The Waltz “Danube Waves” ( room Valurile Dunării , Serbian. Dunavski valovi / Dunavski valovi ) was written by Romanian composer of Serbian origin Joseph (Ion) Ivanovich ( room Iosif Ivanovici , 1845-1902) in 1880, this is one of the most famous and famous Romanian tunes in the world.
Ivanovich wrote a waltz in the city of Galati (on the Danube River ), where he held the position of bandmaster of the brass band of the 6th Romanian infantry regiment. The waltz was first published in Bucharest in 1880 with a dedication to the wife of music publisher Constantin Gebauer Emma.
The famous composer, author of many popular waltzes, Emile Waldteufel ( English Emile Waldteufel ) made an orchestral arrangement of the melody in 1886, and in this form the work was first performed in 1889 at the World Exhibition in Paris , where it made a splash.
In the USA, the waltz was first published in 1896, the second edition under the name “Waves of the Danube” in piano arrangement took place in 1903. The composition was also known as “Danube Waves Waltz”. In 1946, when Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin wrote the text “The Anniversary Song” (“Oh, how we danced on the night we were wed”) and Saul arranged the music of Ivanovich, the song became very popular in the USA (sometimes it is mistaken called "The Anniversary Waltz", but it's a completely different composition).
Arranged by Henry Lefkowitch and the Yiddish text by Chaim Tauber (1947), the song was called “Der Chasene Waltz” ( Wedding Waltz ) and was often performed and performed at Jewish weddings.
In the homeland of this waltz - in Romania - there is also his song “version” performed by the popular Bucharest singer Karina Kiriyak.
In Russia, this waltz has always been very fond of, and even for a long time it was considered an old Russian waltz and, under such a heading, was published in music publications and collections.
Soviet listeners also liked this waltz as a song performed by Leonid Utesov to the words of E. Dolmatovsky :
Saw friends, I am the Danube blue, I was brought there by a soldier's fate. I have not heard this waltz in the moonlight There the wind shook us on the Danube wave.
There are also other versions of the text in Russian, for example, S. Ukolova:
Quiet and beautiful, our dear Danube, Where it flows, the country is pure paradise. There people have a gentler look, hotter blood There are all my dreams and love!
A variant of the Soviet poet and translator S. Bolotin:
Danube blue, you flow through the ages A cloud is floating above you. And at night the moon rises above you And a blue wave sings a song ...