songs about Siberia

[Margaret McKibben]

I have an anecdote which may apply...in 1985 I was at a folk song festival
in Novosibirsk, and in conversation with the head of the hosting choir
mentioned that I was collecting songs from US Old Believers whose roots
were in Siberia.

"Have you found any anti-war songs?" she asked.  "Our choir keeps getting
invited to perform at peace festivals, and we've tried to find appropriate
material on our recording expeditions to our local villages, but all we
can get are exile songs -- exile songs -- and more exile songs!"

So that's Siberia in the imagination of the local Russian population, it
seems.

I've long been curious about the absence of railroad lore in Siberian
folk music.  The musical folklore of the American West is packed with
railroad heroes, railroad references, instrumental quotes of steam engine
whistles and the sound of wheels on track. I've yet to find anything
analogous in Siberian folk music, in spite of the similiar role of the
railroad.

Margaret McKibben, librarian
North Seattle Community College
mmck at seaccd.sccd.ctc.edu