.[8] It was popularized by covers by pop artists,[9] first in the U.S. in 1948 and later elsewhere. Its use in a wide range in films and television over the decades have significantly contributed to its renown.[10] "Sabre Dance" has also been used by a number of figure skaters from at least five countries in their performances.
NPR described it as "one of the catchiest, most familiar—perhaps most maddening—tunes to come out of the 20th century."[17] The New York Times noted that Khachaturian "never disowned the 'Sabre Dance', but he did feel, apparently, that it deflected attention from his other works." He told an American interviewer, "It's like one button on my shirt, and I have many buttons."[18] According to Nikolai Kapustin, Khachaturian did not like "when people are constantly performing his Sabre Dance and whistling at the same time." Kapustin told how Khachaturian once "imitated that kind of performance for us. We were laughing. Khachaturian, as well as Prokofiev, had a special sense of humor. They liked to joke with their friends, but only with close people, not everyone."[19]
Steven Poole notes that its "insistent xylophone-accented melody" has "become a kind of global musical shorthand for cartoonish urgency."[20] Critics Peter G. Davis and Martin Bernheimer have called it "infamous" and "obnoxious,"[21][22] Jed Distler characterized it as "notorious",[23] while David Mermelstein called it "garish and ubiquitous."[24] Other critics have called it "furiously paced",[25] "flashing",[26] "rollicking,"[27] "rousing",[28] "bustling,"[29] "blazing",[30] "high-tension, catchy and rhythmically insistent".[31]
Classical performances and recordings
After World War II, records of dances from Khachaturian's ballet Gayane reached the west and "Sabre Dance" "caused an immediate sensation and straightaway becoming a popular classical hit."[32] In 1948, three records of "Sabre Dance" reached number one in the Billboard Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists: by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Artur Rodziński),[33][34] by the New York Philharmonic (conducted by Efrem Kurtz),[35][b] and by the pianist Oscar Levant (Columbia Records).[37] They were among the Year's Top Selling Classical Artists,[38] and it was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first million-selling record.[39] A record by the Boston Pops Orchestra also made it to the classical chart.[40]
According to the Current Biography Yearbook, it was Levant's performance that "received popular attention."[41] Levant published a piano solo version of it and played the piece five times on the radio program Kraft Music Hall between December 1947 and December 1948.[42] He also played it on the piano in the 1949 film The Barkleys of Broadway.[43]
In 1948 "Sabre Dance" was recorded by a number of singers and became a jukebox hit in the U.S.,[58] prompting Newsweek to suggest that it could be called the "Khachaturian Year in the United States."[59]
Two decades later, in 1968, when Khachaturian visited the U.S., New York Post music critic Harriett Johnson noted that "Sabre Dance" is Khachaturian's "most popular piece in this country."[65]New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg agreed, calling it "enormously popular" and adding that the "little whirling piece occupies the same place in his output that the C sharp minor Prelude did in Rachmaninoff's."[66]
Later versions
Liberace played it live on television.[70] It was released in the 2002 album Legendary Liberace: Musical Highlights of the PBS Special.[71]
James Last covered it in his 1972 album Russland zwischen Tag und Nacht.[80]
Spontaneous Combustion released a 1973 single with two versions: "Sabre Dance" produced by the band, and their alternative arrangement "And Now For Something Completely Different! - Sabre Dance" produced by Robert Fripp, Esq., with Fripp on guitar.
The Minsk-based female performing group Charovnitsy (Чаровницы) performed it at Moscow's Luzhniki Palace of Sports for a televised New Years concert in 1989.[87]
The German heavy metal band Mekong Delta covered it in their 1992 album Kaleidoscope.[88]
"Sabre Dance" has been used in numerous films, animated films, television series, video games, and commercials over the years, oftentimes for humorous effects.[98] The piece's popular familiarity has been enhanced by its traditional use as accompaniment by travelling circuses[99] and on television variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971) when novelty acts such as plate spinners appeared.[17]
On June 6, 2013, on the 110th anniversary of Khachaturian's birthday a modern take of the Sabre Dance—Sabre Dance on the Street—was performed at Yerevan Cascade by the Barekamutyun dance ensemble and Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.[102][103][104]
Final Fantasy IV, as background music for the dancing girls' routines.
Aero the Acro-Bat, as the music in the very first stage (Sega Genesis version), or possibly the 'invulnerability' theme in other versions.
StepManiaX, as a remixed version of it by MonstDeath.
Team Fortress 2, as the Heavy can be heard singing a part of it occasionally.
Dota 2, whenever the character Ringmaster uses one of his abilities.
Use in sports
The National Hockey League (NHL)'s Buffalo Sabres have used the piece as a theme song since the team was established in 1970.[110] After a hiatus, "Sabre Dance" was again made their theme song in 2011.[111][112]
^Robinson, Harlow (2013). "The Caucasian Connection: National Identity in the Ballets of Aram Khachaturian". In Kanet, Roger E. (ed.). Identities, Nations and Politics After Communism. Routledge. p. 23. ISBN9781317968665. ...particularly the "Sabre Dance," which became the single most recognized piece of Khachaturian...
^Staines, Joe (2010). The Rough Guide to Classical Music. Penguin. ISBN9781405383219. Filled with a sparkling array of folk-inspired tunes, its most famous episode, the manic "Sabre Dance", has had a life of its own, even materializing as a pop single.
^Blades, James (1992). Percussion Instruments and Their History. Bold Strummer. p. 341. ISBN9780933224612. Khachaturian employs the xylophone freely in Dance of Young Maidens and Sabre Dance in his Gayaneh Ballet (1942)...
^Longe, Jacqueline L. (2001). How Products are Made: An Illustrated Guide to Product Manufacturing, Volume 6. Gale Group. p. 462. ISBN9780787636425. Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance" from his ballet called "Gayane Suite" has a challenging xylophone part...
^In the documentary Khachaturian (2003, directed by Peter Rosen), Tigran Mansurian states at around 33:00: "What an interesting synthesis! He's taken a melody from Gyumri, an Armenian wedding dance tune ... and he's tied in a saxophone counterpoint that seems to come straight from America. The relationship between the two seems so organic, so interesting!" The film is available online: "Khachaturian: The virtuous Soviet Armenian composer (2003)". EuroArtsChannel on YouTube. July 29, 2017. Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 19 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Tyulkova, Yana (2019). "Another significant meeting for Kapustin in Mikhalkov's house was his acquaintance with Aram Khachaturian.". Conversations with Nikolai Kapustin. Schott Music. ISBN978-3-95983-591-6.
^Distler, Jed (15 January 2004). "Moiseiwitsch, Volume 7". ClassicsToday.com. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. The same holds true for Khachaturian's Toccata and Oscar Levant's deliciously unsubtle transcription of the notorious Sabre Dance.
^ abTaruskin, Richard (2009). Music in the Late Twentieth Century: The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN978-0-19-979600-7. Khachaturian .. famous in the West for some colorful concertos and a ballet suite containing a rousing "Sabre Dance" that became a jukebox hit.
^"Retail Record Sales: Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists". Billboard. 15 May 1948. p. 25.
^"The Year's Top Selling Classical Artists Over Retail Counters". Billboard. 1 January 1949. p. 19.
^Hoffman, Frank, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Volume 1: A-L. New York: Routledge. p. 184. ISBN978-0-203-48427-2.
^"Best-Selling Records by Classical Artists". Billboard. April 3, 1948. p. 26.
^"Khachaturian, Aram". Current Biography Yearbook. 9. New York: H. W. Wilson Company: 345. 1949. The music is available on records, however, and as a result of its performance by Oscar Levant, the "Sabre Dance," a part of the suite, has received popular attention. Played in four-quarter rather than the three-quarter time in which it was written, "Sabre Dance" is "a juke-box sensation"; an adaptation, "Sabre Dance Boogie," has also been introduced.
^"The Billboard Picks [Week Ending January 30]". Billboard. February 7, 1948. p. 32.
^""Bourgeois" Composers". Life. 23 February 1948. p. 48.
^"Soviets throw book at Beria". Life. New York. December 28, 1957. p. 17. Meanwhile a musical revolt was stirred up in Russia by Aram Khachaturian, one of the U.S.S.R.'s leading composers, who wrote the U.S. juke box favorite of 1948, Sabre Dance.
^Petrak, Albert M., ed. (1985). "Khachaturian, Aram Ilyich". David Mason Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation. pp. 1329–30. ISBN978-0-385-14278-6. Meanwhile its flashy "Sabre Dance" had conquered the U.S.S.R.'s new American allies and at one time was a standard on juke-boxes.
^"Juke-Box Red". Music. Newsweek. Vol. 31. New York. 1948. p. 72. ...the music agenda in this country shows plenty to indicate that 1948 may be Khachaturian Year in the United States.
^"Scratching the Surface". The Saturday Review of Literature. 31 (1): 48. 1948. Not to be outdone by Levant, Woody Herman has recorded a dance-band version of the "Sabre Dance."
^"Liberace playing Saber Dance". showmanlee. 7 August 2008. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2023. Here is Liberace performing Saber Dance from the 50's{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Mekong Delta - Kaleidoscope". Discogs. Retrieved 2023-09-24. Sabre Dance Arranged By [Arrangement For Group] – Ralph Hubert Written-By – Khachaturian
^Lawson, Robert (2017). "Selected discography". Still Competition: The Listener's Guide to Cheap Trick. FriesenPress. p. 263. ISBN9781525512254. "Didn't Know I Had It All"/ "Love Me For A Minute", "Sabre Dance" (9362-41584-2)
^"Woke Up with a Monster". ricknielsen.com. Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick Official Site. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Japanese version "Sabre Dance"
^Patterson, Dayal (2013). Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult. Feral House. p. 104. ISBN9781936239764. ...irreverent and highly experimental covers of pre-existing compositions (among them Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance"...
^Dominic, Serene (December 22, 2004). "Classified". Metro Times. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Bond has the same disregard for public domain as Barney the dinosaur and renamed "Sabre Dance" something far catchier like "High Strung."
^Loftus, Johnny. "Bond Classified". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. "Highly Strung," for example, tries to marry Khachaturian's manic Sabre Dance to spy movie guitar and chattering electronics, the result being more garishly cartoonish than interpretive.
^Adams, Jeffrey (2015). The Cinema of the Coen Brothers: Hard-Boiled Entertainments. New York: Wallflower Press. p. 98. ISBN978-0-231-17460-2. Khachaturian's 'Saber Dance' accompanies the lengthy Hula Hoop montage depicting the toy's highly efficient industrial development from design stage to manufacture and distribution, finally ending up on the hips of an All-American youngster who magically discovers the joys of Hula Hooping and ignites a craze that swept the US in the 1950s.
^Maiorana, Sal (2012). 100 Things Sabres Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. Triumph Books. p. 22. ISBN9781623680152.
^Dunford, Jen; Bellas, Chrisanne (11 March 2011). "Opening the suggestion box". sabres.nhl.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. This signature song is still typically heard at various times during Sabres games, but many fans suggested a return to the tradition of playing the "Sabre Dance" when the team takes the ice. Beginning Sunday when the Sabres host the Senators, the song will be played when the team takes the ice prior to the second and third periods.
^Vogl, John (11 March 2011). "Sabres putting a fan imprint on arena". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on 14 March 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2014. Two topics generated significant chatter: music and the team logo. The Sabres will change the tune for their television opening, going from the Scorpions' "Hurricane 2000" to old franchise favorite "Sabre Dance," performed by violinist Vanessa Mae.
^"Сезон 81/82". icetrio.ru (in Russian). "Ice Trio" official site of figure skaters Igor Bobrin, Natalia Bestemyanova and Andrey Bukin. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Звучит «Танец с саблями» Хачатуряна. Бестемьянова и Букин за 5-6 секунд рисуют на поле катка целую вязь красивых шагов.
^"Bestemianova & Bukin (URS) - 1982 World Figure Skating Championships, Free Dance". YouTube. April 29, 2010. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2022. Cophenhagen, DENMARK - 1982 World Figure Skating Championships, Ice Dancing, Free Dance - Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin of the Soviet Union placed 2nd in the Free Dance and ended up winning the Silver Medal.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Debi Thomas 1986 Worlds EX". YouTube. December 24, 2006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Debi Thomas 1988 Worlds Exhibition". YouTube. June 25, 2008. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Episode #30: Debi Thomas". The Manleywoman SkateCast. August 24, 2009. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. So I went home and was like, what's the funniest piece of music I have in my collection? Oh, it's Sabre Dance.