Hector Aguilar ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>2) Sting's "Russians"- This was a hit song back in the eighties during the
>"Cold War." The music is definitely derived from a Russian composer, and
>right now I'm thinking it's Glinka.  Perhaps someone can confirm what piece
>this was lifted from.

Wasn't it (like so many others) Prokofiev's Lt. Kije?

Over a decade ago the British magazine Q had an article on classical
borrowings used by popular songs.  It listed over 250...

Off the top of my head:

   Lord Rockingham's XI: Saturday Night at the Duck Pond (c1959):
   Tchaikovsky Swan Lake.

   B Bumble and the Stingers: Nut Rocker (1961?) Tchaikovksy
   Nutcracker Suite (March)

   The Toys Lovers' Concerto (1965) a minuet from the notebook
   of Anna Magdalena Bach

   First Class: Beach Baby (1972) Sibelius Fifth Symphony (horn
   call in finale)

   Eric Carmen: All By Myself (1972ish) Rachmaninoff 2nd piano
   concerto (2nd mvt)

And there are even earlier examples:  a Tin Pan Alley version of the 2nd
movement from Tchaik 5 (don't know the name), "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows"
(the middle section of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu IIRC).

Alas I no longer seem to have that issue of Q magazine.

Oh yes, I once sat through a local band's (this was back in England)
interminable version of the finale of Dvorak's New World. Gsoh - I'd
forgotten all about that. Thanks a LOT...:-)

deryk barker
([log in to unmask], http://www.camosun.bc.ca/~dbarker)