Khachaturian - Gayaneh (Sabre Dance), Spartacus, Masquerade (Excerpts) / Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, Alexander Lazarev / Erato Audio CD 1994 / 4509-94677-2

UPC 745099467722

"Sabre Dance" is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane (1942), where the dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's best known and most recognizable work. Khachaturian apparently felt that its popularity "deflected attention from his other works."

Its middle section is based on an unnamed Armenian folk song. According to Tigran Mansurian, it is a synthesis of an Armenian wedding dance tune from Gyumri tied in a saxophone counterpoint "that seems to come straight from America."

"Sabre Dance" is considered one of the signature pieces of twentieth-century popular music. It was popularized by covers by pop artists, first in the US in 1948 and later elsewhere. Its use in a wide range in films and television over the decades have significantly contributed to its renown. "Sabre Dance" has also been used by a number of figure skaters from at least five countries in their performances. Tom Huizenga of NPR describes it as "one of the catchiest, most familiar—perhaps most maddening—tunes to come out of the 20th century." Billboard magazine calls it "a piece that's known to every pops orchestra in existence." Critics Peter G. Davis and Martin Bernheimer have called it "infamous" and "obnoxious."