Sabre Dance, opening section of ballet "Gayane"

Khachaturian's music is influenced by his Armenian origins, and he is perceived as one of the most special Russian composers, popular both inside and outside Russia. His powerful, unordinary rhythms are a fine example of the richness brought about by openness to folk music and the diversity Western music found in these new uncharted areas. In his case, the mysterious, vital rhythms of the orient produced passionate music that, as if, presents images of heavily mustached, masculine men dancing with sabres (swords). This music fascinated and charmed listeners, captivating them to the ballet music of which it was part, and it became a hit everywhere. Indeed this is a short movement, but it emphasizes well the character of Khachaturian's music, whose large-scale pieces are just as beautiful (such as the ballet music "Spartacus", that captured the hearts of television watchers in the BBC series, "The Onedin Line", back in the in the 1970's).

The ballet that includes "the Sabre Dance" is called "Gayaneh", and it presents a collective cotton-growing farm in Armenia. The collective farms (kolhoz) in the Soviet Union were big ranches where everyone worked for the greater good and received their share of the income (these farms were somewhat similar to the Israeli kibbutz). The heroin called Gayaneh (like Khachaturian's wife's name) complains about her drunk, lazy husband. Soldiers of the Red Army come and release her and her friends to the farm, away from the parasite, and they live happily ever after.

One must remember the ballet was staged at the peak of Stalin's era, and was in fact meant to serve the communists' governmental message: you must work and contribute to the public, and one should not evade this duty. The benefit of the individual goes through that of the public, first.