Elegy
Attributed to Mikhail Vyssotsky (1791-1837)
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Introduced by Matanya Ophee
Move over Spanish Romance, Jeux Interdix
or whatever you want to call yourself. This Elegy is the ultimate,
unequivocal and final replacement to a piece of seductive guitar music which
overstayed its welcome a couple of generations ago. Enough is enough and now it
is time for a fresh candidate. Soulful, melancholy, with just the right touch of
sentimental debauchery and fairly easy to play. It is Russian in origin and I
found it while searching for material for the next volume of the Russian
Collection, now in its final stages of preparation. Many Russian guitarists
now play this piece. I am particularly indebted to young Vladimir Markushevich,
an up and coming virtuoso of the seven-string guitar, for acquainting me with
it.
It is a good question if the composer is indeed the early nineteenth century
master Mikhail Vyssotsky. Volume VII of the Russian Collection includes
several pieces by him. I have in my private collection the majority of his known
works, and quite a few which are not well-known. This was not his style. In all
probability, the composer was someone who worked in the tradition of popular
music current in the Soviet Union in the years of the Second World War. It more
fits the temperament of people like Soloviov-Sedoi, Dunaevsky, Mokrousov and
others of their ilk. If only I knew this piece way back then, when lollipops
like this were the mainstay of my youthful follies. As they say in Russian:
ENDZHOITE!
Copyright © 1997 by Editions Orphée. All Rights Reserved.
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Last Modified: Friday, June 20, 1997