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.

[guarani]

Very beautiful indeed. I know you say "nothing whatsoever", but don't you have any other info? I tried googling it without success.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Same here. I only heard it another time, in a tape by the male choir of London's Metropolitan Police, and while I don't think much of this city's cops, I have to say that I thought it was even better. These people, by the way, are not from Worcester, England, but from Worcester, South Africa. There is another performance of the same piece by them on Youtube, preceded by the South African national anthem.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

The song is "Dashenka (The Gypsy)" and is often part of the repertoire of Welsh choral groups. The song appears to be commonly attributed to Welsh author/composer Islwyn Ffowc Elis (in which case the original language would almost certainly have been Welsh), though I have also seen it cataloged as folk song on two occasions (once as a Welsh folk song, once as a Hungarian folk song). Noel Davies' arrangement of the song seems to be the most popular.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am familiar with Welsh choirs, and while this is certainly good enough for them, it does not sound naturally Welsh. I would think that it is either an East European folksong adapted for their use, or a Welsh composer's successful attempt at ethnic colour. I'll look up Islwyn Ffowc Elis.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Either seems plausible to me; I'm curious what you can find. English web-biographies of Elis do not mention him as a composer of any note, but he is frequently listed as the song's composer in catalogs. There may be some significant information on the Welsh-language Internet (the Welsh title is "Dashenka (Y Sipsiwn)"), but my Welsh is too poor to get very far.

In case they may be of help as a jumping-off point, here are a couple of the more interesting links I dug up while I was searching:

• a mailing list post describing Dashenka as a popular Welsh folk song romanticising the Gypsy lifestyle
• A Welsh choral group's "song of the month" page which includes an English recording of the song with much clearer lyrics

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Er, also meant to include this catalog entry; the sheet music collection it appears in looks available for roughly £7.

[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:

[fpb.livejournal.com]

My Welsh is pretty bad too, but I can tell you that "Y Sipsiwn" means nothing else than "the Gypsy", both the English and the Welsh coming from the mistaken notion that Gypsies came from Egypt. By the way, if you like vocal music, you might look upthread, where I have posted three or four Italian mountain songs for thefish30. Aside from my own love for all things Alpine, I have her word for it that they amount to an "Epic Voice Win".

[fpb.livejournal.com]

mentalguy, here below, has found more information than I could, although the song still remains rather mysterious. BTW, you might like the Italian mountain choirs I have posted upthread.

[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.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

My Welsh is pretty bad too, but I can tell you that "Y Sipsiwn" means nothing else than "the Gypsy", both the English and the Welsh coming from the mistaken notion that Gypsies came from Egypt.

Ah! I ought to have noticed the phonetic similarity. Welsh consonants hurt my brain.

[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.