hi, guys.
curious thing:
a customer walked into my shop today as I was playing Marika Papagika's
"Smyrneiko Papagika" (recorded mid-1919 by Greek immigrants to New York) and
mentioned to me that, being in a klezmer band, he knew the closing
(instrumental) melody as the "Expectation Waltz," which he says have words
in Yiddish. He also said that the tune is also found in Russian under the
name "O Zdiane." And sure enough, a quick google search bore out the
Expectation Waltz, for instance this YouTube clip of a six-year-old girl
playing it rather beautifully:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhujMCwys5E
I've had no luck coming up with the Russian version. Probably I'm spelling
it wrong. Can anyone help? Does anyone have lyrics to those?
Being as Smyrneiko Minore is one of all-time favorite songs, I can't believe
I'd never known this before. But there's something nice about this
thickening of the plot...
thanks!
Ian
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