Critical Listening #4: Song of the Volga Boatmen

The song I'd like to examine this week is Glenn Miller and his Orchestra's version of "Song of the Volga Boatmen". "Song of the Volga Boatmen" is originally a traditional Russian which is a sea shanty sung by barge-haulers on the Volga River. Glenn Miller's arrangement of this song reached number one in the US charts in 1941. For anyone interested in a more original version of the song, this link is the Russian Red Army Choir's performance of it. I chose this song because it shows the prevalence of swing in American society. Like the Ellington song suggests, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing, and if a song didn't have that "swing" people were likely to make it swing.

8 bar intro--piano, bass, drums
8 bar A--trombones!
8 bar A--louder trombones, saxophone, fills by trumpet using mute
8 bar B--whole band, builds in intensity
8 bar C--whole band, more growth
4 bar saxophone soli
8 bar saxophone solo, with brass fills
4 bar drum fill
22 bar polyphony theme variation
4 bar bridge (two sax, two brass)
8 bar A'
8 bar ending

"Song of the Volga Boatmen" is clearly a big band piece of the swing era. It has a rather slow tempo, but what it lacks in speed in makes up for in intensity and drive. In this piece we hear piano, bass, drums, trumpet, saxophone, and trombone. Since this piece is adapted from a traditional Russian piece, it makes sense that it follows a loose 32 bar form.

The 8-bar introduction to this piece features the piano playing the basic riff of the piece supported by drums and bass. The trombones then take up this melody for 8-bars before they are joined by a trumpet player who fills in the empty spaces. The trumpet players unique sound comes from the fact that he is using a mute. Through the B and C sections the band builds in intensity to the saxophone soli that brings the tone back down for the saxophone solo. After a 4-bar drum fill, we see a new turn in the music. The band plays a sort of planned polyphony that combines variations of all the main themes (A, B and C). The band continues to swing with an intensity that is impressive all the way until the very end of the piece that ends with a piano glissando followed by two chords from the band accompanied by drum hits.

There is only one real soloist in this piece and that's the saxophonist. The solo is only 8 bars long, but it plays an important roll in bringing the tone of the piece down a little while still keeping with the same intensity. One can almost imagine the lazy river that the saxophone seems to portray, while the brass in the background reminds us that there's still a danger and a work to be done.

The rhythm section in this piece is most apparent at the beginning when they introduce the theme. Beyond that we hear the drums most. The drummer accents all the large "hits" in the music as well as keeping time. The bassist must also be excellent, though hard to hear, because he keeps a rather slow tempo-ed song from speeding up.

This song is a great example of the desire to make everything "swing". This song goes from being a traditional sea shanty to a swing tune without losing any of the feeling that it is supposed to contain. The bands' drive towards the high point at the end just makes a person want to dance. The polyphony at the end is an impressive show of what a good arranger could do for a band and also shows the faint influence that New Orleans jazz still had almost 100 years later.