Andrei Sychra published a series of Journals in St Petersburg in the early 19th-century, aimed at amateur players – they make entertaining student-level repertoire.
Download the Journals from our SCORES page.
I will be uploading some performances of items from these journals on this page.
- Number 4, Polonaise
Now, I had no idea what the titles in this piece meant in English, so I asked the ever-resourceful, Oleg Timofeyev. Here are the titles as seen in the score:
Oleg’s dissertation mentions how Polonaises are often made up of folk songs, and this is in fact the case here:
“The first inscription is the song title: “Last night I, young maiden, [was in a company],” the second is also a song title “A Birch Tree Stood in the Field.” Now, the latter is very famous because of Chaikovsky’s 4th symphony, check from about 1:26 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NinQ1-z7T3Y “
He went on to give some constructive criticism:
“Your Trio Section is very musical and pleasant, but the character is beyond recognition.”
So, I need to revisit the piece, try to make the Trio more lively. Many thanks to Oleg. These things happen – we are dealing with a foreign culture that somehow seems familiar, but we might jump on the completely wrong interpretation. It’s all part of the learning process.
===========================================
2. Numbers 13 and 26, “Near the River, Near the Bridge (a theatre song)” and “Hey, Prepare dances and Entertainment.”
Two interestingly-titled pieces! The second is from a comic opera, “A Cossack Poet” of 1812 – thanks to Oleg Timofeyev for that information.
===========================================
Sarenko And Co 