"Korobeiniki" (Russian: Коробе́йники, romanized: Korobéyniki, IPA: [kərɐˈbʲejnʲɪkʲɪ], lit. 'The Peddlers') is a nineteenth-century Russian folk song that tells the story of a meeting between a korobeinik (peddler) and a girl, describing their haggling over goods in a metaphor for seduction.
Outside Russia, "Korobeiniki" is widely known as the Tetris theme tune, from its appearance in Nintendo's Game Boy version of the game (titled "A-Type") as arranged by the Japanese composer Hirokazu Tanaka in 1989.
The song "Korobeiniki" is based on the poem of the same name by Nikolay Nekrasov, which was first printed in the Sovremennik magazine in 1861.[1] Its increasing tempo and the dance style led to it quickly becoming a popular Russian folk song.[2] Early musical compositions of the song were published by Yakov Prigozhy and Alexander N. Chernyavsky (Чернявский, Александр Николаевич) in 1898.[3] Varvara Panina made gramophone records of the song with several recording companies in 1905 and later.[3][4]
- ^ Cornwell, Neil (1998), "Reference Guide to Russian Literature", p. 574
- ^ Lane, Christy & Langhout, Susan (1998), "Multicultural Folk Dance Guide", pp. 19–22
- ^ a b "Сл. Н. Некрасова" [Words by N. Nekrasov] (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-12-25.
- ^ [1] Search for "Варя Панина" at russian-records.com