Murka
Murka ( Russian Мурка ), a common Russian name for a cat and also used as a general nickname, is the title of a well-known Russian chanson from 1923. In contrast to some other well-known Russian songs such as Katyusha , Kalinka , Moscow Nights , Dorogoi dlinnoju or Bublitschki have not yet been able to establish westernized or international versions of the piece. In Russia itself, the song is still very popular and is one of the most popular Russian hits of the 20th century .
history
The original version of Murka was created in Odessa in the early 1920s , at the beginning of the NEP era. The composer and author Jakow Jadow , to whom the two songs Bublitschki and Gop-so-smykom are ascribed, is considered to be the texture lifter . While Jadov's authorship for Bublitschki has been established, there is no final clarity regarding Murka. There are also uncertainties about the origin of the melody; the composer Oskar Strok is mentioned in some sources . The name of the song, the name of the main character (the robber princess or gang leader Murka) as well as the text itself have varied considerably over the years.
As a typical crook chanson (blatnyje pesni, or in today's name Russian chanson ) the song was first known under the title Ljubka (translated: love) ; the person described traded under the name Mascha. As a morality-like story, the song treats the story of a gang leader who betrays her gang to the Cheka and - after the gang has taken advice and condemned the traitor - is liquidated by the latter in an exemplary manner. The text of the song has been modified and expanded in various ways in the course of its history. While the original version focuses on the story of the treacherous gang leader and her punishment, later versions add more romanticized aspects or let the criminal background take a back seat.
Although the story described could, with a little will, be interpreted as a criticism of the system, it turned out to be variable enough not to rule out contrary interpretations. Major changes to the text were made in the 1920s . A peculiarity of the Moscow variants was on the one hand their greater length, on the other hand the stronger emphasis on a system-compliant end of the story. For example, the Cheka inspectors became detective officers, and the (beautiful) traitor became a former criminal who regrets her wrongdoing and draws conclusions from it. The criminals were finally caught and tried - another element that seemed to serve socialist justice.
The song also survived the purges in the cultural field during the 1930s relatively unchallenged. One possible reason is its immense popularity even then, another the folk character of the genre as a whole and the fact that criticism of the system was contained at best in a hidden, indirect way. The fact that the song was very popular among deportees and the punitive battalions during the Second World War speaks for the unruly and non-conformist elements of the song . In the informal area, ironic versions were also circulating - for example on the occasion of official propaganda in the context of a rescue operation for a wrecked steamer in 1934. The Russian everyday and cultural chronicler Vladimir Bakhtin summed up the use of the song in the following words: “Everyone knew that it was a crime song , but everyone sang it. ” After the Second World War, Leningrad record companies released defused versions of the song on '78 records . Although the song was never part of the Estrada repertoire, which was funded by the system , it maintained its position as an integral part of Russian popular music even in the Brezhnev era . The five-part Soviet crime film Mesto wstretschi ismenitj nelsja (translated roughly: You can't change the meeting point) from 1979, for example, set in the winter of 1945 contained a scene in which a protagonist on the piano initially starts a Chopin melody at the request of the The listener, however, changes to the melody of Murka.
Even after the fall of the Iron Curtain , Murka remained one of the most popular Russian songs. At the turn of the year 2000, for example, the singer Valeri Leontjew opened an NTV show about the most popular songs of the 20th century with Murka. The number of different interpretations and recordings is likely to be in the three-digit range, partly due to internet platforms such as YouTube and the strongly internationalized music market. The 80th anniversary of the song was also picked up as a topic by the Russian press.
Versions
Due to the time, early recordings by Murka are considered rarities today. Popular versions in the 1920s and 1930s were from the Soviet jazz and popular music legend Leonid Utjossow and, more to tango - rhythm to the fore stellend from Konstantin Sokolski . There are chanson-like versions in the typical narrative style of the Blat songs by Vladimir Vysotsky and Arkady Severny , in newer versions by Iwan Moskowski , Griz Drapak and Michail Gulko . Vysotsky and Severny played the song in different versions. Because of the state-controlled access to sound carrier recordings , the majority of these recordings were made unofficially; some are currently only available on the Internet as audio or video files.
In addition to early recordings and versions in the classic crook chanson style, there are modernized, contemporary variants in all possible varieties. An example of a recording in the style of official upscale popular music, the Soviet Estrada, comes from Fedo Khachaturian . In 2004 the singer Tanja Tischinskaja offered a poppy version with techno rhythms. Two versions with a strong tendency towards jazz come from the Polish singer Sława Przybylska (recorded in the late Soviet era) and the pop singer Yulya (1991). Along with the renaissance of the Blat chansons, Murka became the popular standard in the program of some street polka and low-fi rock bands - for example the bands Apparatschik , La Minor and VulgarGrad . In 2002 the Russian punk band Krasnaja Plesen recorded a version with very free text and enriched with elements of rap and parody . Although the distribution of the song is still mainly limited to the Russian-speaking culture, there are now Hebrew and Turkish text translations and recordings as well . A German-language adaptation is the song Do not drive to the North Pole from the musical film The Veiled Maja , sung by Rudolf Platte & Ingrid Lutz (1951).
text
| original | transcription | translation |
|---|---|---|
| Здравствуй, моя Мурка, Мурка дорогая! Помнишь ли ты, Мурка, наш роман? |
Sdrawstwu, moja Murka, Murka dorogaja! |
Greetings, my Murka, dear Murka!
Do you remember, Murka, our novel? How we loved each other, spent time And didn't know about the lie ... |
| А потом случилось, счастье закатилось, Мурка, моя верная жена, |
A potom slutschilos, stschastje sakatilos, |
And then it happened, happiness vanished
Murka, my faithful wife, You have become strange and completely different You have become unfaithful to me, Murka. |
| Как-то, было дело, выпить захотелось, Я зашел в шикарный ресторан. |
Kak-to, bylo djelo, wypit sachotelos, |
Once, it happened that I wanted to drink
I went to a good restaurant. I see - in the hall of the bar a couple dancing - Murka and some young guy. |
| Тяжело мне стало, вышел я из зала И один по улицам бродил. |
Tjaschelo mne stalo, wyschel ja is sala |
It got too heavy for me, I went out of the hall
And strolled alone through the streets. For you, Murka, I was worthless And you, Murka, I loved very much! |
| У подъезда жду я, бешено ревнуя. Вот она выходит не одна, |
U podjesda schdu yes, bescheno rewnuja. |
I'm waiting at the entrance, very jealous.
She won't come out alone Laughing happily, cuddling the guy - Murka, my unfaithful wife! |
| Я к ней подбегаю, за руку хватаю: Мне с тобою надо говорить. |
Yes k ne podbegaju, sa ruku chwataju: |
I run to her, grab her hand:
I have to talk to you. Did you forget how you loved me So you give up on this guy? |
| Мурка, в чём же дело, что ты не имела? Разве я тебя не одевал? |
Murka, w tschom sche delo, tschto ty ne imela? |
Murka, what's the problem, didn't you have something?
Aren't I dressed? Hats and jackets, rings and bracelets Didn't I buy you this? |
| Здравствуй, моя Мурка, Мурка дорогая, Здравствуй, моя Мурка, и прощай! |
Sdrawstwu, moja Murka, Murka dorogaja, |
Greetings, my Murka, dear Murka
Greetings, my Murka, and goodbye! You loved me and you forgot And for that you should get a bullet! |
Others
- The time background, the unclear source situation with regard to the exact origin, as well as the numerous text versions have led to different rumors and theories, including about possible historical backgrounds. One is derived from an early version of the text in which the gang's place of origin is the Amur region - one of the theaters of war in the Far East during the Russian Civil War . From this, in turn, a connection to Machnovshchina is derived - a peasant uprising in the Ukraine directed against the Bolshevik rulers and strongly influenced by anarchist ideas . Other interpretations deal with semantic matches; The Moscow Criminal Police abbreviation (Moskowski ugolowny rosysk; MUR) has the same three initial letters as the song title. Certain elements of the story as well as terms occurring in the text are always the source of different interpretations.
- The Russian right-wing populist and LDPR founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky also tried his hand at a public screening of Murka . Since Zhirinovsky had problems keeping the tone and messed up four inserts with three different artists, the appearance caused a sensation, especially as an involuntary satire. Schirinowski's Murka attempts were subsequently documented in several video recordings on the Internet platform YouTube.
- The popularity that Murka and similar songs have gained in recent years has not met with unanimous approval. Andrei Saweljew, Duma deputy of the left-wing nationalist Rodina party , complained in a statement that crook chansons were omnipresent on radio programs. Saveliev: "If we go down to the parliament canteen for lunch, we will be received there with the song about the robber princess Murka."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Murka - History of a song from the Soviet underground , Wolf Oschlies , shoa.de, accessed on May 24, 2015
- ↑ a b c Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies . Rogner & Bernhard, Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0
- ↑ a b Snamenitoi pesne Murka ispolnjajetsja 80 let ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Russian), NTV News.ru , August 29, 2003
- ↑ Vladimir Bakhtin: Murkina istorija (The story of Murka, Russian), Neva 4/1997, pp. 229–232.
- ↑ Murka ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Uli Hufen, weblog for the book Das Regime und die Dandys, October 1, 2010
- ↑ Music That's Not Just For Bandits ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), Sergey Chernov, St. Petersburg Times , January 25, 2002
- ↑ Murka - Translation into Hebrew (Russian), Translator: Shaul Reznik, on website shaul.tryam.com, accessed on July 15, 2011
- ↑ Half of Russia hears crooks songs , Karsten Packeiser, Russland-Aktuell , January 25, 2005
literature
- Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies: Russian crook chansons from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0
Web links
- The regime and the dandies . Weblog about the book by Uli Hufen
- Popular music in Russia , kultura. Russia analyzes, May 5/2006 (PDF; 508 kB)