MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Moscow Nights"(Подмосковные вечера, Podmoskovnie vechera), Chad Mitchell Trio, 1963. You can listen to the Trio's well-known version on YouTube HERE, or a version with English translation HERE.
The original was created as "Leningrad Nights" by composer Solovyov-Sedoi and poet Matusovsky in 1955, but changed at the request of the Ministry of Culture for use in a documentary about a national athletic competition. The tune was subsequently popularized in the West, in the middle of the Cold War era, by Van Cliburn in 1958, and recorded with commercial success by Kenny Ball and the Jazzmen, and the Chad Mitchell Trio in the early 60s.
The original was created as "Leningrad Nights" by composer Solovyov-Sedoi and poet Matusovsky in 1955, but changed at the request of the Ministry of Culture for use in a documentary about a national athletic competition. The tune was subsequently popularized in the West, in the middle of the Cold War era, by Van Cliburn in 1958, and recorded with commercial success by Kenny Ball and the Jazzmen, and the Chad Mitchell Trio in the early 60s.
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, August 2018.
SONGLINKS: This post deals with Graeco-Roman history during the Byzantine period. Another song dealing with Greek history, culture and travels is found in an earlier blogpost as "Singable Limerick Medley #15: Travels in Greece". This entire effort was inspired by "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", a swing-era hit with a very catchy tune whose lyrics with respect to historical details.
CONSTANTINOPOLIS
(to the tune of "Moscow Nights")
(to the tune of "Moscow Nights")
UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT (also banjo, mandolin, guitar etc.!)
(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)
Specifics for C-tuned ukulele:
Am7 = 0000, or 0030; Dm7 = 2213; E7 = 1202; B7 = 2322
* the prediction was made by the Seer early in the fourth century A.D.
Byzántion (Greek), later known as Byzantium (Latin) was at that time a moderate-sized Greek colony-city on the Bosporus. It was chosen by the Roman Emperor Constantine to become the eastern capital of his empire.
As capital of the Roman Empire (also called Romania), the grand city was known as Constantinopolis, or Konstantinoupolis, for most of its history, i.e. until 1453 A.D. (later as Istanbul by the Turks). The term 'Byzantine Empire' has only been in use by Western historians since that time.
Byzántion (Greek), later known as Byzantium (Latin) was at that time a moderate-sized Greek colony-city on the Bosporus. It was chosen by the Roman Emperor Constantine to become the eastern capital of his empire.
As capital of the Roman Empire (also called Romania), the grand city was known as Constantinopolis, or Konstantinoupolis, for most of its history, i.e. until 1453 A.D. (later as Istanbul by the Turks). The term 'Byzantine Empire' has only been in use by Western historians since that time.
Click on any chord chart to enlarge and enter thumbnail mode (the slides for both the parody and the original versions can then be enlarged and viewed in any order).
Readers are asked to honour the original artists' creativity, and to use the slides of the original song-lyrics only to ensure familiarity with the suggested style for the spoof version.
Boasts Byzántion’s seer,* “Constantine will found,
Nova Roma, his new cosmopolis.They’ll construct right here;Then we Greeks will cheerRome’s second home: Constanti-no-po-lis.”“In Rome’s legions march with a martial sound,They’ll build Fourth Century’s eastern cosmopolis --Grand Sophia’s dome,And a huge HippodromeRome’s second home: Constanti-no-po-lis.”“Who’ll unite this Empire too vast to rule?Few the Caesars who exert such might.Year Three-Ninety-Five (395 A.D.),Things take a permanent dive --East/West will split; West drops out of sight.“In clean-shaven West, ‘barbarians’ storm the gates,Middle Ages will settle there to stay.Vandals, Lombards, Goths –Old stomping grounds get lost,Down East here, ‘Roman’ power’ll hold sway.”“Who will dogma craft for new Christian creed?Peter’s primacy; Roman popes’ll.We’ll counter Holy SeeWith Eastern Orthodoxy,Here in Byzantine Constan-ti-nople.”“Vicious wars with neighbours” quoth our sooth-saying seer,Peering in his Prophet-Kit prism,“Charlemagne and PopesWill undermine our hopes,Split our Faith with an East-West Schism.”“Things take a bad turn with the Fourth Crusade,Frankish knights, their mission quite hopeless --Retake Holy Lands?Such risk! They change their plans,Seize and ‘Latinize’ Constantinopolis.”“Fifty years to rid the place of Latin loutsThen two centuries, invasions we’ll stop. All thisHas an end, it’s clear.”States our seer, with tear,"When Turks topple Constantinopolis.”Then we took our seer out for lunch that dayTo a small café by the Bosporus.Name of the caféWhere we ate that day,Was ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinopolis)’.
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