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Ivanov added his mother`s maiden name Ippolitov to his family name in order to avoid confusion with another composer named Ivanov. In 1895 he wrote the four Caucasian Sketches for large symphony orchestra. He was the composition teacher at the Music Conservatory in Moscow at the time and also a friend of Tchaikovsky. In 1906 he became the Director of the Music Conservatory. The Caucasian Sketches are musical souvenirs from his native region of Tiflis. The Procession of the Sardar is the final movement and certainly the most popular of the sketches. Ippolitov-Ivanov conceived the original movement without strings and it was thus arranged, with brilliance and splendour, for horns, woodwind and timpani.