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Russian/soviet Songs


Bluejacket

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I'm flying out to Russia where I'll be staying with friends for a couple months. I know that the Accordion and Melodeon is still well established even in modern Russian music, so I'm hoping to be able to adapt it the concertina. I'm bringing with me my newly acquired 30-button Anglo concertina and I was wondering if anyone might now a good resource for finding Russian songs (both folk and modern), as well as older Soviet Era songs that can be played on the Anglo.

 

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Thanks!

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I'm flying out to Russia where I'll be staying with friends for a couple months. I know that the Accordion and Melodeon is still well established even in modern Russian music, so I'm hoping to be able to adapt it the concertina. I'm bringing with me my newly acquired 30-button Anglo concertina and I was wondering if anyone might now a good resource for finding Russian songs (both folk and modern), as well as older Soviet Era songs that can be played on the Anglo.

Doesn't your friend have other friends who are musical? Seems to me the best way to learn songs would be to learn what your friends like. Any sort should be possible on your 30-button anglo, though you may want to transpose some to more comfortable keys. I don't know what are the popular "melodeon" keys in Russia... G/C, D/G, C/F, or something else? Also, they have melodeon-like instruments where the notes are laid out quite differently from a melodeon. I don't know the details, though I've seen them played.

 

There are a few collections of Russian songs edited by Jerry Silverman and published in the US in the 1960s, though the little one I have doesn't seem to be among those currently listed on ABEbooks.

 

I would hope that your friend might be able to direct you to bookstores in Moscow (where you'll be staying), where you might find songbooks printed in Russia... old ones, as well as new. The Soviets, at least, published a lot of stuff, including obscure folk collections, but also popular and "patriotic" songs.

 

Добрий час.

Edited by JimLucas
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I don't have a source to provide you with, but felt like pointing at a recent (only-instrumental) recording of mine, including "Sailors from Kronstadt and Kiel" (I seem to recall the author being of German or Czech nationality, but I reckon it has been popular with Soviet People in Russia as well) and "Вы жертвою пали" (with well-known German words to it in mind: "Unsterbliche Opfer", immortal victims; but not played in original 4/4 for marching but as a waltz here; if memory serves me right I'd heard it done this way by the great late German singer Ernst Busch):

 

Soviet Medley

Best wishes - Wolf

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