Stranger in Paradise (Polovetsian Dance)

  1. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Alexander Borodin (1833-1887): Prince Igor
    Act 2, No 17, Polovetsian Dance With The Choir/Gliding Dance of the Maidens


    This short melody from Borodin's opera "Prince Igor" is probably his most famous composition, and later was adapted for the song "Stranger In Paradise" from the musical Kismet.

    In the original opera, this was sung by a female chorus, as a duet between the soprano and alto sections. My adaptation for mandolin and octave mandolin (mandola) uses Borodin's original vocal parts verbatim, in the original keys of A major and F# minor, with tenor guitar chords adapted from a piano reduction of the score. I've posted a leadsheet with both parts and chords here.

    1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin
    Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



    Martin
  2. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Good job, Martin. Your adaption of an opera choir works surprisingly well for mandolin trio. Great sound.
  3. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Very good, but much too short. I could listen for hours.
  4. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Really good Martin, made me wonder if it was originally written for something like a balalaika.
  5. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Many thanks for those comments. It's a really fun melody to play on mandolin and while the timing looks tricky on the page, it's one of those tunes that's much easier to play if you hum along in your head.

    Simon: Borodin's original was written for female chorus -- as I said, my mandolin and OM parts are verbatim the same as those in the original opera score (which is on IMSLP, but as the score for Act 2 alone has 207 pages it takes a bit of searching to find the melody). Not sure whether he was inspired by any balalaika folk dances. The Polovtsians were a 12th century Turkic nomadic people, and Borodin invented a musical idiom for them as an orientalist fantasy, so I think the links to any actual folk music are not very strong. However, it certainly does work well on more traditional Russian instruments -- here is a performance by the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra accompanying Russian domra player Iraida Erokhina:



    Their arrangement is rather more lush than mine, and also includes Borodin's instrumental introduction to the choral dance.

    Martin
  6. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    I have re-recorded my Borodin adaptation, this time with video, laying down the mandolin part first and adding the mandola and tenor guitar later. Same arrangement, but giving all the melody to the mandolin and the harmony to the mandola.

    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
    Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



    Martin
  7. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Your re-recording is excellent, Martin. The mandola in a low voice comes out like a balalaika choir in the background.
    OTOH I like your first arrangement with split voices too.
  8. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Frithjof. This tune works really well on mandolin and is a joy to play. I like the changing leads as well, but that only works with a click track -- once I decided to re-record with live video and no click track I would have needed a live mandola player in the room with me...

    Martin
  9. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Time for another family member to learn mandola, then! But the new version works really well, too. Superb recording quality as well!
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