Easy Russian songs for English speakers

February 25, 2019 12:22 PM

My small, informal folk singing group sometimes does songs in non-English languages. As a native Russian speaker, I'd like to teach them a simple Russian song. The question is, does one exist that is simple enough?

The ideal "song" (or ditty, chant, round, lullaby, children's song, part of longer song, etc.) would be 3-8 lines long, with easyish pronunciation. This is not a for a performance, just a once-every-two-weeks gathering of people who like to sing. The only criteria are that it has to be easy (enough) for English speakers, and sound cool when the group does learn it.

Options I've thought of:

Oi Moroz Moroz - just a few simple lines and a nice repetitive structure, BUT right away you have to pronounce both moroz and moroz' and I think that might make it a no-go

Katyusha - great melody, but no chorus, and every other word has the "y" vowel (though if people just say "i" or "ee" the words are still comprehensible, so maybe okay)

It's not the wind that bends the branch - easiest pronunciation of anything I've found, but it's a horribly depressing song, and again a great melody but no chorus

Anybody have experience with this?

posted by danceswithlight to Society & Culture (9 answers total)

For moroz/moroz' could you just tell them to sing more or less "moroyz" and, in singing, it will sound about right? This is how my Russian choir got closer to pronouncing "конь" in the song of Stenka Razin. (I'm not a native speaker so possibly I'm being too lenient!)

I think the simplest song my choir sang was "Горы" in an arrangement very similar to this one, but slightly simpler. I could probably even email you sheet music for it it appeals. It obviously has a big old /y/ right there in the title but I feel like it's going to be impossible to avoid any sounds like /y/ and palatalized consonants that don't exist in English.
posted by Smearcase at 12:39 PM on February 25, 2019

(The rationale on moroz' is that vowels actually do move higher/get "i coloration" before a palatalized consonant, but say it out loud and see what you think as far as an approximation.)
posted by Smearcase at 12:41 PM on February 25, 2019

Moscow Nights (Подмосковные вечера). The video has some language instruction in it, too.
posted by alex1965 at 12:42 PM on February 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

My child's chorus (ages 7 and 8) did "Голубой Вагон" aka "Blue Wagon". Link to a video. Link to Romanized lyrics. Link to Cyrillic lyrics.
posted by xo at 12:49 PM on February 25, 2019

I'm not sure what you think of the pronunciation, some of it is tricky, but Song of the Volga Boatmen is so lovely. We sang that and Oy, Moroz, Moroz a lot when I was learning Russian.
posted by kitcat at 12:49 PM on February 25, 2019

Oh yeah, not sure if this is the same song as the Volga Boatmen but Вниз по Матушке, по Волге is also simple and I definitely have sheet music for a three part version.
posted by Smearcase at 1:12 PM on February 25, 2019

How about Миленький ты мой? We sang it in my Russian class (albeit the boys were less enthusiastic about singing their part, go figure).
posted by orrnyereg at 2:48 PM on February 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

We learned Рот, нос, уши, и глаза in my Russian class in high school. It is short, but sung to the tune of Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Here are the lyrics.
posted by soelo at 4:55 PM on February 25, 2019

The song "Those Were the Days" (popularized by Mary Hopkin) was actually based on the melody from a Russian song called, "Дорогой длинною" ("By the Long Road"). This might be a good song to sing, since your group members probably know the tune already.
posted by alex1965 at 6:10 PM on February 25, 2019 [1 favorite]