Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?

Subject: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 08:08 AM

on Facebook, the question has been asked, are there any songs about Baba Yaga? I think trad is especially desired. I, too, would love to know if such songs exist.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: GUEST,Senoufou
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 08:46 AM

Hello Alison!

Try Googling Sounds of Singing songsheet baba yaga (songsheet 23)

It's a children's song, but it gives the music and the words.

Eliza

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 09:41 AM

You probably want a Russian language discussion group or find an English speaking Russian folkie.

The only English language song that I know is a recent composition by Daria Kulesh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 11:33 AM

Don't leave out the French!

There is a Franco-Russian cultural interchange that goes back centuries. Thus the Baba Yaga turns up in some French lyrics.
I recall one set to music by no less than Maurice Ravel,
but where the French lyrics came from, I don't remember.
The piece is for unaccompanied SATB chorus.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 07:27 PM

Senoufou's suggestion
English words ; (tune by George Odam ?)
. books.google.co.uk\..."Sounds+of+Singing"+songsheet+baba+yaga ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 01:28 PM

I never heard of her from my French side, but from the Russian grandmother and Hungarian mom, oh yeah! One of my favorite characters...
For those of you not from Eastern Europe, she's the wicked witch of the woods who eats children, but *also* has a house that stands on duck's feet and turns around and around to watch on all sides, and if you get away from her she will chase you in a mortar, driving it on with the pestle, and sweeping her traces away from behind her with a broom. I always admired that versalitity.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 01:42 PM

Thank you Freddy, I'm afraid I can't do those blue clicky things.

I believe Baba means Granny in Russian. (short for Babushka)

Mrrzy, she certainly was/is an evil old woman, and quite scary for children to hear about... but as you say, rather good at multi-tasking!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 03:47 PM

There's quite a lengthy and interesting article on Baba Yaga in Wikipedia. The first paragraph:

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking witch. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut. In Russian folkloric myths her house is described as standing on chicken legs (or sometimes a single chicken leg). Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out. She sometimes plays a maternal role, and also has associations with forest wildlife. According to Vladimir Propp's folktale morphology, Baba Yaga commonly appears as either a donor or villain, or may be altogether ambiguous.

Mussorgsky gave us some great music about Baba Yaga in Pictures at an Exhibition. Here's a sample, courtesy of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMdwIP9vRWs

I think I prefer the Mussorgsky-Ravel orchestration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxTLk8gWJHg

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 05:18 PM

I've encountered Baba Yaga in two places: in the Russian fairy tale "Vasilisa the Golden-Haired" and the musical selection from Pictures at an Exhibition. I remember the fairy tale vividly, even though it was years ago that I read it.

Wikipedia also offers this:

[Andreas] Johns summarizes Baba Yaga as "a many-faceted figure, capable of inspiring researchers to see her as a Cloud, Moon, Death, Winter, Snake, Bird, Pelican, Mermaid or Earth Goddess, totemic matriarchal ancestress, female initiator, phallic mother, or archetypal image".

Something must have gone wrong; they left out kangaroo. And maybe I'm naive, but I've never heard of a phallic mother before.

The fairy tale had a wise proverb I have never forgotten, and I've even followed it from time to time. "The morning is wiser than the evening."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: meself
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 06:06 PM

I've never encountered Baba Yaga - and I'll be just as happy if I never do!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 08:56 PM

Not a song, but a book: Egg and Spoon.
Here's a trailer. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-vjwFDqgM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 02:08 AM

A Baba Yaga book by Gregory Maguire? Wow!
I love his stuff.

Oh, and look at this video review of Maguire's Hiddensee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzT6fCcTDZs

-Joe-

Subject: ADD: Baba Yaga (George Odam)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 02:56 AM

I think I'd like to post the lyrics of the song in the link posted by FreddyHeady, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VnIRyTRHNBMC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false
It's from Sounds of Singing, page 46, by Alison Ley {Nelson Thomas Ltd., 2003].

BABA YAGA
(George Odam)

Run, run, run Natasha, run from Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga's teeth are black and shiny when she's smiling at Natasha.
Now she's coming, pestle drumming, flying in the footsteps of Natasha.
Baba Yaga rides in a mortar.
Run Natasha, run little daughter.
Teeth are gnashing, pestle clashing,
Run from Baba Yaga.


About the song: "Baba Yaga" is based on a Russian folk tale about a little girl called Natasha. The wicked Baba Yaga, who grinds up her victims in a pestle and mortar and eats them, captures Natasha, but she manages to escape.

---

It's a nice tune, but I don't think it's the Mussorgsky tune.

Click to play (joeweb)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: leeneia
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 11:00 AM

I would never sing that to a child.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 07:09 PM

You've never heard of La Llorona, have you?
I know, I know: La Llorona isn't Baba Yaga. No, not at all.

It's just that the two old ladies are sort of parallel
between Russian culture and Latino culture.

And yes,
both of them are part and parcel of
the cautionary messages in
entertainment from elders to small children.

If you don't believe me about La Llorona,
ask a Latina/Latino who grew up with a traditional abuelita.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 07:11 PM

And I have to own up about Maurice Ravel.
The lyric I recalled does no more than
"name-drop" Baba Yaga -- "babaiaga" in the original French --
along with a lot of other boogeypersons.
It's from the third of
Ravel's "Trois Chansons"
called "ronde," which I think means "rondo."
Written around 1915.

And the lyrics are by ...
Maurice Ravel.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song about Baba Yaga?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 26 Jan 18 - 09:17 AM

Baba yaga song 1960s