Talk:Lieutenant Kijé (Prokofiev)
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[edit] pronouncing "Kije"
I have seen and heard it variously described by musicians as being pronounced "kee-gee", "keezh-ay" and "keezh". Given that the first live performance of the work (assumedly sometime after the recording for the film score) was in Prokofiev's adoptive Paris it is often seen with a French spelling of "Kijé", the accent aigu over the "e" seemingly giving it a "kee-zhay" pronunciation. And yet this article does not include the accent at all which I suspect lends to the original Russian pronunciation of "keezh" (with the "zh" sounding like the "s" in pleasure).
The name is a fiction, so perhaps it's up to interpretation - but assumedly the original novella author, Yury Tynianov wrote ”Podporuchik Kizhe” with something in mind. Prokofiev's music in the end is far more famous and perhaps his interpretation will be the one that lives on.
- Answer: the right pronunciation is definitely "kee-ZHAY", with "zh" sounding like "s" in pleasure, and with accent on "zhay". The original Russian title is "Podporuchik Kizhe", "podporuchik" being a rank in Russian imperial army roughly equivalent to "lieutenant". The Tzar mishears the phrase "podporuchiki zhe..." (meaning "and the lieutenants...") as "podporuchik Kizhe..." (i.e. "the lieutenant Kizhe"), whence the fictional person is born. 131.111.8.103 19:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
Is anyone going to mention that Sting's Cold War song Russians has a major melody from this Piece?
- I was about to post a question here as to whether anyone could confirm for me that the sample came From Kije. I remember it well, but was not 100% sure which Prokofiev piece it was. Now that you've confirmed it I will add a note on that to the article. -R. fiend 16:28, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] greg lake
it is also very similar to the melody in Greg Lake's christmas song.
[edit] aigu
This article really should be moved to "Lieutenant Kijé," with a redirect here at "Lieutenant Kije".
[edit] Troika use at Christmas
I remember hearing somewhere that this theme was a folk song or Christmas carol before Prokofiev used it. Can anyone confirm or disconfirm that?
