Sabre Dance
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"The Sabre Dance" (Armenian: Սուսերով Պար) is a movement in the final act of the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane, completed in 1942. It evokes a whirling war dance in an Armenian dance, where the dancers display their skill with sabres. Due to its exceptionally exciting rhythm, "The Sabre Dance" established a place for itself in common concert practice, leading also to various adaptations in popular music. In its middle section it uses an Armenian folk song from Gyumri, Armenia.[1][2]
Music
The orchestra version is written in G major. It starts out with a recognizable motif ostinato with the timpani and strings that can be heard throughout much of the piece. The upper woodwinds and keyboard percussion take an exciting dance melody, later accompanied by the low brass. Then the strings come in with a folk song melody. The first melody is then briefly recapitulated. Descending chromatic eighth notes bring the piece down to straight eighth notes on the note G in the low strings. The piece ends on ascending quarter notes.
Its recognizable ostinato and popular melodies have made "Sabre Dance" a popular concert band piece.
Usage in modern popular culture
Plate spinners and other human tricks innovators highly contributed to the movement's popularization in the United States, such as on The Ed Sullivan Show, where it was played while plate spinners performed their act. "Sabre Dance" has traditionally been used by traveling circuses around the world, to musically accompany acrobats, dog acts, etc.
"The Sabre Dance" was also covered by performers such as jazz musician Woody Herman, vocal trio The Andrews Sisters, rock and roll musician Dave Edmunds with the band Love Sculpture, heavy metal guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, German progressive thrash metal band Mekong Delta, British heavy metal band Skyclad, progressive rock group Ekseption, Tony Levin, Vanessa Mae, the string quartet Bond, and British punk rock bands The Boys, UK Subs and Toy Dolls. The National Hockey League team Buffalo Sabres use the piece as a theme song. The Disco Biscuits sometimes cover "Sabre Dance" at their live shows, often mixing in elements of rock and trance.
"Sabre Dance" is featured in the shock website Clownsong.
Usage in motion pictures
- The piece reinforces James Cagney's energetic performance in the final act of the 1961 comedy One, Two, Three as he plays a troubled executive making snap decisions to save his career.
- The tune is frequently featured on the TV series The Simpsons, usually to emphasize the fast pace of some situation (for example, in the episode "Bye Bye Nerdie") or during an activity containing sort of acrobatic skills (as in "Tennis the Menace").
- The 1985 film Pee-Wee's Big Adventure makes extensive use of Danny Elfman's "The Breakfast Machine", a piece very similar to this piece.
- "Sabre Dance" is also the music played while Late Night with Conan O'Brien's recurring character the Masturbating Bear masturbates on stage.
- The MSNBC TV program Countdown with Keith Olbermann featured the music from 2003 until 2007 during Oddball, a nightly news feature of bizarre stories, often referring to the tune as "this strange music".
- The Coen brothers' 1994 film The Hudsucker Proxy also makes use of the music, in a scene in which a newly-invented hula hoop is picked up and used by a young boy for the first time. The piece was arranged and integrated into the wider score by Carter Burwell, who also made use of Khachaturian's other well-known piece, the adagio from Spartacus, as the movie's main theme.
- In The Blues Brothers 2000, when the main heroes encounter Russians in the grave and run, "Sabre Dance" can be heard for several seconds.
- During "Morto the Magician", a short animated flash movie directed by Conrad Vernon and written by Steve Martin, "Sabre Dance" can be heard.
- The piece can be heard in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Slimy Dancing".
- In the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory episode "The Work Song Nanocluster," Howard and Raj "sing" it while Leonard has his turn evading a laser field during "Secret Agent Laser Obstacle Chess." It is reprised later by Sheldon and Howard as Raj tries to manage the same laser field during "Secret Agent Laser Obstacle Lunch."
- In the American sitcom Two and a Half Men episode "I remember, the coatroom, I just don't remember you", Charlie plays this song on piano while Jake and Rose are doing circus stunts.
- In the feature film Kung Fu Hustle, the song plays in the background as Sing (Stephen Chow) infiltrates a mental institution to spring an assassin known as the Beast.
- In a Family Guy Episode titled Peterotica, Peter distracts Lois by whistling the tune and riding a unicycle.
References
- ^ Randel, Don Michael (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674372999.
- ^ Studwell, William Emmett (1997). The Americana Song Reader. Haworth Press. ISBN 0789001500.