"Cossacks are the best light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them" - Napoleon
There are some lot more famous songs about the legendary brave and free-willed Cossacks by the Red choir, but this one is my favourite overall, an Ukrainian folk song
@UkroTurk :
This one is actually called Йихав козак за Дунай (The Cossack rode beyond the Dunai)
I honestly prefer this fast tempo used in this version (there are number of slower ones)
Dunai = Danube. The mythos of the Danube river to the Ukrainian culture, esp with context of this song... can be found here:
The Cossacks Ride Over the Danube is a famous Ukrainian folk song. Here it is performed by the Russian Alexandrov Ensemble, also known as the Red Army Chorus.
andantemoderato.com
In Ukrainian culture Danube is mystical river that separates two worlds (our reality, life and afterlife, life after death). If one says “to cross Danube” means “to die”, to “go to the other world”. It is not the real river that is meant with Danube in Ukrainian folk songs but this mystic river between that stands before life and death. To drink water from this river (Danube) it means to forget everything. There are many folk and love songs with this mystic Danube river in Ukrainian culture. So is the meaning in that song… Cossack was riding to face death in battle, with the risk to die and never to return.
(More at link)
This is a subject (Cossacks) that has fascinated me a lot....ever since reading Tolstoy "
The Cossacks" (1863) quite a long time ago (and getting me introduced to Tolstoy which is a much larger subject too).
The stoic, independent, indomitable nature of the Cossacks can be heard/felt in this folk song, and it is recurring underlying theme of the story by Tolstoy too.
The theme itself very much inspired Beethoven to re-imagine it in much slower tempo way and use a famous German lieder for lyrics (a more somber sound and subject about separation):
Bit of a video picture selection mismatch I must add, as the Napoleon portrait and totenkopf suggests the fellow is a French 9th Hussars Regiment (though might also be a prussian Hussar at a time allied to Napoleon)....and by time Beethoven composed this around 1816, his great distaste of Napoleon was well established. But that is another story.
I do find an interesting parallel here to the story... i.e the re-interpreting of the music in a more urbane/somber/hedonist setting far from its pure tribal conservative (folk) origins.
Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the greatest composers, but I much prefer the original folk sound....
....just like the protagonist in the Tolstoy story discovers the Cossacks value their culture, honour and norms above everything else and there is a deep beauty in such a confident people that the Muscovite protagonist realises (try as he might initially) cannot really be imitated or influenced upon.
A sad final irony is the Cossacks struggled against and suffered mightily against Bolshevik/Communist/Red forces and regime in 20th century....the culture and identity took a severe blow, only starting to rediscover and establish itself again.
But even the Red Choir could not ignore the vast legacy of Cossack warriors and fighting prowess...thus they sing this song...using a poem written about the Cossacks by Semyon Klimovsky in the 18th century.
@Yankeestani @VCheng @Saiyan0321 @Joe Shearer @Vergennes @Costin84