Russian Cabaret Hits

MichaelHorowitz

Maybe Ken or Scot can provide more information on this:

There's a whole repertoire of Russian cabaret tunes that have become part of the Gypsy jazz repertoire. the most popular are:

Deux Guitares
Czardas de Monti
Dark Eyes


I'm curious about the history of these tunes and their relationship to French popular music. I know there's a large Russian ex-pat community in Paris that provided the impetus for Gypsies to learn this music. Which is sort of ironic in that people think of these tunes as "Gypsy," but as far as I can tell the Manouche learned this stuff mostly to get gigs at the Russian clubs.

My questions are:

1) Are these tunes actually popular in Russia. If so, when? Early 20th C, still today?

2) Or are these more a product of the scene in Paris? A genre born from the nostalgia of displaced Russians and reinforced by the exotic musical tastes of Parisians. (The Czardas de Monti were actually written by an Italian living in Paris back in the early 19th C.) I ask this because I noticed that a lot of Eastern European groups record some of these songs but then use the French titles which would lead you to believe these tunes have a Franco-Russian provenance.

3) Are there any good literary sources for the history of this genre?

Thanks!

-Michael

brandoneon

Russian cabarets flourished with the "White" Russian expats in the 1920s, but the song Dark Eyes is much older ... the Russian lyrics were written by a poet in 1843 (based on the pre-existing melody). So as far as Dark Eyes is concerned, it looks like the song predates any Parisian Russian cabaret movement ... which isn't to say that the cabarets didn't popularize it.

Ken Bloom

A lot of the popularity of these and other Russian folk-based material dates from the early 1880's when Vasiliy Andreeyev invented the balalaika orchestra. Many folklorists were traveling and collecting material from traditional singers. Scholars like Kolessa and composers like Lysenko made liberal use of this repertoire. The gypsies in Eastern Europe have always taken the local tunes and added their own special and virtuosic touch to it. I heard a lot of the same tunes from my grandfather's cronies in the early 50's. These guys were White Russians as well and had settled in Los Angeles fro a variety of reasons.
Under the Soviet Union, much of this music was, shall we say, de-emphasized, but still did survive in the native environment.
As a somewhat related sidenote, when I first heard Tziganskaia, I found that many of the tunes were the same tunes being played by concert zither players as well, notably Rudi Knabl, probably the best of the old school zither players. He too was playing Dark Eyes and a host of other Russian ex-pat tunes. The fact that this type of music became popular in Paris is no surprise. It was also played in San Francisco and anywhere else that had lots of Russians with money. The Russian artistic community has a long history in France and especially Paris and balalaika, domra, bandura, seven-string guitar, and bayan virtuosi made a regular practice of performing there, going back to the 19th century.

MichaelHorowitz

Ken, from what you're saying it sounds like this repertoire mostly coalesced in Russia. Although Czardas de Monti was definitely written in Paris. Do you know were Deux Guitars comes from? I've only ever seen it with a French title which makes me also think it may have originated in Paris.

Do you have any recommendations for classic balalaika recordings?

Thanks!

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MichaelHorowitz

And btw...if you want to have Russian party in your own home, you can't beat this CD:








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Ludovic
Beier

Impression Tzigane




Stunning versions of all the classic Russian stuff!

sockeye

Also btw...have you heard Roby Lakatos? His CD Lakatos aka La Bohème is very good.

Here he is playing "Deux Guitares":



And "Csárdás":



John

MichaelHorowitz

yes...I have many of his CDs and saw him play with Fapy and Angelo Debarre in Budapest in 96.

He's one of the guys I was thinking about....he uses the French title Deux Guitares.

brandoneon

Michael Horowitz wrote:

Do you know were Deux Guitars comes from? I've only ever seen it with a French title which makes me also think it may have originated in Paris.

Not necessarily. It also goes by its Russian name, Dve Gitari.

Charles Aznavour recorded a French language version in 1960, which may have affected the prevalence of the French title in popular culture.

MichaelHorowitz

Cool...thanks for hipping me to the Russian name!

MichaelHorowitz

I should have looked at my own inventory! Duh...

CHANSONS
ET ROMANCES TZIGANES RUSSES VOL.1

Ken Bloom

Two Guitars is definitely an old one. I have it one of my balalaika books and has been an old favorite forever. Another balalaika orchestra standard. There are also tons of klezmer tunes with Russian titles and vice versa. A friend of mine, Julian Kytasty who is a fabulous bandura player has done many programs with Brave Old World (klezmer band) on music from "both sides of the village" showing exactly this.
This same phenomenon is still around. I played a bar mitzvah Saturday night and one of the tunes we did that got a great reception was The Blue Scrarf, a WWII Russian pop tune, sort of the We'll Meet Again of wartime Russia.