Ох ты, сердце (Okh ty, serdtse)–Русский хор Йельского университета

Yale Russian Chorus: Okh ty, serdtse (Oh, My Heart), by Isaak Dunaevsky, arranged by Denis Mickiewicz. Denis Mickiewicz arranged this seamless blend of two different hits: “Lyrical Song“ and “Song of the Fishermen,“ both from a 1936 Russian movie, Iskateli shchastya (Seekers of Happiness, released in the US as A Greater Promise). The movie portrays a Jewish family seeking a better life in Birobidzhan, a harsh environment in the Soviet Far East, along the Amur River bordering China, which Stalin promoted as a new Jewish homeland. Verses 1 and 2 of this medley comprise “Lyrical Song,“ the movie heroine’s love ballad. The melody is by Isaac Dunayevsky (1900-1955), who wrote over a hundred popular songs, as well as music for more than a dozen films. The refrain (“Song of the Fishermen“) serves as the movie’s musical motif. Dunayevsky adapted its melody from a well-known hora, “Kuma Echa“ (“Rise Up, Brother“), by Shalom Postolski, a Polish emigrant to Palestine, who composed it in the late 1920’s for fellow