Avet Terterian

Avet Terterjan (Armenian Ավետ Տերտերյան, often transcribed as Avet Terterian; born July 29, 1929 in Baku, † December 11, 1994 in Yekaterinburg ) was an Armenian composer.

Life

Avet Terterjan was born as Alfred Rubenowitsch Terterjan, but used the name Avet as an artist name. His father Ruben Terterjan was a physician, but also acted as an opera singer. The mother - also not a professional musician - performed as a singer. 1948 Terterjan began studying at the Music Academy of Baku, which he continued in 1951 at the Romanos Melikian Music College. From 1952 he studied at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan at Edward Mirzoyan composition.

1960 to 1963 he was Executive Secretary of the Armenian Composers' Association and from 1963 to 1965 as Vice President. 1970 to 1974 was chairman of the Music Department at Terterjan Ministry of Culture of Armenia and at the same time as the editor works. In 1985 he became a professor at the Conservatory of Yerevan, 1993/1994 he gave master classes at the Urals Conservatory in Yekaterinburg. In 1994, the Brandenburg Terterjan scholarship and spent six months in Wiepersdorf. For 1995, his one-year DAAD scholarship in Berlin was awarded, which he, however, could no longer perceive. His body was cremated on 19 December 1994 at the Pantheon in Yerevan.

Works

Terterjan wrote eight symphonies ( 1969-1989 ), two operas, a ballet, chamber music (including two string quartets ), numerous vocal works and film music.

Terterjans music is characterized by absence of themes or motifs work in the classical sense as well as reduction to partially archaic formulas and shapes. In addition to influences of Armenian folk music ( with recourse non- tempered tuned folk music instruments) are also progressive elements of the "western" music ( twelve-tone, aleatoric, Tonbandzuspielungen ) used.

Overall Terterjans pushed music in the Soviet era, with little enthusiasm. The world premiere of his Symphony No. 3 caused a scandal. Lately, especially the symphonies see increased interest, also in Germany. The ( posthumous ) world premiere of the opera " The quake ," composed in 1984 in German language, 2003, led by Ekkehard Klemm Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz was a sensational success. The libretto by Gerta Stecher, greatly simplified and reduced by the composer, based on the story " The Earthquake in Chile " by Heinrich von Kleist. The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: " Terterjan has struck with, quake ' a stake in the current debate about the viability of contemporary music theater. " In the FAZ said: ". Heinrich von Kleist's dramatic prose not veropert - but necessarily expressed in music "