Babadjanian, Arno Harutyuni(bYerevan,22 Jan 1921;dYerevan,11 Nov 1983).Armeniancomposerandpianist. He graduated from Talians composition class at the Yerevan Conservatory in 1947, and in 1948 from Igumnovs piano class at the Moscow Conservatory; his composition studies were continued under Litinsky at the House of Armenian Culture in Moscow (19468). He taught the piano at the Yerevan Conservatory (195056) and was himself a brilliant pianist. In 1971 he was made a Peoples Artist of the USSR. His music draws on Khachaturian and Rachmaninoff, but is unmistakably individual, particularly in its scoring. The piano works are in a virtuoso style, liberal in their use of touch, texture, rhythm and register, and with expressive leading parts. This style was formed in the 1940s; later he introduced Prokofiev-like chromaticism, Bartkian rhythm and Schoenbergian dodecaphony into his music, achieving his best work in the Violin Sonata, the Cello Concerto and theShest' kartin(Six Pictures) for piano. Babadjanians variation technique, an important feature of his music, springs from folk ornamentation, while peasant music forms the source of his irregular rhythms.WORKS(selective list)Str Qt no.1, 1943; Pf Conc., 1944; Polifonischeskaya sonata, pf, 1947; Str Qt no.2, 1947; Vn Conc., 1949; Haykakan rapsodia [Armenian Rhapsody], 2 pf, 1950; Herosakan Ballad [Heroic Ballad], pf, orch, 1950; Pf Trio, 1952; 4 par [4 Pieces], pf, 1954; Poem-Rhapsody, orch, 1954; Sonata, vn, pf, 1959; Vc Con., 1962; 6 kartin [6 Pictures], pf, 1965; Poem, pf, 1966; Str Qt no.3, 1976; Elegy, pf, 1978; Meditation, pf, 1980; Vocalise, S, orch, 1981; variety songs and film scores

Principal publishers: Sovetakan Grokh; Sovetskiy Kompozitor

WRITINGSTol'ko vliyaniye vremeni [Only the influence of time],Sovetaka arvest(1971), no.6, pp.1619Chcialbym wzruszac serca [I want to stir hearts],RM, xxxii/8 (1988), pp.69; repr. inArvest(1991), nos.23, pp..1417BIBLIOGRAPHYA.Grigoryan:Arno Babadzhanyan(Moscow,1961)Y.Yevdokimova:Shest' kartin Ar. Babadzhanyana [Babadjanyans 6 Pictures],SovM(1967) no.2, pp.2024Sh.Apoian:Fortepiannaya muzka sovetskoy Armenii(Yerevan,1968), 15067, 20109S.Amatuni:Arno Badadzhanyan: instrumental'noye tvorchestvo[Babadjanian: his instrumental work] (Yerevan,1985)G.Arakelian, ed.:Arno Babadjanian-75,Arvest(19667) [special issue]SVETLANA SARKISYAN