Edvard Mik‘aeli Mirzoian

Edvard Mik‘aeli Mirzoian, Armenian composer and teacher, was born in Gori, Georgia, on 12 May 1921. He belongs to the generation of creators who gave Armenian music its own distinct profile within the Soviet Union. Son of the also composer M. Mirzayan (1888–1958), he moved with his family to Yerevan in 1924, the city that would be the centre of his training and of much of his career.

He studied at the Yerevan Conservatory with Vardkes Tal‘ian (1936–1941) and then, at the music school attached to the Armenian House of Culture in Moscow, with Litinsky and Peyko (1946–1948). From 1948 he taught composition at the Yerevan Conservatory, where he eventually headed a department between 1972 and 1986. His pupils include Ter-T'at'evosian, Chaushyan and Terteryan. He presided over the Union of Armenian Composers from 1957 to 1991 and, in 1977, became chairman of the Armenian Peace Foundation. He received numerous honours in his country and, in 1981, the title of People's Artist of the USSR. In 1997 he was admitted as a member of the International Academy of Sciences, Education, Industry and Arts in California.

His style, dramatic in character, combines inner intensity with the lyricism of Armenian folk song, and also draws on the influence of Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Bartók. The Symphony for string orchestra and timpani (1962) is perhaps his best-known work: its first movement is a double fugue on a folk theme, while the second and fourth movements draw on Armenian dance rhythms. His influence was felt in later Armenian composers.

Legacy: his chamber music, such as the String Quartet with Theme and Variations (1947) or the Cello Sonata (1967), shows the balance between the psychological and the rational that defines his output. His film music, especially the waltz and the lyrical episode of Shushanik from the adaptation of A. Shirvanzade's work Chaos, is the most widely known beyond specialist circles.