Tumbalalaika

This is a traditional Yiddish song about a boy, who wants to get married. He is a smart boy, and he wants to choose a smart girl -- so he stays up late at night, inventing riddles to test his bride. He asks: "What can grow without rain? What can burn without being consumed by the fire? And what can cry without tears"?

Lucky him! The girl is smart enough: "A stone can grow without rain; love can burn without being consumed by the fire; and a heart can long and cry without tears".

Besides the riddles mentioned in the text, I have two more, both about the title. Why is the song called "Tumbalalaika"? The balalaika is a traditional Russian music instrument; it wasn't common in Jewish bands, which preferred to use violins. So why is this quintessential Jewish song named after a quintessential Russian instrument?

The second riddle is about the prefix "tum": what does that mean? There is no word "tum" in either Russian or Yiddish. After much research, the only sensible conjecture I found was that "tum" is a sound a balalaika would make, when thrown at the head of a bad singer!

Whatever the title means, the melody is one of the loveliest in all of Jewish music. In my arrangement, I play different piano variations for each of the four verses, while imitating the vibrating balalaika sound in the refrains.

This arrangement is part of my concert program and CD "Songs of Exiles" -- a mixture of lovely Jewish and Gypsy melodies. You can buy a high-quality MP3 of this and other songs at http://www.talesfromthekeyboard.com/songs-of-exiles

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Alexander Zlatkovski is an Alaskan pianist, born in Russia. His repertoire includes classical pieces, waltzes of all sorts -- from Tchaikovsky to Chopin to Strauss -- as well as his own arrangements of Russian, Italian, Jewish, and French songs. For information on weddings and other events, visit http://www.AlaskanPianist.com. For more information about Alexander's concerts and his unique "Tales from the Keyboard" series, visit http://www.TalesFromTheKeyboard.com)

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Music

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• Tumbalalaika
• Klezmer
• Jewish
• Yiddish
• Piano
• Arrangement
• Piano Arrangement
• Zlatkovski
• classical music
• live music