Armenian Mighty Handful
The Armenian Mighty Handful (Russian: Армянская Могучая кучка, Armyanskaya moguchaya kuchka), refers to a circle of Soviet Armenian classical music composers. It consisted of 5 persons born in 1920-1921, studied at Yerevan State Conservatory and in mid-1940s entered to the Moscow Conservatory and the Armenian Cultural Studio's courses. Among the main professors and supporters of their studies were Aram Khachaturian and Dmitry Shostakovich. Four members of the group were awarded by the People's Artist of USSR highest title, Alexander Arutiunian and Arno Babajanian were also awarded by the USSR State Prize in their young ages.
The oldest and leading member of the group is Alexander Arutiunian. In 1950 among with Babajanian he composed the "Armenian rhapsody" and jointly performed it on two pianos. Another example of cooperation within the group was the soundtrack of popular "The Song of First Love" film by "Armenfilm" composed by Arno Babajanian and Lazar Sarian. Many of the songs became all-time hits in Armenia.
The group's art was an important event for the Armenian culture and influenced younger Armenian composers. According to Sahan Arzruni, "in the music world, they established the Armenian musical school".[1]
Members
- Alexander Arutiunian
- Arno Babajanian
- Edvard Mirzoyan
- Lazar Sarian
- Adam Khudoyan
See also
References
- ↑ Sahan Arzruni, Concert marks composer Adam Khudoyan's 85th anniversary, Armenian Reporter - 3/31/2007
External links
- Armenian Rhapsody, by Alexander Arutiunian and Arno Babajanian
- My Yerevan from "The Song of First Love" film
Sources
- Soviet Armenia, encyclopedia, ed. by V. Arzumanyan, Yerevan, 1987, p. 585
- Карине Тер-Саакян, Музыкант от Бога, Ноев Ковчег, N 09, 2006
- Soviet Literature, International Union of Revolutionary Writers, 1966, p. 197
