[Andrew Thompson: 2nd bass, linguist extraordinaire, and star of TV's "The Village"]
| 1 | It is not difficult to sing old Russian even if you don't know what all the words mean. You manage quite well with German and Latin. The given translation [of the Tchaikovsky four anthems] is fairly accurate and the transliteration is not bad, but read on. | |||
| 2 | There is one general rule plus a few specific ones. The general rule is to forget your nice clipped, English vowels. Russian vowels are broad, earthy and loud. For example | |||
| a | as in father (not as in happy) | |||
| e | usually has a y in front as in yet | |||
| i | is ee (not as in kite) | |||
| o | as in lot (but gloomier) | |||
| u | as in gloom (but even gloomier) | |||
| ï | a muddy sound like a in allow | |||
| 3 | The specific points in the Tchaikovsky pieces are these | |||
| a) | p18, 19 | taynaya | the ay is like Thailand (or Tchaikovsky) | |
| b) | p20 bar 56 | budem | put a y in - boodyem | |
| c) | p21, 22 | alleluia | alliluya throughout - forget your Latin | |
| d) | p23 | tayno | see a) | |
| e) | p26 bar 31, 33 | pesn | put a y in and soften the n: pyesn | |
| f) | p27 bar 44 | vsyakoye | soften the v - fsyakoye | |
| g) | p30 bar 72 | vsekh | fsyekh | |
| h) | p31 | angel | aangyel NOT angel as in English PLEASE! It has a hard g. Any passing Muscovite would have the vapours if you got this wrong. "Basic third form stuff" as Malcolm would probably say. | |
| i) | p32, 33 | alleluia | alliluya once again | |
| 4 | Enjoy it! | |||