Tahiti Trot
Tahiti Trot, Op. 16, is Dmitri Shostakovich's 1927[1] orchestration of an arrangement of "Tea for Two" from the musical No, No, Nanette by Vincent Youmans. It had previously been arranged by the composer Boris Fomin (1900-1948) for inclusion in his operetta "The Career of Pierpont Blake" (Карьера Пирпойнта Блэка) in 1926, with Russian lyrics by Konstantin Podrevsky (1888-1930), who had given the new lyrics the name "Tahiti Trot."[2]
Shostakovich wrote it in response to a challenge from conductor Nikolai Malko: after the two listened to the song "Tahiti Trot" on record at Malko's house, Malko bet 100 roubles that Shostakovich could not completely re-orchestrate the song from memory in under an hour. Shostakovich took him up and won, completing the orchestration in around 45 minutes.[3]
Tahiti Trot was first performed in Moscow on 25 November 1928,[3] and has been a popular encore ever since. It was used as an entr'acte for the ballet The Golden Age at the suggestion of conductor Aleksandr Gauk.[3]
Notes and references
- ^ "Dmitri Shostakovich: Tahiti-Trot, op.16". Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ http://a-pesni.org/romans/fomin/taiti.php
- ^ a b c Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra: program notes Archived July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
