Ei, Ukhnem (Song Of The Volga Boatmen): A Song History

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"Ei, Ukhnem" is a Russian work song tied to the burlaki, the barge haulers who dragged river craft along the Volga.[1] The composer Mily Balakirev printed it in 1866 as the fortieth and final number of his collection of Russian folk songs, first issued in St. Petersburg.[2] His version had only one verse; the others were added later.[1]

Painting of a river at night with dark boats and masts against a glowing, cloudy sky

Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov, Night Scene on the Volga, oil on wood, 1871. Shows the Volga, though not barge haulers; it has no connection to the song.

The haulers themselves became an emblem of Russian art through Ilya Repin's large canvas Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870–73), now in the State Russian Museum.[3] Repin first noticed haulers at work on the Neva in 1868, and he built the painting from portraits made on two later trips to the Volga; it won wide praise at the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna.[3]

According to the notes to a reissue of his recordings, the singer Feodor Chaliapin apparently performed it outside Russia for the first time at London's Albert Hall in September 1922, then recorded it in England that autumn; the released take proved enormously popular.[4] Around 1917, Oliver Ditson of Boston published an arrangement by Victor Harris.[1] Igor Stravinsky scored the tune for orchestral winds in 1917.[5] Shelley Stevens includes it in Baker's Dozen #6: World Music, a set of thirteen songs from around the world for mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Ei, Ukhnem (Song Of The Volga Boatmen)"

Sources

  1. Binghamton University Libraries, Special Collections: "Volga Boatmen's Song is our Featured Book for December 2011".
  2. IMSLP: "A Collection of Popular Russian Songs (Balakirev, Mily)".
  3. State Russian Museum: "Ilya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga".
  4. Arbiter Records: "The Chaliapin Edition, Volume 5".
  5. American Symphony Orchestra: "Igor Stravinsky, Song of the Volga Boatmen".
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Shelley Stevens, Baker's Dozen #6: World Music".
  7. Image: Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov, Night Scene on the Volga, oil on wood, 1871. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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