Kalinka online
Thanks to Councillor Bob Piper of Sandwell Labour Party (who he?) for providing a link, in his blog, to a wonderful clip of the Red Army choir doing a rousing performance of Kalinka, quintessentially Russian song. Click —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_A7Hu0uKNw&eurl=
and remember to clap (off-beat only), if you can keep up….
Hat-tip: Tim Worstall (who else?), his blog.
Up-date and correction: A friend has pointed out that whoever is performing Kalinka in this clip, it ain't the Red Army choir. In fact it looks as if it's the Militia choir, judging by the uniforms. What the "dancers" are wearing on their heads is to me a mystery.
Further update and another correction, 28 September 06: The same friend has now helpfully drawn my attention to the relevant Wikipedia entry according to which:
The Leningrad Cowboys are a Finnish rock and roll band, famous for its humorous songs and concerts featuring the Soviet Red Army Choir.
Oh, well. Whoever they are, they provide a rousing version of Kalinka!
????? (with thanks to Tim for also correcting my faulty Cyrillic: see Comments)
Vryarn?
????? maybe?
I know, I know, Saturday afternoon and all that.
????? writes: Good grief. I've been away too long. Thank you for the swift correction, now transferred to the post. Mea maxissima culpa…. (However, I prefer my version of the vowels in the middle, probably wrongly.)
Did a quick google of ????? and ?????, both seem equally popular. My own concoction (?????) less so, but then I have a tiny bit of Bulgarian but no Russian.
????? comments: Interesting. My feeling is that ????? would sound more like Bree-an than Bra-yan, which seems a closer approximation to the target sound. But my Russian, always superficial, is now extremely rusty, so I can't lay claim to any expertise. A definitive verdict is probably lurking in the old KGB files on me, but as they are unlikely ever to see the light of day, I feel free to spell it any way I like. It's a piece of luck that I'm not called Harold Hunter, liable to be reproduced in Russian, language lacking an H, as either Kharrold Khunter (as in the throat-hawking 'ch' of the Scottish 'loch' or German 'Ach!') or Garrold Gunter. I once saw the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad perform that grand old Shakespearean ballet 'Gamlet'.
Loved the Chorus always have. Now I am forced to go out and buy on of their CDs — just to hear them do Meadowlands if nothing else.
Who ever they are they should lose the Cowboys. The best use for that group would have whitewashing rocks in Nova Zemlya — which they would have been in the good old days. <eg> BTW the headgear is actually hairdos — or rugs as the case may be.
Anyway, thanks for an enjoyable 10 minutes Brian.
Regards,
Carl L/LA
The Red Army fought its Great Patriotic War in Defence of the Motherland against a German Nazi leader called Gitler.
Gamburgers in Pushkin Square.
They seem to be a Finnish rock and roll band. Please see up-date and correction dated 28 September 06 appended to the original post, above. More apologies.