Kamarinskaya

Kamarinskaya (Russian: камаринская) is a Russian traditional folk dance, which is mostly known today as the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka's composition of the same name. Glinka's Kamarinskaya, written in 1848, was the first orchestral work based entirely on Russian folk song and to use the compositional principles of that genre to dictate the form of the music. It became a touchstone for the following generation of Russian composers ranging from the Western-oriented Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to the group of nationalists known collectively as The Five and was also lauded abroad, most notably by French composer Hector Berlioz.

According to musicologist Richard Taruskin, the traditional Kamarinskaya is "a quick dance tune" otherwise known as a nagriish, distinctive for its three-bar phrase lengths, which are played in an endless number of variations in moto perpetuo fashion by an instrumentalist. This tune usually accompanies a squatting dance often called a Kazatsky (especially since in the West it has been associated in romantic fashion with Cossacks) and is played traditionally by a fiddler, a balalika player or a concertina player

Mikhail Glinka composed his Kamarinskaya in 1848. It became famous as the first orchestral work based entirely on Russian folk song.

Glinka's Kamarinskaya is based on two themes, a slow bridal song, "Iz-za gor" (From beyond the mountains), and the title song, a naigrïsh. This second song is actually an instrumental dance played to an ostinato melody. This melody is repeated for as long as the dancers can move to it. Glinka begins with "Iz-za gor," then introduces Kamarinskaya as a contrasting theme. He uses a transition to return to the bridal song and show the contrast between the two themes. Another transition, this time using motifs from the bridal song, leads to the dance theme and the piece ends with the Kamarinskaya dance. As in traditional nagriish songs, Glinka uses three-bar phrase lengths throughout the fast sections of his composition.

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