De Zusters Karamazov

"De Zusters Karamazov" (The Karamazov Sisters) is a song from 1957 by Dutch poet and writer Drs. P.

Storyline

The song describes the sad history of two sisters, living in Overveen, who have a disagreement on how to divide an inheritance that consists solely of dresses. In the end, one of the sisters decides to poison the other one. Upon concocting a poisoned drink, the first sister cannot resist having a taste in order to verify whether the recipe has worked out well. It turns out she has used the correct fatal dose and she drops dead instantly, leaving the other sister behind with all the dresses.

During the song, the listeners are repeatedly reminded that time passes by:

Terwijl de kater sliep, (while the (male) cat slept)
en de pendule liep (and the clock ticked)
en de kanarie sprak: (and the canary spoke:)
"Tsjiep, tsjiep, tsjiep, tsjiep (tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet)".

The song is intended as entertainment, with a melancholic core: greed can lead to discord, annoyance and worse, maybe eventually even to murder. The name Karamazov (from the title) is mentioned nowhere in the song. The song is therefore also known by the (incorrect) name of "Tante Constance en tante Mathilde" ("Auntie Constanze and Auntie Mathilde").

Cultural references

The title refers to The Brothers Karamazov, a well-known book by Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The melody of the chorus was derived from the first part of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s "Piano Sonata nr. 11 in A major (KV 331)".

Trivium

In 2013, the American actress Christina Applegate explained to talkshow host Conan O'Brien that her (Dutch) husband was teaching this song to their little daughter. [1]

References
  1. Christina Applegate over rare Nederlandse tradities een een lied van Drs. P (Christina Applegate on weird Dutch traditions and a song by Drs. P), NRC, 21 December 2013
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