The Wanderer is the eighth studio album by Donna Summer, released in 1980. It was her first release on Geffen Records and became a Top 20 album in the United States, with the title track single reaching the #3 on Billboard's Hot 100.
This album had been out of print but was re-released on December 9, 2014, on the Driven by the Music label (remastered/bonus tracks).
Background
Summer had made her name the previous decade as the most successful female artist of the disco genre, releasing a vast selection of hit singles and albums on Casablanca Records. During this period however, Summer had felt that the label had exploited her and made her portray a sexually orientated image ("The First Lady of Love") with which she never felt comfortable. The label had also taken over other elements of Summer's personal life, to the point where she felt she had no control over her life or career. Having come out of a period of depression and rediscovering her Christian faith, Summer had made the decision to break away from Casablanca and file a lawsuit against them. After the lawsuit was eventually settled, Summer became the first artist to be signed to the newly established Geffen Records.
The Wanderer (Strannik, Стра′нник) is a poem by Apollon Maykov, first published in the No.1, January 1867 issue of The Russian Messenger. It was dedicated to Fyodor Tyutchev and subtitled: "First part of the drama The Thirsty One".
History
In his commentaries to the first, magazine version of the poem, Maykov explained:
In the same commentaries the author mentioned several of the sources he used: The Historical Sketches of Russian Priesthood by Pavel Melnikov (part 1, Moscow, 1864), Stories from the History of the Old Believers by S.Maksimov (Saint-Petersburg, 1861), Songs Collected by P.V. Kireevsky (4th issue, Moscow, 1862), works by the raskol scholar N.I.Subbotin. Working upon the language, he studied Avvakum's literary legacy and some old Russian Bible-based texts.
The plot of the poem (or the Scene, as Maykov has defined it) was based on Melnikov-Petchorsky's novel Grisha. Maykov omitted many trivial scenes as well as the episode of his ‘temptation by romantic passions' but strengthened the final, adding a scene of arson which was absent in Melnikov's novel.
Japan 2003
Ivari Ilja - piano
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (1821-1897)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) , "Oktava", op. 45 no. 3 (1897-9)
Гармонии стиха божественные тайны
не думай разгадать по книгам мудрецов:
у брега сонных вод один бродя, случайно,
прислушайся душой к шептанью тростников,
дубравы говору; их звук необычайный прочувствуй и пойми...
В созвучии стихов невольно с уст твоих
размерные октавы польются, звучные, как музыка дубравы.
Garmonii stikha bozhestvennyje tajny
ne dumaj razgadat' po knigam mudrecov:
u brega sonnykh vod odin brodja, sluchajno,
prislushajsja dushoj k sheptan'ju trostnikov,
dubravy govoru; ikh zvuk neobychajnyj prochuvstvuj i pojmi...
V sozvuchii stikhov nevol'no s ust tvojikh
razmernyje oktavy pol'jutsja, z...
published: 11 Jul 2009
Tchaikovsky/Pabst - Lullaby
Recent weeks have been very difficult. Over two weeks I have lost two people who were very dear to me. If there is any consolation, this music has been just that. I thought, perhaps, there someone else out there needs to find their peace and they happen to have a similar way of coping with their feelings. Thus: Lullaby by Tchaikovsky, transcribed for the piano by Pabst.
This piece is originally a song for soprano and piano, one of the romances op. 16. As opposed to the more famous piano transcription by Rachmaninov, Pabst's version keeps things simple and folk-like, just like the original version. I see three different interpretations of Maykov's lyrics to this song. But first, English translation (by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg, you can find it, with the Russian original, right her...
published: 31 Mar 2020
Reflections on History - Square for Luba (EN)
doc "Reflections on History - Square for Luba"
in English
Japan 2003
Ivari Ilja - piano
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (1821-1897)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) , "Oktava", op. 45 no. 3 (1897-9)
...
Japan 2003
Ivari Ilja - piano
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (1821-1897)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) , "Oktava", op. 45 no. 3 (1897-9)
Гармонии стиха божественные тайны
не думай разгадать по книгам мудрецов:
у брега сонных вод один бродя, случайно,
прислушайся душой к шептанью тростников,
дубравы говору; их звук необычайный прочувствуй и пойми...
В созвучии стихов невольно с уст твоих
размерные октавы польются, звучные, как музыка дубравы.
Garmonii stikha bozhestvennyje tajny
ne dumaj razgadat' po knigam mudrecov:
u brega sonnykh vod odin brodja, sluchajno,
prislushajsja dushoj k sheptan'ju trostnikov,
dubravy govoru; ikh zvuk neobychajnyj prochuvstvuj i pojmi...
V sozvuchii stikhov nevol'no s ust tvojikh
razmernyje oktavy pol'jutsja, zvuchnyje, kak muzyka dubravy.
Japan 2003
Ivari Ilja - piano
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (1821-1897)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) , "Oktava", op. 45 no. 3 (1897-9)
Гармонии стиха божественные тайны
не думай разгадать по книгам мудрецов:
у брега сонных вод один бродя, случайно,
прислушайся душой к шептанью тростников,
дубравы говору; их звук необычайный прочувствуй и пойми...
В созвучии стихов невольно с уст твоих
размерные октавы польются, звучные, как музыка дубравы.
Garmonii stikha bozhestvennyje tajny
ne dumaj razgadat' po knigam mudrecov:
u brega sonnykh vod odin brodja, sluchajno,
prislushajsja dushoj k sheptan'ju trostnikov,
dubravy govoru; ikh zvuk neobychajnyj prochuvstvuj i pojmi...
V sozvuchii stikhov nevol'no s ust tvojikh
razmernyje oktavy pol'jutsja, zvuchnyje, kak muzyka dubravy.
Recent weeks have been very difficult. Over two weeks I have lost two people who were very dear to me. If there is any consolation, this music has been just tha...
Recent weeks have been very difficult. Over two weeks I have lost two people who were very dear to me. If there is any consolation, this music has been just that. I thought, perhaps, there someone else out there needs to find their peace and they happen to have a similar way of coping with their feelings. Thus: Lullaby by Tchaikovsky, transcribed for the piano by Pabst.
This piece is originally a song for soprano and piano, one of the romances op. 16. As opposed to the more famous piano transcription by Rachmaninov, Pabst's version keeps things simple and folk-like, just like the original version. I see three different interpretations of Maykov's lyrics to this song. But first, English translation (by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg, you can find it, with the Russian original, right here: https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=32313 )
Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, fall asleep!
Beckon sweet dreams to yourself:
I've hired as nannies for you
The Wind, the Sun and the Eagle.
The Eagle has flown back home,
The Sun has hidden under the waters,
And three nights later
The Wind is rushing away to her Mother.
The Wind's mother has been asking:
"Where have you been for so long?
Have you been fighting the stars?
Have you been chasing the waves?"
"I haven't been chasing the sea-waves,
I haven't been touching the golden stars,
I have been guarding a baby
And rocking gently his little cradle".
Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, fall asleep!
Beckon sweet dreams to yourself:
I've hired as nannies for you
The Wind, the Sun and the Eagle.
My first idea about the meaning of these lyrics was that this is perhaps the most stoic lullaby you can possibly sing to your child. Everyone you grow to love and care about, regardless of their promises to take care of you, will eventually leave you.
Then I thought about it some more and remembered that Russian poetry at that time was strongly inspired by folk tales, and folk tales tend to be symbolic. And so, as a Slavic folk you can see the eagle as a symbol of strength and youthfulness, the sun as joy and carelessness and the wind is frequently a reference to the human spirit: impossible to grasp, impossible to stop. The eagle goes away as the first one, shortly followed by the sun. Only the wind sticks around for a while before it's confronted with its mother (life-giving figure, perhaps a metaphor for a divine being). The questions about stars and waves don't seem random either: even in current pop culture, especially the stars, tend to symbolize dreams and ambition. The wind, however, states it was just trying to give calm sleep to a baby, which does sound like a mundane, yet admirable and selfless task.
And then the third way to understand this lullaby hit me. It's goodbye. Forever. As a mother, leaving her child in a grave calms down not the baby, but herself. Tries to find peace of mind, a distraction, a beam of hope through imagining that her baby is safe and guarded by nature.
I'm not sure if any of my ways of seeing it are anywhere near what Maykov had in mind while writing it. There are so many other ways to see this, just come up with something you like. The beauty of poetry! I think, however, that Tchaikovsky must have heard something gruesome and deeply sad in those words, which is why his music to this text is so dark - from the choice of the tonality, through the harmonies, dissonances, melodic direction and even the unsettling cradle/wind sounds accompanying the melody.
Or it's just me imagining things in my restless mind.
Either way, it is what it is.
In loving memory of M. and L. There are no words that can describe how much I'll miss both of you.
Recent weeks have been very difficult. Over two weeks I have lost two people who were very dear to me. If there is any consolation, this music has been just that. I thought, perhaps, there someone else out there needs to find their peace and they happen to have a similar way of coping with their feelings. Thus: Lullaby by Tchaikovsky, transcribed for the piano by Pabst.
This piece is originally a song for soprano and piano, one of the romances op. 16. As opposed to the more famous piano transcription by Rachmaninov, Pabst's version keeps things simple and folk-like, just like the original version. I see three different interpretations of Maykov's lyrics to this song. But first, English translation (by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg, you can find it, with the Russian original, right here: https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=32313 )
Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, fall asleep!
Beckon sweet dreams to yourself:
I've hired as nannies for you
The Wind, the Sun and the Eagle.
The Eagle has flown back home,
The Sun has hidden under the waters,
And three nights later
The Wind is rushing away to her Mother.
The Wind's mother has been asking:
"Where have you been for so long?
Have you been fighting the stars?
Have you been chasing the waves?"
"I haven't been chasing the sea-waves,
I haven't been touching the golden stars,
I have been guarding a baby
And rocking gently his little cradle".
Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, fall asleep!
Beckon sweet dreams to yourself:
I've hired as nannies for you
The Wind, the Sun and the Eagle.
My first idea about the meaning of these lyrics was that this is perhaps the most stoic lullaby you can possibly sing to your child. Everyone you grow to love and care about, regardless of their promises to take care of you, will eventually leave you.
Then I thought about it some more and remembered that Russian poetry at that time was strongly inspired by folk tales, and folk tales tend to be symbolic. And so, as a Slavic folk you can see the eagle as a symbol of strength and youthfulness, the sun as joy and carelessness and the wind is frequently a reference to the human spirit: impossible to grasp, impossible to stop. The eagle goes away as the first one, shortly followed by the sun. Only the wind sticks around for a while before it's confronted with its mother (life-giving figure, perhaps a metaphor for a divine being). The questions about stars and waves don't seem random either: even in current pop culture, especially the stars, tend to symbolize dreams and ambition. The wind, however, states it was just trying to give calm sleep to a baby, which does sound like a mundane, yet admirable and selfless task.
And then the third way to understand this lullaby hit me. It's goodbye. Forever. As a mother, leaving her child in a grave calms down not the baby, but herself. Tries to find peace of mind, a distraction, a beam of hope through imagining that her baby is safe and guarded by nature.
I'm not sure if any of my ways of seeing it are anywhere near what Maykov had in mind while writing it. There are so many other ways to see this, just come up with something you like. The beauty of poetry! I think, however, that Tchaikovsky must have heard something gruesome and deeply sad in those words, which is why his music to this text is so dark - from the choice of the tonality, through the harmonies, dissonances, melodic direction and even the unsettling cradle/wind sounds accompanying the melody.
Or it's just me imagining things in my restless mind.
Either way, it is what it is.
In loving memory of M. and L. There are no words that can describe how much I'll miss both of you.
Japan 2003
Ivari Ilja - piano
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (1821-1897)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) , "Oktava", op. 45 no. 3 (1897-9)
Гармонии стиха божественные тайны
не думай разгадать по книгам мудрецов:
у брега сонных вод один бродя, случайно,
прислушайся душой к шептанью тростников,
дубравы говору; их звук необычайный прочувствуй и пойми...
В созвучии стихов невольно с уст твоих
размерные октавы польются, звучные, как музыка дубравы.
Garmonii stikha bozhestvennyje tajny
ne dumaj razgadat' po knigam mudrecov:
u brega sonnykh vod odin brodja, sluchajno,
prislushajsja dushoj k sheptan'ju trostnikov,
dubravy govoru; ikh zvuk neobychajnyj prochuvstvuj i pojmi...
V sozvuchii stikhov nevol'no s ust tvojikh
razmernyje oktavy pol'jutsja, zvuchnyje, kak muzyka dubravy.
Recent weeks have been very difficult. Over two weeks I have lost two people who were very dear to me. If there is any consolation, this music has been just that. I thought, perhaps, there someone else out there needs to find their peace and they happen to have a similar way of coping with their feelings. Thus: Lullaby by Tchaikovsky, transcribed for the piano by Pabst.
This piece is originally a song for soprano and piano, one of the romances op. 16. As opposed to the more famous piano transcription by Rachmaninov, Pabst's version keeps things simple and folk-like, just like the original version. I see three different interpretations of Maykov's lyrics to this song. But first, English translation (by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg, you can find it, with the Russian original, right here: https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=32313 )
Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, fall asleep!
Beckon sweet dreams to yourself:
I've hired as nannies for you
The Wind, the Sun and the Eagle.
The Eagle has flown back home,
The Sun has hidden under the waters,
And three nights later
The Wind is rushing away to her Mother.
The Wind's mother has been asking:
"Where have you been for so long?
Have you been fighting the stars?
Have you been chasing the waves?"
"I haven't been chasing the sea-waves,
I haven't been touching the golden stars,
I have been guarding a baby
And rocking gently his little cradle".
Sleep, my baby, sleep, fall asleep, sleep, fall asleep!
Beckon sweet dreams to yourself:
I've hired as nannies for you
The Wind, the Sun and the Eagle.
My first idea about the meaning of these lyrics was that this is perhaps the most stoic lullaby you can possibly sing to your child. Everyone you grow to love and care about, regardless of their promises to take care of you, will eventually leave you.
Then I thought about it some more and remembered that Russian poetry at that time was strongly inspired by folk tales, and folk tales tend to be symbolic. And so, as a Slavic folk you can see the eagle as a symbol of strength and youthfulness, the sun as joy and carelessness and the wind is frequently a reference to the human spirit: impossible to grasp, impossible to stop. The eagle goes away as the first one, shortly followed by the sun. Only the wind sticks around for a while before it's confronted with its mother (life-giving figure, perhaps a metaphor for a divine being). The questions about stars and waves don't seem random either: even in current pop culture, especially the stars, tend to symbolize dreams and ambition. The wind, however, states it was just trying to give calm sleep to a baby, which does sound like a mundane, yet admirable and selfless task.
And then the third way to understand this lullaby hit me. It's goodbye. Forever. As a mother, leaving her child in a grave calms down not the baby, but herself. Tries to find peace of mind, a distraction, a beam of hope through imagining that her baby is safe and guarded by nature.
I'm not sure if any of my ways of seeing it are anywhere near what Maykov had in mind while writing it. There are so many other ways to see this, just come up with something you like. The beauty of poetry! I think, however, that Tchaikovsky must have heard something gruesome and deeply sad in those words, which is why his music to this text is so dark - from the choice of the tonality, through the harmonies, dissonances, melodic direction and even the unsettling cradle/wind sounds accompanying the melody.
Or it's just me imagining things in my restless mind.
Either way, it is what it is.
In loving memory of M. and L. There are no words that can describe how much I'll miss both of you.
You're a lady I know baby And I'm a man, I know that too So this might come as some surprise, a bit unusual When I lay down the rules You got my heart, now you want my body Keep my cool, girl you lucky you's a hottie Ain't no games that I play that you can win If you want inside my temple I'm gonna have to let you in You're holding out for sweet surrender, baby yeah It won't be coming no time soon Our love has just begun to simmer And when it boils you'll be cooked through You got my heart, now you want my body Keep my cool, girl you lucky you's a hottie Ain't no games that I play that you can win If you want inside my temple I'm gonna have to let you in Your eyes are filled with fire, Your mouth is filled with cuss And I'm tired, tired, tired When I get home from work and I come through the door And I'm tired And I walk into the kitchen And you're wearing that mad face on your head And I shiver in the corner like a frightened thing