"Sabre Dance" is an orchestral movement from the final act of the Aram Khachaturian 1942 ballet Gayane, in which dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's most recognizable work worldwide and is considered one of the signature pieces of twentieth-century popular music. The composition is a fast-paced work, lasting about two and a half minutes, and incorporates elements of Armenian folk music.
The piece achieved widespread popularity in the United States in 1948, becoming a classical hit with orchestral recordings and a piano version by Oscar Levant, and a jukebox sensation with charting versions by pop artists such as Woody Herman. It has been widely adapted across genres and instruments, including for violin by Jascha Heifetz, for piano by György Cziffra, and in a hit rock cover by Dave Edmunds. Over decades, its extensive use on screen and in popular culture has made it a "global musical shorthand for cartoonish urgency" and a staple for variety acts. It is used in sports by the Buffalo Sabres ice hockey team and in figure skating. Khachaturian expressed ambivalence about the piece overshadowing his other works.
Background "Sabre Dance" appears in Act IV of Gayane, a ballet written by Khachaturian that is based on his first ballet, Happiness (1939).; With a libretto by Konstantin Derzhavin. Gayane premiered on December 9, 1942 at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. Set on a collective farm (kolkhoz) in Soviet Armenia, it centers on a patriotic young woman, Gayane, and her husband, Giko. The drama unfolds when Giko betrays the Soviet regime by joining a band of smugglers and setting fire to the family farm. In a mounting frenzy, he nearly kills Gayane and their daughter before they are rescued by Kazakov, a Red Army border patrol commander. After the capture of Giko, Kazakov, who loves Gayane, marries her. "Sabre Dance" occurs at their wedding party, an "exuberant celebration of folk dance", along with Armenian Shalakho and Uzundara, Caucasian Lezginka, Russian plyaska, and Ukrainian Gopak (Hopak). This deliberately multi-ethnic programme symbolises the Soviet concept of the friendship of peoples.
Originally entitled The Dance of the Kurds, Khachaturian wrote "Sabre Dance" after completing the score of Gayane. He did so at the request of the Kirov Theatre, during its World War II evacuation to Perm (then called Molotov). He later recounted that the composition "came into being quite by accident". The director's request for one more dance led the composer to create a contrasting warlike and lyrical piece in just eleven hours, which was then orchestrated, staged, and rehearsed within two days.Aram Khachaturian, "About the ballet Gayaneh," Nedelya (12 October 1963) in Aram Khachaturian: Articles and Reminiscences, ed. I. E. Popov (Moscow: Soviet Composer, 1980), 132. cited in He wrote in November 1942 that it "immediately impressed" the orchestra, the dancers, and the audience during a full dress rehearsal. Khachaturian initially wanted to end it in a long and gradual diminuendo, but Nina Anisimova and the dancers persuaded him to end it with a gradual crescendo.
Several sources of inspiration have been proposed. Soviet musicologist suggested that the piece embodies the "manly and heroic" essence of male Armenian folk dances and "the fiery temperament [and] raw energy" of "the warlike dances of the Transcaucasian peoples." Pianist Mariam Kharatyan argues that while "Sabre Dance" is neither inspired by, nor musically related to, the male martial dance Zinapar from Msho Shoror, a suite transcribed by Komitas, it reflects traits of that folk tradition through Khachaturian's individual style. Critics also have pointed to Russian orientalist precedents. compared it to the "Polovtsian Dances" from Borodin's Prince Igor (1890) and Balakirev's Islamey (1869). Tigranov and Victor Yuzefovich likewise cited the "Polovtsian Dances" as a prototype for its energy and "emotional frenzy".; Steven J. Haller suggested influence from a "Sword Dance" in the 1927 Reinhold Glière ballet entitled The Red Poppy.
Composition "Sabre Dance" is a fast-paced (marked Presto) orchestral work lasting approximately two and a half to three minutes. () It follows an ABA form with a transition and coda. The opening section presents the main theme. The middle section features woodwind instruments accompanied by timpani drums. The transition features repeated patterns on the xylophone and dramatic glissandos on the trombones. When the initial theme returns, it is interrupted by a cymbal crash, and then played at an even higher pitch. The work concludes with a descending melodic line followed by an upward climb to the final note.
The orchestration employs an array of percussion instruments, including the tambourine, snare drum, and particularly the xylophone, to emphasize the dance rhythms characteristic of folk music. The score calls for several specialized woodwind instruments, including piccolo, English horn, and bass clarinet. The harp plays throughout most of the piece, while the celesta appears only in the final three measures.
The brief slower section incorporates Armenian folk music and features a cello solo and alto saxophone. The saxophone, along with violins, violas, and cellos, presents a lyrical melody, enhanced by gentle flute counter-melodies based on a melodic motif from "", a folk dance for men from the Shirak region. Tigranov suggests that the saxophone evokes the distinctive sound of traditional instruments such as the duduk and the zurna, while Tigran Mansurian suggests that its idiom "seems to come straight from the America".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:
The ending creates musical tension by combining different musical scales and keys simultaneously. The work features elements of polyrhythm, with duple and triple meters overlapping in different instrumental voices. Pedal points and bass ostinatos heighten the dramatic tension and dynamic intensity.
Reception and legacy Jay Nordlinger described "Sabre Dance" as "one of the most famous pieces of music", while NPR's Tom Huizenga called it "one of the catchiest, most familiar—perhaps most maddening—tunes to come out of the 20th century". Armenia's 2012 nomination of Khachaturian's manuscripts for the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme described "Sabre Dance" as one of the "most popular compositions of our age". Filmmaker , who directed a 2019 film about the creation of the piece, dubbed it as "a kind of ringtone of the 20th century". Sportswriter Bob Ryan called it "one of the great uplifting pieces of music ever written". The piece is considered a children's favorite. Jonathan McCollum and Andy Nercessian wrote that "Sabre Dance" (and Gayane in general), along with Khachaturian's other ballet, Spartacus, are "perhaps the only works through which the world really knows Armenian music".
The piece, which is his most recognizable, earned Khachaturian a worldwide reputation and continues to define his legacy. He sometimes has been called "Mr. Sabre Dance", which he found annoying and unfair. Khachaturian maintained mixed feelings about the piece. While happy with its Western popularity, Khachaturian wished for more attention to his other works. In 1963, he called it "one unruly and rowdy child in my musical family", adding, "Honestly, if I had known it would gain such popularity and start elbowing aside my other works, I would never have written it!" He felt other melodies in Gayane deserved equal attention, and told an American interviewer, "It's like one button on my shirt, and I have many buttons." (archived) When asked about its popularity by American television representatives in Moscow, he jokingly responded, "Serves you right!" Composer Nikolai Kapustin recalled that Khachaturian was particularly irritated by the casual, whistling performances of the piece, once humorously mimicking such renditions for his close friends.
Noted for its explosive energy and relentless pace, "Sabre Dance" was promoted by RCA Victor in 1948 as a "vivid, rampant, passionate orchestral tour de force". Early American critics found the piece "bold and spirited", conveying a "violent savagery of emotion". The New Record called it "the sort of piece that catches on quickly" and while not profound, "it is certainly pleasing and just the sort of music that will appeal to a wide audience". Michael Dervan found it catchy and rhythmically insistent, while David Schwartz described it as "raucous, silly, and altogether enjoyable." Rob Barnett likened it to a roller-coaster ride of escapism. George Loomis suggested it captures Khachaturian's essential qualities: "brash, optimistic, rhythmic, colourful, and above all accessible". Edward Greenfield opined that while "Sabre Dance" may be the most striking of the Gayane dances, "it is far from being the best".
Others have been more critical. Steven J. Haller dismissed it as "a blistering, tub-thumping excess". During Khachaturian's 1968 U.S. tour, Time magazine described the piece as a "tuneless orchestral blooey". Peter G. Davis and Martin Bernheimer called it "infamous" and "obnoxious". Pianist Sviatoslav Richter called it his most hated piece and "a work that stinks to high heaven".
Recordings, arrangements, and covers Orchestral recordings
In 1943, Khachaturian arranged three orchestral suites from the ballet Gayane, with "Sabre Dance" included in Suite No. 3, published in the Soviet Union in 1947 by Muzgiz (State Music Publishing House) and in the West by Schirmer and Le Chant du Monde. By 1948, Leeds Music Corporation in the U.S. offered eleven different transcriptions and arrangements of the piece.
"Sabre Dance" received its American premiere during the 1944–45 season with Efrem Kurtz conducting the Kansas City Philharmonic; the performance was recorded live on a lacquer disc and broadcast on local radio in November 1944. After World War II, the work rapidly became a popular classical sensation in the West.
At its New York Philharmonic premiere in June 1946 at Lewisohn Stadium, conductor Alexander Smallens encored "Sabre Dance" following prolonged applause. In 1948, it reached No. 11 on the U.S. best-selling sheet music charts, No. 9 in Canada, and No. 14 in England. That same year, major American orchestras, namely the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurtz recorded the piece. Both topped Billboard'''s classical charts and became top-selling classical releases of the 1948, with the Chicago Symphony's version becoming the ensemble's first million-seller. The piece was concurrently recorded by the "semi-classical" studio orchestras led by Victor Young, Ray Bloch, and Harry Horlick, among others.
"Sabre Dance" was recorded frequently in the 1950s, most notably by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabien Sevitzky, Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra (Felix Slatkin), Boston Pops Orchestra (Arthur Fiedler), and London Symphony Orchestra (Anatole Fistoulari). As conductor, Khachaturian recorded the piece with the Philharmonia Orchestra (1954), Vienna Philharmonic (1962), and the London Symphony Orchestra (1977). Other significant recordings include by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy in 1967 and a video recording by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle in 2013.
Instrumental arrangements