Alexander Spendiaryan

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Alexander Spendiaryan (Armenian: Ալեքսանդր Սպենդիարյան, Russian: Александр Афанасьевич Спендиаров, 1871 - 1928 ^[1]) was an outstanding Armenian music composer, conductor, founder of Armenian national symphonic music and one of the patriarchs of Armenian classical music. He is the author of famous compositions such as the Almast opera, the Three palms symphonic episode, Yerevan Etudes, and many others.

On December 10, 1924, Alexander Spendiarian, newly arrived in Yerevan from Russia, conducted an 18-member orchestra consisting of conservatory professors and students. This inaugural concert proved that Armenia had the real potential to create a symphony and garner an audience in the Yerevan. The following year, on March 20, 1925, Professor Arshak Adamian, Rector of the Yerevan Conservatory, led the first concert of the then newly founded symphony orchestra. At the time, Spendiarian accurately predicted,

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“There will come a time, when our yet modest student orchestra will proudly bear the honorary title of the Armenian State Orchestra.”[2]

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In 1967, the Alexander Spendiarian House-Museum was established in the house, where the composer lived during the last years of his life. The Museum has recreated the genuine atmosphere of the composer's study and presents the composer's personal belongings, numerous documents and other belongings.

Contents 1 Works 1.1 Romances and songs 1.2 Opera 2 Other 3 References

[edit] Works

[edit] Romances and songs

• Your Black Eyes Fascinated Me (P. Kozlov), 1888-1889
• No Question For Many A Day (V. Soloviov), 1892
• You Are the Bright Sun - The Sun of My Soul (anon.), serenade, 1892
• Song of the Drowned Woman (A. Podolinsky), 1895
• I Dont Know Why (L. May), 1895
• The Same Night (A. Borovikovsky), 1895
• Oh, Rose of My Youth (anon.), date unknown
• And Profound is Their Love (Lermontov, Heine), opus 1, No 1, 1895
• I Have Dreamed of your Love (Natson), opus 1, No. 2, 1898
• Ah, Rose (A. Tsaturian), opus 1, No. 3, 1894

[edit] Opera

• "Almast". Libretto by S. Parnok based on Hovhannes Tumanyan's "The Siege of Tmbka Castle" poem. 1918-1928. Transl. into Armenian by P. Mikaelian

[edit] Other

• Vals, 1892-93;
• Menuet, 1895;
• Crimean esquizes, 1903, 1912;
• The Diviner, for piano four hands, Ed. and annotated by Haig Avakian, Cairo, Dream Press, 2000.

[edit] References