Terterian Avet Terterian

Alfred Roubenovich "Avet" Terterian (also Terteryan) (Armenian: Ալֆրեդ "Ավետ" Տերտերյան, July 29, 1929 in Baku, Transcaucasian SSR, Soviet Union – December 11, 1994 in Yekaterinburg, Russia) was an Armenian composer, awarded the Konrad Adenauer Prize.

Terterian composed eight (completed) symphonies, several of which are recorded, an opera and several chamber works.

Terterian was a friend and colleague of Giya Kancheli, Konstantin Orbelyan, and Tigran Mansurian. Dmitri Shostakovich praised Terterian as "very talented" and "with great future" in one of his letters, published by his friend Isaak Glikman, having heard a recording of Terterian's works at Armenia's "House of Composers" summer resort in Dilijan, Armenia.

He studied at the Music Academy in Baku from 1948, and moved to the Romanos-Melikian Music Academy in 1951.He studied composition at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan from 1952. He was Executive Secretary of the Armenian Composers’ Union from 1960 to 1963. He was Chairman of the Music Department at the Armenian Cultural Ministry from 1970 and 1974. He joined Yerevan Conservatory as a professor in 1985. In 1989, he moved to the village of Ayrivank, located on the western shore of Lake Sevan, Gegharkunik region of Armenia.

Yekaterinburg's annual music festival is named after Terterian.

Giya Kancheli's work Styx, written for solo viola, chorus, and orchestra is a farewell to his friends Terterian and Alfred Schnittke, whose names are sung by the choir during the work.

Terterian's son, Dr. Ruben Terterian, is a professor of music in Samborondón, Ecuador and former prorector at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan.

His most notable student is Vache Sharafyan.

Music

Terterian breathed new life into Armenian symphony and music theatre, both of which he interpreted standing at an individual intersection of music, anthroposophy, and both Eastern and Western philosophy. He is among those 20th-century composers for whom music is a manifestation of a universal mind, its order and motion. For him, ‘a knowledge of the world beyond the senses’ as envisaged by Rudolph Steiner entailed new and specific principles of formal organization and sonic space. Aesthetically drawn to sonoristic methods and the practices of Xenakis and the New Polish School, Terterian developed his concept of timbral-acoustic dynamics based on a synthesis of strict and equal temperament, differentiated according to his material and phonic choice. He frequently extends orchestral sonorities by the addition of voices, folk instruments such as the duduk, zurna, kyamancha and dap, church bells and burvar (Armenian thurible), many of which are put to symbolic use. The overall choice of sounds often depends on antithetical propositions inherent in phenomena such as the continuum from a single sound as musical phoneme through orchestral unisons to a chromatic cluster as morpheme, or the acoustic relationship between natural and recorded sound, as well as the multi-measured and cosmological perceptions of the space. Terterian frequently composed in blocks of sound, each of which is differentiated in time, internal structure and the nature of its development. Ostinato fulfils a formal function analogous to fermentation in his music. The ostinato line, the chordal pedal or cluster, continuous sound and the rotated figure all play their part in building up overall texture; they each have their own effect on the changing functions of individual textural strata and on the constantly fluctuating process of their compression and attenuation.

Terterian's eight symphonies, composed between 1969 and 1989, are built around the concept of meditation. Traditional thematic material is replaced by prolonged pauses interspersed with concentrations on extended sonic complexes or a single, absolute sound (the composer has spoken of ‘submergence in sound’). A sense of time and space usually associated with Eastern music and religious traditions and the use of germs of melody from early Armenian song as bases for improvised development intensify the hieratic atmosphere of this music, especially that of the last five symphonies and the opera Das Erdbeben. His most innovative ideas first emerged in the opera Krake Ōghakum (‘The Fire Ring’) of 1967. Following a number of vocal-orchestral and chamber works written in the post-Khachaturian manner, this work resolutely embraced modernity in its dramatic expression. The use of the sharakan (medieval hymnody), free atonality and dodecaphonic writing, together with a new perception of the orchestra and rhythm, coincided with the general turning-point in Armenian music that took place in the 1960s. The originality of the ballet Monologi Richarda III (‘Monologues of Richard III’), completed in 1979, lay in the relativity of its musical language which is aphoristic rather than narrative. The logic of its dramatic symbolism is achieved by stylistic layering and a combination of natural and recorded sound in which musical and found sonic sources are modified. Allegorical context is intensified in the opera Das Erdbeben (1984); here the combination of elements from different dramatic genres – opera, mystery play, the masque and eurhythmics – results in music of kaleidoscopic expressiveness. Terterian's symphonies have wide international currency and have been performed in Berlin (and many other German cities), Boston, Helsinki, Kiev, London, Minsk, Moscow, Prague, Tallin, Tbilisi, Warsaw, Wrocław, Yerevan and Zagreb.

List of works

• 1948 — “The Nightingale and the Rose.” For voice and piano. Words by A. Lushkina. Dedication “Angela Harutyunyan.”
• 1950 — Prelude for Piano
• 1951 — Piece for Violin and Piano. Dedication “Georgy Adzhemyan”.
• 1953 — “Dnepr”. For bass-baritone and piano. Words by Shevchenko. Russian translation M. Isakovsky, Armenian transition A. Poghosyan.
• 1953 — “The Lonely Tree”. For a mixed choir а cappella. Words by O. Shiraz.
• 1954 — Piece for Cello and Piano. Dedication: “Medea Abrahamyan”.
• 1954 — “Every night in my garden.” For voice and piano. Words by A. Isahakyan.
• 1954 — “Willow”. For soprano and piano. Words by A. Isahakyan.
• 1955 — Sonata for Cello and Piano. In three parts
• 1956 — “How nice is here.” Impromptu for voice and piano. Words by A. Tolstoy.
• 1957 — “Looking through the dates.” For soprano and piano. Words by S. Shchipachev.
• 1957 — “Call, I will come.” For tenor or soprano, and piano. Words by . H. Shiraz.
• 1957 — “Motherland”. Vocal-symphonic cycle for soprano, baritone and symphony orchestra. The words of the songs are poems by H. Shiraz (parts 1, 2, 3, 5) and H. Tumanyan (Part 4). In five parts Dedication “Edward Mirzoyan”.
• 1958 — “Songs” For choir and brass band. Words by E. Manucharyan. Dedication “Pupils music boarding school.”
• 1959 — “Pop Song”. For voice and big band.
• 1960 — “The Revolution.” Vocal-symphonic cycle for soprano, baritone and symphony orchestra. The words of the songs are poems by E.Charents. Five parts.
• 1962 — “Come.” For voice and big band. Word by V. Harutyunyan.
• 1962 — “Blue Eyes.” For voice and big band. Words by H. Ghukasyan.
• 1963 — String Quartets. For two violins, viola and cello (C major). In two parts. Dedication “Irina Tigranova”.
• 1963 — “You are the only to know.” For voice and big band. Word by A. Ghukasyan.
• 1964 — “In the golden field.” For baritone and piano. Words by O. Shiraz.
• 1964 — “Maybe tomorrow.” For voice and big band. Words by A. Verdyan.
• 1964 — “I am waiting for you again.” For voice and big band. Words by A. Verdyan.
• 1964 — “Autumn Blues”. For voice and big band.. Words by A. Verdyan. Dedication “Anatoliy Nikiforovich Yar-Kravchenko”.
• 1964 — “Go Dance”. For voice and big band. Words by A. Verdyan.
• 1965 — “Lullaby to my city.” For and big band. Words by A. Verdyan.
• 1965 — “I do not believe!” For voice and big band..Words by A. Verdyan.
• 1967 — “Ring of Fire”. Opera in two acts, eight scenes. Libretto by V. Shahnazaryan on a story by B. Lavrenev “Forty first” and verses of E. Charents.
• 1967 — “Sharakan.” For mixed choir and symphony orchestra (Episode from the opera"Ring of Fire").
• 1967 — “How do you know.” For and big band. Words by A. Verdyan.
• 1968 — “A woman with green eyes.” For mezzo-soprano and piano. Words by G. Emin (Russian text: Yevgeny Yevtushenko).
• 1968 — “Pop Song”. For voice and big band.
• 1969 — Symphony. For brass, percussion, piano, organ and bass guitar. In four parts. Dedication: “Ruben Borisovich Terteryan.”
• 1972 — Second Symphony. For full symphony orchestra, male voice and mixed choir. In three parts. Dedication: “Carmen Josephovna Terteryan”.
• 1972 — Symphonic picture № 1. For full symphony orchestra.
• 1974 — “Fanfare”. For wind and percussion instruments.
• 1974 — Music for two pianos, trumpets, percussion and violins. скрипок. В четырех частях. In 4 parts.
• 1975 — Third Symphony. For full symphony orchestra, duduk and zurna. In three parts. Dedication “Herman R. Terteryan”.
• 1975 — Symphonic picture №2. For full symphony orchestra.
• 1975 — Music for winds and percussion instruments, electronic synthesizer and piano.
• 1976 — Fourth Symphony. For full symphony orchestra. Dedication “David Khanjyan.”
• 1977 — “Hymn”. Cantata for mixed choir and symphony orchestra. Words by G. Emin.
• 1978 — Fifth Symphony. For full symphony orchestra, kyamancha and large bells. Dedication “Gennady Rozhdestvensky."
• 1979 — “Monologues of Richard III”. The ballet in two parts. Libretto: H. Kaplanyan and V. Galstyan on Shakespeare’s tragedy “Richard III”.
• 1981 — Sixth Symphony. For Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Choir and nine phonograms with recording of groups of full symphony orchestra, choirs, harpsichords and large bells. Dedication “Irina G. Tigranova”.
• 1981 — “ A boy and a girl playing” Romance for voice and chamber orchestra. Words by A. Isahakyan.
• 1984 — “Earthquake”. Opera in two parts. Libretto: Hertha Shteher, Avet Terteryan, based on the novel by Heinrich von Kleist’s “Earthquake in Chile”(in German).
• 1985 — The choir and a cappella. For a mixed choir а cappella.
• 1987 — Seventh Symphony. For full symphony orchestra, dap and tape recording. Dedication “Alexander Lazarev.”
• 1989 — Eighth Symphony. For full symphony orchestra, two voices (soprano) and phonograms. Dedication “Murad Annamamedov.”
• 1991 — String Quartets №2. For two violins, viola and cello.
• 1994 — Ninth Symphony (unfinished). For full symphony orchestra, choir and tape recordings.

Music for films

• 1973 — “Chronicle of Yerevan Days”. Feature film. Film-maker F. Dovlatyan. Production studio “Armenfilm” n. Hamo Beknazaryan.
• 1985 — “The rider, who was expected” (“Master thief"). The co-author V. Rubashevsky. Art telefilm in two runs. Directed by D. Kesayants.

A. Terteryan Music was used in many films, giving them a special significance. To name just a few:

• 1988 — “Our Armored Train” (film-maker M. Ptashuk, Minsk, Belarus)
  • "Interpretation of Dreams” (film-maker L. Saakyants, Yerevan, Armenia);
• 1989 — “The creative biography of Ernst Neizvestny and music of A. Terteryan” (film-maker Bondarev, Moscow, USSR);
• 1990 — “Public Enemy” (cond. L. Maryagin, Moscow, USSR);
  • Qamin unaynutyan (Wind of Oblivion)
• 1991 — “Vox Clamantis in Deserto” (Dzayn barbaro ... , film-maker Vigen Chaldranyan, Yerevan, Armenia)
  • “The Way of Kings” (film-maker E. Shiffers, Leningrad, USSR),
  • “Return to the promised land” (film-maker A. Khachatryan, Yerevan, Armenia);
• 1993 — “The old gods” (film-maker A. Kadzhvoryan, Yerevan, Armenia);
• 1993–1995 — film director and journalist T. Paskaleva about events in Nagorno-Karabakh (NKR)
• 1994 — “The Last Station” (film-maker A. Khachatryan, Yerevan, Armenia);
• 1996 — “Our Father” (film-maker A. Kadzhvoryan, Yerevan, Armenia);
• 1996 — “Bread of Rage” (film-maker A. Kadzhvoryan, Yerevan, Armenia);
• 2003 - Vaveragrogh (Documentarist)
• 2005-Poeti veradardze (Return of the Poet)
• 2009 — “Becoming” (cond. G. Frutyunyan, Yerevan, Armenia), “On the boundary", film-maker A. Khachaturyan, Yerevan, Armenia;
• 2010 — “To Ararat” (cond. T. Khzmalyan, Yerevan, Armenia).