Russian Boatmen's Song on the River Volga

Eddy, Hiram Clarence Eddy was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1851, and died in Chicago on Jan. 10, 1937. He was a pupil of J. G. Wilson; studied in Hartford, Connecticut, with Dudley Buck (organ); in Berlin with A. Haupt and Albert Löschhorn, 1871. He served as Organist of the Bethany Congregational Church, Montpelier, Vermont, 1858-71; the First Congregational Church, Chicago, 1874-76; the First Presbyterian Church, Chicago, 1879-96. He was a major recitalist of the time, and played a series of 100 concerts, all with completely different programs. His concert tours took him to Europe and across the USA. He was Director of the Hershey School of Musical Art, Chicago, Illinois, 1876, and a founder of the American Guild of Organists.

Earlier today, we were treated to John Pellowe's excellent upload of Clarence Eddy's "Festival Prelude on 'Old Hundred'", and it made me recall that I had downloaded this little novelty gem a LONG time ago, but never did anything with it. Well, here is the result...

Eddy's arrangement of the famous Russian folk song was published by The John Church Company in 1916, and bears the inscription: "Dedicated to Elizabeth A. Dohrmann, San Francisco." Granted this is the "sort of thing" you don't hear played on the organ very often, but it REALLY WORKS! It's very effective, and just sings all the way through. I had intended to do this on a "different" organ, as it seems that I am always using the Salisbury Willis, but, after running through it a few times, I knew that it HAD to be Salisbury again.

The performance has a moderately-wide dynamic range with some SOFT spots, so don't set your volume too low.

This performance is dedicated to John Pellowe!

The score is attached, as well as two photos of Clarence Eddy.

In the first photo, we see Eddy doing his imitation of the way a Volga boatmen should look. ;-)

In the second he has purchased a razor, and is looking considerably more dapper! :-)