Black Eyes is the most famous romance performed all over the world. The words for him were written by Yevgeny Grebinka, the author of the music is Florian German. Other names are sometimes mentioned. To understand this, it is useful to take a closer look at the history of the creation of the romance.
Who is the real author
If you want to investigate the question of the authorship of the romance "Black Eyes" and collect as many records and music discs on which this romance is recorded, you will be surprised to find that many of them will not have the name of the author at all. Instead, they often just write "gypsy romance" or "old Russian romance". Sometimes they write "unknown author".
In addition to "Black Eyes", Grebinka is the author of a number of well-known romances and songs, among which "I remember, I was still young", "Cossack in a foreign land" and others.
Moreover, the text of the romance will differ from time to time, sometimes quite significantly. The only part that is unchanged for any performance will be the first stanza. It was written by the Ukrainian poet Yevgeny Pavlovich Grebinka. The first stanza is mandatory when performing a romance, therefore it is Grebinka who is mentioned as the author when it comes to this difficult dilemma.
The waltz "Hommage" by Florian German, processed by Sergei Gerdel, was taken as a musical accompaniment. Florian Hermann is believed to be a composer of German or French origin. And the melody for romance was first published in 1884.
The complicated story of the romance "Black Eyes"
Fyodor Chaliapin contributed very much to the popularization of the romance, who added his verses to the text, and, in general, performed it somewhat differently. Chaliapin also changed the musical edition, but this made the romance even more popular.
The original poem "Black Eyes" consisted of three stanzas. It was written by Grebinka in 1843 and published for the first time in St. Petersburg. This is what allows researchers to assume that the poet created "Black Eyes" in the northern capital of Russia, but according to other sources, the poem was created in Ukraine.
The village of Shelter, located not far from Piryatin, is native to Grebinka, where he was born and raised. When the poet was resting in his native village with his friend, Taras Shevchenko, they paid a visit to their St. Petersburg friend. There Evgeny Pavlovich met the beautiful Maria, the granddaughter of the owner of the house.
The girl's black eyes and her fiery gaze struck the poet, and that evening he dedicated one of his best poems to his beloved. He confessed his feelings to her only a year later. The young people got married, but, unfortunately, after 4 years, the poet was gone.
And only a few decades later, it occurred to someone to superimpose Grebinka's tender and passionate poem on the music of Florian Hermann, which, rather, resembles a military march. The name of this man remained unknown, but it was this version of the romance that gained popularity, which has survived to this day.
