"Chizhyk-Pyzhik" () is a Russian comic folk song.

Text and origin

The origin of the song in unclear. According to one

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

, the rhyme refers to the students of the

Imperial School of Jurisprudence The Imperial School of Jurisprudence () was, along with the Page Corps, a school for boys in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire. The school for would-be imperial administrators was founded by Duke Peter of Oldenburg in 1835. T ...

, who frequented a pub belonging to the merchant Nefedov on the

Fontanka The Fontanka (), a left branch of the river Neva, flows through the whole of Central Saint Petersburg, Russia – from the Summer Garden to . It is long, with a width up to , and a depth up to . The Moyka River forms a right-bank branch ...

Quay in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The school was founded by

Duke Peter of Oldenburg Duke Constantine Frederick Peter of Oldenburg (; ; – ) was a Duke of the House of Oldenburg. He was the grandfather of Duke Peter of Oldenburg as well as grandfather of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, General of the Imperial Russian Army du ...

in the nearby house number 6. The students of the college wore uniforms with yellow and green colours, which resembled the colours of the bird called

siskin The name siskin when referring to a bird is derived from an adaptation of the German dialect words ''sisschen'', ''zeischen'', which are diminutive forms of Middle High German (''zîsec'') and Middle Low German (''ziseke'', ''sisek'') words, wit ...

(;

hypocoristic A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek ; sometimes also ''hypocoristic''), or pet name, is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as '' Izzy'' for Isabel or '' Bob'' for Robert, or it ...

, and hats from fur of young

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

(). Because of that, they were nicknamed ''Chizhiks-Pyzhiks''.

Melody

: \header \layout kords = \new ChordNames melody = \relative c'' % As found in Rappaport (2016) (Kirkman & Ivashkin) verse = \lyricmode verseR = \lyricmode \score \score :From . Its extremely simple melody is suitable for teaching small children to play piano (with a more suitable

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. Fr ...

text). Several Russian

classical composers This is a list of lists of composers grouped by various criteria. Name * List of composers by name Women *List of female composers by name *List of female composers by birth date *List of Australian female composers Genre * Anime composer *Lis ...

, including

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

Isaak Dunayevsky Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky ( ; also transliterated as Dunaevski or Dunaevskiy; 25 July 1955) was a Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film dire ...

and

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. At the time, his name was spelled , which he romanized as Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakow; the BGN/PCGN transliteration of Russian is used for his name here; ALA-LC system: , ISO 9 system: .. (18 March 1844 – 2 ...

, were inspired by "Chizhik-Pyzhik".

Statue

In 1994 in Saint Petersburg, one of the city's 1990s' yearly festivals of satire and humor was held, bearing the name of a most popular main character of the 20 century Russian language Soviet humorous / satirical prose

Ostap Bender Ostap Bender () is a fictional confidence trick, con man and the central antiheroic protagonist in the novels ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1928) and ''The Little Golden Calf'' (1931) written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf Ilf and Petrov, and Yevgeny Petrov ...

, an ingenious conman mastermind from two filmed novels by

Ilya Ilf Ilya Arnoldovich Ilf (born Iehiel-Leyb Aryevich Faynzilberg; ; – 13 April 1937) was a Soviet journalist and writer of Jewish origin who usually worked in collaboration with Yevgeny Petrov during the 1920s and 1930s. Their duo was known simp ...

and Yevgeny Petrov ''

The Twelve Chairs ''The Twelve Chairs'' () is a Russian classic satirical picaresque novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, published in 1928. Its plot follows characters attempting to obtain jewelry hidden in a chair. A sequel was published in 1931. The ...

'' and ''

The Little Golden Calf ''The Little Golden Calf'' (, ''Zolotoy telyonok'') is a satirical picaresque novel by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, published in 1931. Its main character, Ostap Bender, also appears in a previous novel by the authors called ''The Twelve Chairs ...

''. The festival attracted leading Russian humorous authors and comedians and marked its presence in the city by public events including installation of pieces of public art. These over the years included the statue of Ostap Bender next to

Arts Square The Arts Square (, ''Ploshchad Iskusstv'') is an open public square in the center of Saint Petersburg, Russia. History Before the construction of the Square, the land was the hunting grounds of the Empress Anna of Russia. Then Russian architect F ...

, the memorial plaque to The Nose from

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...

's eponymous story and the little siskin statue on the Fontanka, the latter suggested by a Saint Petersburg-born writer known since 1960s

Andrei Bitov Andrei Georgiyevich Bitov (, 27 May 1937 – 3 December 2018) was a prominent Russian writer of Circassian ancestry. Biography Bitov was born in Leningrad. His father was an architect and his mother was a lawyer. He completed his secondary edu ...

. These moves were supported by the municipal authorities of Saint Petersburg, and a bronze statue of ''Chizhik-Pyzhik'' was installed just opposite the former School of Jurisprudence. The statue perches on a ledge in the embankment, in the proximity of the First Engineer Bridge. The statue was designed by Georgian screenwriter and director Revaz Gabriadze, and it is one of the smallest statues in Saint Petersburg. Its height is 11 centimetres and weighs almost 5 kilograms. The statue was stolen several times; the local museum has reportedly several copies of the statue for replacement.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Chizhyk-Pyzhik statue Russian folk songs Russian children's songs Traditional children's songs Songs about birds Outdoor sculptures in Saint Petersburg 1994 sculptures Russian nursery rhymes de:Tschischik-Pyschik

Text and origin

Melody

Statue

See also

References

External links