Searching for origin of Pleshcheyev's Legenda

[Anthony Antolini]

Dear Prof. Sylvester:

Did you see Prof. Robert Rothstein's reply to SEELANGS about the Pleshcheyev?
If you missed it, please e mail me and I'll forward it to you.

Thanks for this reply!

Happy New Year,

Anthony Antolini
>
> Dear Mr. Antolini,
>
> I have researched this extensively but have not found the
> English original. I am editing the texts of all Tchaikovsky's
> songs. I doubt there is an English original. Pleshcheev
> probably wrote his own poem based on pre-existing carols
> like "The Garden of Jesus" and "Legend of the Holy Well".
> Pleshcheev's "translations" are often new poems. Such at
> least is my guess at this point. It is only a guess.
>
> If you look in the Oxford Book of Carols, you'll see the song
> there. Since that collection was edited by three eminent experts
> on English carols, I believe that if the text were taken from
> an older English original, Vaughan Williams, Martin Shaw, and
> Canon Dearmer would have spotted it. But they did not. They
> simply included Tchaikovsky's song as a carol composed in
> modern times.
>
> I have all this written up for my edition, and could send it
> to you if you wish.
>
> On the off chance that somebody DOES know of an "original"
> please let me know!
>
> Richard Sylvester
> rsylvester at center.colgate.edu
>
> >Dear Colleagues,
> >
> >I am editing a new edition of Tchaikovsky's partsong "Legenda" to the
> >poetry of A. Pleshcheyev. The song appears as No. 5 in Tchaikovsky's Op.
> >54 "Sixteen Songs for Children" published in 1883 first as a solo song
> >and then as a choral song.
> >
> >The poem by Pleshcheyev is entitled "Legenda" and begins "Byl u Khrista
> >mladentsa sad...:  The poem has a subtitled "S angliiskogo" but no poet
> >or title from the English is given in any edition of Tchaikovsky's works.
> >
> >Does anyone know the English origin of Pleshcheyev's poem?
> >
> >Thank you!
> >
> >Anthony Antolini, Ph.D.
> >Department of Music
> >Bowdoin College
> >Brunswick Maine 04011
> >
> ><aantolin at bowdoin.edu>
>