Vasily Grossman & Beethoven
William Ryan
wfr at SAS.AC.UK
Thu Jul 28 14:29:58 UTC 2011
This caught my attention and aroused my curiosity because my teenage
daughter is collecting Irish folksongs (seeking her roots I suppose). It
should have been easy to find - and wasn't, so I browsed. The main
information on this subject appears to be John Hennig, "Beethoven and
Ireland", The Irish Monthly, Vol. 75, No. 890 (Aug., 1947), pp. 332-338
and Alice Anderson Hufstader, "Beethoven's "Irische Lieder": Sources and
Problems", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Jul., 1959), pp. 343-360.
Opinions on the number of "Irish" songs by Beethoven vary from 57 to 72,
and sometimes they get confused with his Scottish songs. They were
commissioned by George Thomson, an Edinburgh publisher, who supplied
Beethoven with the melodies, obtained from a Dr Latham in Cork, some of
which were traditional and some contemporary popular and most were sent
without words. The missing "lyrics" were mostly supplied by Thomson who
commissioned them from a variety of usually minor English and Scottish
versifiers - i.e. they were not authentic Irish folksongs.
To judge from the titles of the Irische Lieder which I can find, the
"Irlandskaia zastol'naia" lyric seems not to be one of them , or even
particularly Irish - Betsy and Jenny (Jeannie?) don't sound very Irish,
and all that ale, grog and punch sound more like a composed English
drinking song than a folksong. And since when has death been personified
as "milady"?
The "Irlandskaia zastol'naia"seems to have been a popular concert piece
in Russia, with several recordings by well-known singers - and none of
them gives the original title in their website descriptions. I had
thought originally that Tom Moore might have Beethoven's source, but he
wasn't because he was already preparing his Irish Melodies for another
publisher. Even so half of Beethoven's melodies are taken from the same
source as Moore's. As I said, this ought be easy with the resources of
the Web, but it isn't. I would be very glad to hear the full story if
anyone knows it, as I am sure would Robert.
Will
On 28/07/2011 08:32, Simon Beattie wrote:
> Is it one of the "Irische Lieder", perhaps? Beethoven set quite a few.
>
> Simon
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic& East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Alexandra Smith
> Sent: 27 July 2011 23:14
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Vasily Grossman& Beethoven
>
> Dear Robert,
>
> The Russian text of the song you are looking for is attached below.
> It's called in Russian "Irlanskaia zastol'naia". You can listen to it
> here:
> http://onlinemusic.org.ua/song/351414/L-V_Bethoven-Irlandskaya_zastolnaya_isp_E_Hil.html
>
>
>
>
> Артур Эйзен — Ирландская застольная (Бетховен)
>
>
> За окнами шумит метель
> Роями белых пчел
> Друзья!
> Запеним добрый эль
> Поставим грог на стол!
>
> Пусть девушки любовь дарят,
> Боль сердца утоля.
> Пусть светится любимый взгляд
> Огнями хрусталя.
>
> Из ночи и морозных вьюг
> Кто в дверь стучится к нам?
> И отчего немой испуг
> На бледных лицах там?
>
> Миледи смерть, мы просим вас
> За дверью обождать
> Нам Бетси будет петь сейчас,
> А Дженни танцевать.
>
> Что ж потемнели свечи вдруг?
> Зажгите пунш скорей
> И девушки, скорее в круг
> И песни - веселей!
>
> Звени бокалом, жизнь моя!
> Гори любовь и хмель!
> Нет, только б не сейчас, друзья
> В морозную постель!
>
> За окнами шумит метель
> Роями белых пчел
> Друзья!
> Запеним добрый эль
> Поставим грог на стол!
>
> Пусть девушки любовь дарят,
> Боль сердца утоля.
> Пусть светится любимый взгляд
> Огнями хрусталя.
>
> All best,
> Sasha Smith
>
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