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)