The Soul of Russia

      Music is everywhere in Russia

 On our cruise ship the Ms Rossio, we heard music and in hotels, in
theaters, in palaces in the open air while we traveled through the
rivers, canals and lakes of Russia. We covered 800 miles and sailed
through the two largest lakes of Europe.  Our trip got off to a rocky
start on Lake Ladoga.  The waves were very high.  We were on the upper
deck near the Tsar Bar and we could see the waves washing past our
window.

  St. Petersburg.

Upon arrival we were given a walking tour around the Ambassador Hotel
and we purchased bottled water, chocolate and crackers. I was very
thirsty, but too tired to go to dinner.

Our hotel was new and very beautiful. From our window we could see the
golden dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral, an apartment building with a
playground in the foreground. We slept well in the very comfortable
room.

 After a great breakfast, we visited the Church of the Spilt Blood,
but we did not go in.  Then we visited St. Isaac’s Cathedral, a
marvelous space built on a swamp.  Amazing. The heavy bronze doors and
the soaring interior columns of lapis lazuli and malachite caused us
to look up at a golden dome with a dove.  The place is a museum, but a
small side room is used for worship since 1998. There were many
beautiful mosaics.  Under Communism, many churches were torn down
until someone got smart and said, “Let’s keep these as museums of
atheism.”  That saved many of them. Now some are used for worship.

     While cruising the Neva and Volga Rivers aboard the ship Ms
Rossia from St. Petersburg to Moscow, I was given the opportunity to
learn to play the balalaika.  I thought it would be easy. A young
woman Victoria recruited a small group of us willing to learn.  The
balalaika is a three stringed instrument that was brought to Russia
from Mongolian Tatars in the 13th Century and developed in Russia
through the 15th Century. It is plucked with the thumb or strummed
with the index finger and to this day is popular in Russia.




 Barbara and Victoria my Mentor
     I love the sound of the instrument but I am a slow learner and
did not feel prepared when we were told we would play in front of an
audience—everyone aboard the cruise ship!  So I quickly handed my
balalaika to someone who really wanted to play it.  Victoria said I
should play the spoons with the group—easy enough— and so I did keep
rhythm with spoons along with the balalaika ensemble.  Then she
suggested I sing some Russian songs with a chorus, so I did.  I love
Russian music. .  There is something about the music that is the soul
of the Russian people.  We sang Dark Is The Night, My Heart and
several other Russian songs that were translated into English for us
to sing. The words to these songs are heartfelt and the melodies
lovely.

     Victoria Zyablatseva, our lovely young mentor, played classical
music on the three stringed domra for us.  The melon shaped
instrument, older than the balalaika, was burned in Red Square by Ivan
the Terrible, the unstable Tsar of Russia in the 1500’s.  He had the
hands cut off of anyone who played it.  Good thing for Victoria it is
not like that in Russia any more. Music in Russia is everywhere: on
board our cruise vessel where a young lad accordion player entertained
us on the way to the dining room, and we heard classical music played
by an orchestra of children at their music school.  This was better
than I had expected as a young girl played her own composition on the
piano. It blew me away. Before we left the U.S. we were asked to bring
toys for the children at the music school that was also an orphanage.
 I had brought kazoos to give the kids and their teacher rolled her
eyes when I presented them. If I had known how talented these young
ones were, I would have brought something more appropriate.

On our way to dinner on the ship we were serenaded by an accordion
player and young women dressed in their traditional Russian garb

     At Catherine’s Palace in Pushkin a trio of men serenaded us with
Russian songs.  The acoustics were marvelous and Catherine’s Palace
elegant.  Outdoors is a statue of the poet Pushkin whom the poetry
loving Russians admire.

I came home with a great appreciation of music, the soul of Russia.