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bystander wrote:TMI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchaikovsky_%28song%29 wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Witold Maliszewski, Anton Rubinstein, Anton Arensky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Nikolay Dmitriev, Alexander Tcherepnin, Ivan Kryzhanovsky, Leopold Godowsky, Nikolai Artsibushev, Stanisław Moniuszko, Fyodor Akimenko, Nikolai Soloviev, Sergei Prokofiev, Dimitri Tiomkin, Arseny Koreshchenko, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Winkler, Dmitry Bortniansky, Vladimir Rebikov, Alexander Ilyinsky, Nikolai Medtner, Mily Balakirev, Vasily Zolotaryov, Kvoschinsky, Nikolay Sokolov, Alexander Kopylov, Vernon Duke (born Dukelsky), Nikolay Klenovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Borodin, Reinhold Glière, David Nowakowsky, Anatoly Lyadov, Genari Karganoff, Igor Markevitch, Pantschenko, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Vladimir Shcherbachov, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Vasilenko, Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Gretchaninov, Alexander Glazunov, César Cui, Vasily Kalinnikov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Joseph Rumshinsky.

<<"Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians)" is a patter song with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Kurt Weill, first performed by American comedian Danny Kaye in the 1941 Broadway musical Lady in the Dark. In his lyrics Gershwin used the alternate spelling "Tschaikowsky" in place of the more widely accepted modern transliteration Tchaikovsky.

"Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians)" is not a song in the normal sense of the term: it is a rhyming list of fifty Russian composers' names, which Kaye rattled off (in a speaking, not singing, voice) as rapidly as possible. At each performance, Kaye tried to break his previous speed record for reciting this song: consequently, it was intended to be recited a cappella (without music), as the orchestra could not possibly keep up with him.

Several of the "Russian" composers listed in this song are actually Russian-Americans whose names Gershwin altered for the purposes of his lyric. For example, one of the names in the song is "Dukelsky"; this is actually the birth name of Vernon Duke, an American composer of Russian ancestry. Stanisław Moniuszko, Witold Maliszewski and Leopold Godowsky are actually Polish, not Russian.

Ira Gershwin began his career writing lyrics for his brother George Gershwin. Ira, the more self-effacing of the Gershwin brothers, was concerned that music publishers might think that George had chosen him as lyricist on the basis of nepotism rather than talent, so Ira originally chose to write lyrics under the pseudonym "Arthur Francis" (derived from the names of his other brother Arthur and his sister Frances).

The song was originally a nonsense poem which Ira Gershwin had published in a college newspaper under the name "Arthur Francis" in his student days. Decades later, in his memoir Lyrics on Several Occasions, Ira Gershwin expressed the hope that someone might accuse him of plagiarizing his song "Tschaikowsky" from the collegiate poem, so he could reveal that he and Arthur Francis were the same person.>>

bystander wrote:TMI

neufer wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchaikovsky_%28song%29 wrote: Witold Maliszewski, Anton Rubinstein, Anton Arensky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Nikolay Dmitriev, Alexander Tcherepnin, Ivan Kryzhanovsky, Leopold Godowsky, Nikolai Artsibushev, Stanisław Moniuszko, Fyodor Akimenko, Nikolai Soloviev, Sergei Prokofiev, Dimitri Tiomkin, Arseny Koreshchenko, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Winkler, Dmitry Bortniansky, Vladimir Rebikov, Alexander Ilyinsky, Nikolai Medtner, Mily Balakirev, Vasily Zolotaryov, Kvoschinsky, Nikolay Sokolov, Alexander Kopylov, Vernon Duke (born Dukelsky), Nikolay Klenovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Borodin, Reinhold Glière, David Nowakowsky, Anatoly Lyadov, Genari Karganoff, Igor Markevitch, Pantschenko, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Vladimir Shcherbachov, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Vasilenko, Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Gretchaninov, Alexander Glazunov, César Cui, Vasily Kalinnikov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Joseph Rumshinsky.

owlice wrote:

bystander wrote:TMI

Lady of Spain is a sticky tune; I had to get rid of it some way!

neufer wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchaikovsky_%28song%29 wrote: Witold Maliszewski, Anton Rubinstein, Anton Arensky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Wassily Sapellnikoff, Nikolay Dmitriev, Alexander Tcherepnin, Ivan Kryzhanovsky, Leopold Godowsky, Nikolai Artsibushev, Stanisław Moniuszko, Fyodor Akimenko, Nikolai Soloviev, Sergei Prokofiev, Dimitri Tiomkin, Arseny Koreshchenko, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Winkler, Dmitry Bortniansky, Vladimir Rebikov, Alexander Ilyinsky, Nikolai Medtner, Mily Balakirev, Vasily Zolotaryov, Kvoschinsky, Nikolay Sokolov, Alexander Kopylov, Vernon Duke (born Dukelsky), Nikolay Klenovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Borodin, Reinhold Glière, David Nowakowsky, Anatoly Lyadov, Genari Karganoff, Igor Markevitch, Pantschenko, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Vladimir Shcherbachov, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Vasilenko, Igor Stravinsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Gretchaninov, Alexander Glazunov, César Cui, Vasily Kalinnikov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Joseph Rumshinsky.

Neufer, are you offering to sing this for us?