Tchaikovsky
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Elegy for String Orchestra
(Элегия для струнного оркестра)
A Grateful Greeting (Привет благодарности) (1884).
| Catalogue References | TH 51 ; ČW 48 (as "Thankgreeting") |
|---|---|
| Date | November 1884 |
| Key | G major |
| Tempo/Section Listing | Andante non troppo (G major, 103 bars) |
| Instrumentation | Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses |
| Notable Performances |
|
| Autograph Location | Moscow (Russia): Glinka National Museum Consortium of Musical Culture (ф. 88, No. 88) |
| First Publication | Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1890 |
| Average Duration | 8 minutes |
| Dedication | To the memory of Ivan Vasilyevich Samarin (1817–1885) |
| Notes | Composed as A Grateful Greeting for the jubilee of the actor Ivan Samarin in 1884.
Published after the latter's death under the title Elegy. Re-used as an entr'acte in the incidental music to Hamlet (1891) |
| External Links |
IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
 (downloadable score) |
History
Towards the end of 1884, the Moscow Society of Artists decided to mark Ivan Samarin’s fifty years as a performing artist.
On 12/24 October, Nikolay Kashkin sent Tchaikovsky a letter telling him that the jubilee organisers wanted to ask Tchaikovsky to take part: "You have probably received or will shortly receive a letter from Ostrovsky with a request to participate in I. V. Samarin’s jubilee", he wrote. "The jubilee will include something specially written by [Nikolay] Vild’e, his former colleague Ostrovsky, and a number of tableaux enacted by Makovsky, Pryanishnikov, and others—a balletic divertissement, and the final act from Ostrovsky's The Forest. The organizers of the jubilee want you to write some sort of musical entr’acte" [1].
Shortly afterwards Tchaikovsky, then in Saint Petersburg, received the letter referred to from Aleksandr Ostrovsky [2].
In his letter of reply to Aleksandr Ostrovsky on 18/30 October 1884, Tchaikovsky wrote that he was deeply moved to learn of the celebrations to honour Ivan Samarin and "could not feel more strongly about taking part in them, and I hereby accept your commission". However, at this time he was wholly preoccupied with the production of the opera Yevgeny Onegin in Saint Petersburg [3]. Nevertheless, he promised to do something as soon as he returned to Moscow, and provided the jubilee was no earlier than 20 November/2 December, he hoped to manage to complete the entr'acte on time.
On 1/13 November, Tchaikovsky left Saint Petersburg for Davos, where his friend Iosif Kotek was gravely ill [4]. On the way he stopped off in Berlin for four days. Here, on 6/18 November, the Elegy was completed (according to the date on the manuscript). On 7/19 November 1884, he wrote from Munich to Modest Tchaikovsky: "I stayed so long in Berlin, because I needed to be able to compose quickly ...an entr'acte for the Samarin production. The latter has been done and dispatched" [5]. Initially, according to the title page of the manuscript, the piece was entitled A Grateful Greeting [«Привет благодарности»].
On 7/19 November, Tchaikovsky wrote to Pyotr Jurgenson: "From Berlin I sent Kashkin the entr'acte for Samarin's benefit. For God's sake, don't print this rubbish: I won't give my consent for this" [6].
The first performance of the Elegy was conducted by Ippolit Altani at Ivan Samarin's jubilee on 16/28 December 1884, although seemingly under its original title.
It was printed by Pyotr Jurgenson in December 1890, some years after Ivan Samarin's death. Tchaikovsky wrote about the edition to Jurgenson on 15/27 November 1890: "The Samarin piece needs a new title. Should it not be called Elegy? This would seem more appropriate, and above it the dedication in memory of I. V. Samarin" [7].
Thus it appeared for the first time under the title Elegy.
On 13/25 May 1891 the same publisher issued an arrangement of the Elegy for piano solo, made by Theodor Kirchner, and an arrangement for piano duet made by Eduard Langer.
In 1891 the Elegy was used by Tchaikovsky as an entr'acte to Act IV of his music for the tragedy Hamlet.
From:
Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 299–300
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston
Notes:
- Letter from Nikolay Kashkin to Tchaikovsky, 12/24 October 1884 — Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
- The whereabouts of Ostrovsky’s letter are unknown [back]
- Letter 2570 to Aleksandr Ostrovsky, 18/30 October 1884 [back]
- See letter 2584 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 3/15 November 1884 [back]
- Letter 2586 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 7/19 November 1884 [back]
- Letter 2587 to Pyotr Jurgenson, 7/19 November 1884 [back]
- Letter 4256 to Pyotr Jurgenson, 15/27 November 1890 [back]