Odnozvuchno gremit kolokol'chik
(The Monotonous Bell Keeps On Ringing)
The first melody to this famous Russian romance was composed in 1853, by the Russian composer A. Gurilov (1803-1858), to the words of a poem, written by Ivan Makarov.
Ivan Makarov was a little-known poet, who was born in 1920 or 1921 in Perm, Russia, as a serf of the landowner Aleksander Vsevolzhskiy, who's brother Nikitin was a friend of the famous Russian writer Pushkin. Aleksander Vsevolzhskiy, on his turn, was a very strict man, and he would not allow his peasants to do things that were not involved to serve in his name. Ivan Makarov, however, had learned how to read and write from a native deacon, and started to write poems. As Aleksander Vsevolzhskiy found out about this writings, he judged this to be very offensive. He ordered to send Ivan Makarov to soldiers, and the young poet, as well as his father before, was forced to become a coachman to the Perm Company Convoy, being his task to bring the mail to the exiles in Siberia. |
For his new job as a coachman, Ivan Makarov had to travel across the long Siberian roads. This was a very hard work, through rain, cold, snow and in loneliness. In 1852 the body of the frozen coachman was found on the traject Kungur-Suksun. With him he had a bag, containing poems, signed with the name of Ivan Makarov. Amongst them was also the poem "The Monotonous Bell Keeps On Ringing". The poem was published in Saint-Petersburg in the magazine "Pantheon", and Gurilov put it to music, after having made some changes, such as deleting the last verse, in which Makarov mentioned their homes.
Gurilov finished the poem with a repetition of the first verse. Since there were no names of places mentioned, the melody to the poem was considered folk. |
Karina and Ruzanna Lisizian perform the romance, on the music written by Alexander Gurilov
|
Two years later, an unknown Russian amateur composer, Konstantin Sidorovich, wrote another melody to the same poem. His romance was generally recognized and destined to a long life. Many famous singers, such as Yuri Morfessi, Anastasia Vyaltseva, Ivan Kozlovsky, Tamara Sinyavskaya, Muslim Magomayev, Nikolai Gedda, Ivan Rebroff and many others included it in their repertoire. Also the recordings by Nadezhda Plevitskaya in 1909, and Ekaterina Yurovskaya in 1932, made the romance composed by Sidorovich widely known.
The romance on the music by Gurilov has been also widely performed. Many artists included it in their repertoire: Sergey Lemeshev , Bela Rudenko, Dmitri Khvorostovskiy, Oleg Pogudin , and others The name of the poet, Ivan Ivanovich Makarov, as a romance author of "The Monotonous Bell Keeps On Ringing", was mentioned for the first time in the book "Songs of Russian poets", published by the publishing house "The Soviet Writer" in 1936, edited by I. N. Razanov. Earlier, however, N. A. Engelgard had argued in his memories, published in "The Last Guitar"- historical journal, 1910, that the romance had been written by his grandfather, the famous guitarist Nikolay Petrovich Makarov (1810-1890). SCORE FOR ACCORDION (A. GURILEV) SIMPLE SCORES (BOTH) |
Muslim Magomayev and Tamara Sinyavskaya perform the romance, on the music written by Konstantin Sidorovich
|
Russian text
Однозвучно гремит колокольчик, И дорога пылится слегка, И уныло по ровному полю Разливается песнь ямщика. Столько грусти в той песне унылой, Столько грусти в напеве родном, Что в душе моей хладной, остылой Разгорелося сердце огнём. И припомнил я ночи иные И родные поля и леса, И на очи, давно уж сухие, Набежала, как искра, слеза. Однозвучно гремит колокольчик, И дорога пылится слегка. И замолк мой ямщик, а дорога Предо мной далека, далека... |
Transliteration
Odnozvuchno gremit kolokol'chik, I doroga pylitsya slegka, I unylo po rovnomu polyu Razlivayetsya pesn' yamshchika. Stol'ko grusti v toy pesne unyloy, Stol'ko grusti v napeve rodnom, Chto v dushe moyey khladnoy, ostyloy Razgorelosya serdtse ognom. I pripomnil ya nochi inyye I rodnyye polya i lesa, I na ochi, davno uzh sukhiye, Nabezhala, kak iskra, sleza. Odnozvuchno gremit kolokol'chik, I doroga pylitsya slegka. I zamolk moy yamshchik, a doroga Predo mnoy daleka, daleka... |
English text
The monotonous bell keeps on ringing, And the road gets dusty a bit, And the coachman`s cheerless singing Is audible throughout the field. And much sorrow is in that dull song, And much sadness is in the folk tune, That my frozen with the winter ice soul, And my heart get so sunny like June. And another nights I can remember, I recall my home forests and fields, That remembrance makes softer my temper, My long-time dry eyes sparkle with tears. The monotonous bell keeps on ringing, And the road gets dusty a bit, And my coachman stops his sad singing, By the sun my far road is lit... Translation by Alexander |
http://www.gamy.info/ru/bis40.php?name=makarov; https://www.proza.ru/2013/01/06/2029; http://a-pesni.org/popular20/1zvutchno.php
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Макаров,_Николай_Петрович ;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гурилёв,_Александр_Львович;
http://www.liveinternet.ru/tags/%EE%E4%ED%EE%E7%E2%F3%F7%ED%EE+%E3%F0%E5%EC%E8%F2+%EA%EE%EB%EE%EA%EE%EB%FC%F7%E8%EA/
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Макаров,_Николай_Петрович ;
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гурилёв,_Александр_Львович;
http://www.liveinternet.ru/tags/%EE%E4%ED%EE%E7%E2%F3%F7%ED%EE+%E3%F0%E5%EC%E8%F2+%EA%EE%EB%EE%EA%EE%EB%FC%F7%E8%EA/