Dashenka

[fpb]

I know nothing whatsoever about this song, except that it is for male choir and piano, and that it is unbelievably lovely. Indeed, it seems to be almost unknown, which I find tragic for such a lovely piece of music.

Comments

[thefish30.livejournal.com]

There's nothing like an all-male chorus and there's never enough of it around.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

If that is how you feel, allow me to introduce you to our great tradition of mountain choirs - particularly as embodied in my favourite army specialty, the Alpini.


I just love everything to do with our mountains, including the winter snows.

EPIC VOICE WIN

[thefish30.livejournal.com]

The second one is just breathtaking. Now I must scurry to google similar in a language I can follow. It must exist in German.

Re: EPIC VOICE WIN

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The first and third are funny songs about military service; the first is about being drafted and ending up in "the motor troops on foot" - that is a joke reference to the Alpini, just as the Bersaglieri are "the cavalry on foot". The third gives a sound lesson in military strategy: "If you want to win your wars, either by land or by sea, make sure that your cannon are all powered by maccheroni!"
The second does not say much; it is about mountain songs themselves - "Let us sing the mountain song, and who does not know it?" It does exist in German, and it is widely popular - as with so many other things, they stole it from us. Here is a lovely and unusual version from the legendary Toelzer Knabenchor:

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

My goodness -- these gentlemen put the South Africans to utter shame. All three of the Italian groups are crisp and well-drilled, but the second of the three has really extraordinary vocal quality to top it off.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I would not run down the South Africans - I am sure they could perform the same scores quite well. But isn't it the case that you can find just about anything in Italy, and that we have this bad habit of doing everything we take seriously at top quality?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

A couple of points. First, the arrangement of the third song "Era nato poveretto" was done by no less than the great pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. The second is that the picture of the Italian Alps in the video of the second song is by no means exaggerated - in the spring and summer, they really look like that, including the unbelievable fields of flowers. (As for winter and the snows, words fail me.) As the slogan says, there is no lovelier country anywhere.