Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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On "Oj, Vir-vir kolodez' " - (2024)
Oj, v’ir-v’ir kalódes’, "Ой, вир-вир колодезь" in the Cyrillic script, is said to be from the Smolensk region of Russia, and tells in part, "Oh, lift (heave-ho), cold well, / Why don’t you, well, have water? / Spring hasn’t come yet, and so I have no water." Richard Taruskin, in "Russian Folk Melodies in The Rite of Spring, mentions this melody among the many Stravinsky used in his seminal orchestral work.
In his article, Taruskin cites Béla Bart6k's essay from 1931, who wrote: "He [ Stravinsky ] wants to demonstrate that it does not matter a jot whether a composer invents his own themes or uses themes from elsewhere. He has a right to use musical material taken from all sources. What he has judged suitable for his purpose has become through this very use his mental property. . . . In maintaining that the question of the origin of a theme is completely unimportant from the artist's point of view, Stravinsky is right."
This version of the melody, of which several were found, is taken from Taruskin's article, in part, as found on page 533, Journal of the American Musicological Society (1980) 33 (3): 501–543.
2 pages, circa 2' 45" - an MP3 demo is here:
The score is available as a free PDF download, though any major commercial performance or recording of the work is prohibited without prior arrangement with the composer. Click on the graphic below for this score and parts.
