tchaiko(v/w)sky and rachmanino(v/ff) spelling

[Skeptopotamus]

What's it going to be then, eh?

[donjuan]

I dont know anything about Tchaikovsky spelling, but what I just did seems to look right..

Rachmaninoff signed his own name with the ff so maybe the conversation is over?

[rhapsody in orange]

Rachmaninoff signed his own name with the ff so maybe the conversation is over?

So when you see ff on Rachmaninoff's pieces you'd know he's signing part of his name there? 

[pianohopper]

However, Rachmaninoff may have Americanized his name when he moved to America.  Traditionally, I believe Russians favor the -v ending.  (I am guessing this because of all the women tennis players' names - Sharapova, Smashnova, Kournikova, Navritilova, etc. -- they just add an -a to the father's last name to feminize it.)

[keys]

My edition of Tchaik's Concerto no.1 spells his name Tschaikowsky. It is like they are trying to fit as many letters in as possible. I am not consistent with my spelling.

[Nightscape]

Here's another good one.

Is it Scriabin or Skjabin?  My Henle edition of one of his sonatas spells it Skjabin.

[Floristan]

It doesn't really matter, as these are simply transliterations from the Cyrillic alphabet, which I believe has 32 characters as opposed to our 26.  There are letters in Cyrillic that we just don't have, so when these are transliterated, they often appear in two or more forms.  Rachmaninoff's name ends in the Russian letter B, which is transliterated as V or FF, depending on where it comes in a word.  If a word begins with B, it is always transliterated as V, but if it comes at the end, it's often transliterated as FF because that's probably closer to how it sounds in spoken Russian.  The Russian letter X (which is the equivalent in Russian to chi in Greek) is sometimes transliterated as "ch" (as in RaCHmaninoff) or as "kh" (as in KHabarovsk).

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Scriabin are most often seen.  Also remember that transliteration will be affected somewhat by what language is doing the transliterating.  I've seen "Skrjabin" on Henle editions, which is the common German transliteration of his name.

[Etude]

I've always spelled:  Rachmaninov, never Rachmaninoff, and usually, I spell Tchaikowsky, but sometimes Tchaikovsky.

[Jacey1973]

On the BBC Proms they always spell Rach's name: Rakmaninov, but i've always spelt it Rachmaninov. And Tchaikovsky - Tchaikovsky.

[Skeptopotamus]

What's it going to be then, eh?

everyone missed the allusion?  awwww

[Nana_Ama]

I've seen 'Rakhmaninov' and 'Tschaikowsky' too...

[pita bread]

The spelling "Tchaikowsky" is Germanized I believe- the w has a v sound in German, as in Wagner being pronounced "Vagner" and Lebewohl being pronounced "Lebevohl."

You find the same thing with Stravinsky being spelled "Strawinsky."

[steinwayguy]

Rakhmaninov is rite.

[bernhard]

Have a look here:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,1902.0.html

[c18cont]

As clearly spoken,

in the source above by one respondent ... "Lets call the whole thing Orff..." (Or maybe that isn't quite what was Siad....

John

[Barbosa-piano]

Yes, the correct translations from the Cyrillic alphabet would be the following:
Original Cyrillic- Italic.
С. В. Рахманинов
S. V. Rakhmaninov

П. И. Чайковский
P. I.  Cheaikovskii*
* The second i is a short one.

These are the exact translations of the letters.
I do not consider Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky incorrect spellings, since those are phonetically correct, but clearly not orthographically... To this point I believe that it is up to person, since they are all overused.

Mario Barbosa

[llamaman]

Im with Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov.

[Dazzer]

when i'm searching for sheet music i always use

Rachmaninov
or rachmaninoff.

But usually when i refer to him i use V

[prometheus]

You can't spell it in in roman letters.

Just like you can't spell Qu'ran/Koran and all those other arabic words.

[thierry13]

No more fighting ! Rachmaninovff and Tchaikowvsky ! 

[luc]

No more fighting ! Rachmaninovff and Tchaikowvsky !

And why not Rachmaninoffv and Tchaikovwsky? 

[Jacey1973]

When I was reading Francis Maes's "A History of Russian Music From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar" (University of California Press, 2002 - a really good book btw) i noticed he refers to Tchaikovsky as "Chaikovsky".

[Barbosa-piano]

 I guess Tchaikowsky is the German way to spell it- and say it, if they wrote it Tchaikovsky they would be pronouncing it oddly- Tchaikofsky. The same way with the name Volkswagen- Germans pronounce it Folksvagen. V- F W-V.

[xvimbi]

I guess Tchaikowsky is the German way to spell it- and say it, if they wrote it Tchaikovsky they would be pronouncing it oddly- Tchaikofsky. The same way with the name Volkswagen- Germans pronounce it Folksvagen. V- F W-V.

In German, it's spelled Tschaikovski. The 'v' is pronounced like an 'f' as you said, and the 'w' in the English spelling 'Tchaikowsky' should be pronounced the very same way: "offski", not "owski" as in 'cow'. Likewise with Godowski, Szymanowski, etc.

Chai (like the tea-like substance)
caugh (clears throat)
ski (the thingies for snow)

[prometheus]

What about Tsjaikovsk, Skrjabin and Sjostakovitsj?


Every language has their own romanisation of russian names.

[Bouter Boogie]

All the different spellings are sooooooooo confusing

[ckprbnh]

As clearly spoken,

in the source above by one respondent, “this is all quite amusing”... 

Vagner

Lebevohl

Folksvagen

... to a German these names look like "Fagner", "Lebefohl" or "Folksfagen" 

The correct (not the common) German spellings would be:

Рахманинов
Rachmaninow

Чайковский
Tschajkowskij (I don't want to know how this would be pronounced in English)

Скрябин 
Skrjabin

I think there is no correct English spelling for Рахманинов or Чайковский because there is no exact translation for the Russian х or й - these sounds don't exist in the English language.


... and here's another interesting name:
Хачатурян
Chatschaturjan

... probably the one with the most different spellings - the craziest I've seen so far was "Katsatorejan" (I think this was the Dutch version)

[Barbosa-piano]

 I see your name is Scriabin, ckprbnh- Do you have a keyboard with the Cyrillic alphabet?... I have a fascination for the Cyrillic alphabet, and Russian... I've learned some by myself. I had trouble going through those Russian sites, but it seems easier after you memorize all the letters and the hard and soft signs. Russian sounds a lot like Portuguese, and I can get confused, if I hear Russian in a glance, I would probably say it is Portuguese.

[ckprbnh]

I see your name is Scriabin, ckprbnh- Do you have a keyboard with the Cyrillic alphabet?... I have a fascination for the Cyrillic alphabet, and Russian... I've learned some by myself. I had trouble going through those Russian sites, but it seems easier after you memorize all the letters and the hard and soft signs. Russian sounds a lot like Portuguese, and I can get confused, if I hear Russian in a glance, I would probably say it is Portuguese.

I haven't got a keyboard with the Cyrillic alphabet, so I had to use the "Insert - Symbol" function in Word and insert one letter after the other. I like the Cyrillic alphabet, it looks quite funny to someone who is used to the Roman alphabet - a mix of upper- and lower-case characters, some mirror-inverted letters etc. - it reminds me of a child who just learns to write.  I also like the sound of the Russian language, I hear it a lot because there are lots of Russians living in Germany, but I don't know how Portuguese sounds - maybe if I heard it, I would say it's Russian...

... but I think this has nothing to do with Рахманинов or Чайковский spelling.