Song of the Volga Tug
The song of the Volga tugs ( Russian Эй, ухнем!, In German about Ej, hau ruck! ) Is a well-known, traditional Russian song, which was published by Mili Alexejewitsch Balakirew in a collection of folk songs .
history
The Russian composer Mili Balakirew traveled through the Caucasus and the Volga region as early as the 1860s . During this trip he collected folk songs, including the song of the Volga tugs . In 1889, Balakirev published the song in his collection of Russian lyrical folk songs by NM Lopatin and WP Prokunin ( Сборник русских народных лирических песен Н. М. М. Лопатина и ПВа ). The version of the song published by Balakirew only contained the first verse. The other verses were added at a later date. The song deals with the towing of ships on the Volga by Burlaken ( Russian Бурла́к ), which at that time ships pulled the Volga upstream.
text
Russian | transcription | German translation |
---|---|---|
Эй, ухнем! |
Oh, uchnem! |
Ej, huh, jerk! |
Dissemination and adaptations
The song was popularized by the Russian opera singer Fyodor Chalyapin and has been a popular concert piece for bassists ever since . In the USA , Glenn Miller recorded a jazz version around 1934 and in 1941 reached number 1 in the US charts . In German-speaking countries, the song of the Wolgaschlepper was one of Ivan Rebroff's successful titles .
The Spanish composer Manuel de Falla wrote an arrangement of the song for piano, which was published in 1922 under the name Canto de los remeros del Volga . He did this on behalf of the diplomat Ricardo Baeza , who was active in a working group of the League of Nations that organized financial aid for the more than two million Russian refugees who were imprisoned and displaced during the First World War . All proceeds from the publication went into this project.
Further arrangements are by Alexander Glasunow (1905, for choir and orchestra) and by the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos . The German composer Paul Graener wrote variations for large orchestra on the song of the Wolgaschlepper, which appeared in the same year as de Falla's arrangement. A popular satirical text in German-speaking countries reads: " Dress warmly, because the cold attacks the intestines" and was intoned by the Düsseldorf punk band ZK at the end of the 1970s and released in 1996 on the album In Search of the Holy Grail .
Remarks
- ↑ a b Analogous translation after Kai Kracht
Individual evidence
- ↑ Balakirev's biography ( memento from July 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Excerpt from the book Наш край Н. Новгород . Нижегородская ярмарка, 1997
- ↑ "In Search of the Holy Grail" on the website indigo.de
Web links
- leonidharitonov.ru article on the history of the song (Russian)
- Song sung by the Red Army Choir Website Youtube