Tchaikovsky
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TH 101

Six Romances

Шесть романсов

With piano accompaniment, Op. 38 (1878).

• Composed February - July 1878.
• Scored for high voice (Nos. 2, 3), medium voice (Nos. 4, 5, 6) or baritone (No. 1) with piano.
• Average duration: 15m (set).

History

The Op. 38 romances were composed by Tchaikovsky at Florence, Clarens, Kamenka, Brailov and Verbovka. between 11 February and 13 July 1878. Composition of the romances began after work was completed on the Symphony No. 4 and Evgenii Onegin.

In February 1878, Tchaikovsky expressed his desire to compose "a variety of small pieces" [1]. "This will be something between relaxation and work" [2]. He then asked Nikolai Kashkin (through Petr Jurgenson) and Nadezhda von Meck to suggest appropriate texts for the romances. On 27 February, in response to his request, the latter sent the composer works by Afanasii Fet, Aleksei Tolstoi, Lev Mei, and Fedor Tiutchev. Tchaikovsky thanked Nadezhda von Meck in a letter of 7/19 March from Clarens: "I am particularly pleased with the Tolstoi, which I like very much... In particular I am interested in Don Juan, which I read a very long time ago. I was enchanted by the section you indicated in Don Juan, and certainly I shall set it to music" [3].

The first romance was written at Florence on 11/23 February 1878, "between lunch and dinner" [4]. This was the romance The Love of a Dead Man (No. 5) - the only one of Tchaikovsky’s romances set to words by Mikhail Lermontov. "I wrote it because in one of your letters you mentioned to me your view of his poetry set to music. This was at February in Florence" [5].

The second romance to be written, it seems shortly after the first, was Pimpinella. Tchaikovsky heard this song in Florence performed by a street-singer named Vittorio: "The day before leaving I listened to him once more and noted down the words and music to one song, which I am sending you with my accompaniment. Isn't it a delightful tune? And such peculiar words!" [6]. In another letter to Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky wrote that "amongst my six romances, the melody of one of them is very similar from the one I sent you last year in letter from Switzerland, just slightly altered by me and adapted to the form of a vocal number suitable for a salon concert" [7]. On 15/27 March, Tchaikovsky told Petr Jurgenson: "I’ve already done seven small pieces, two romances and the opening of a piano sonata" [8].

The composer finished the romances in Russia, while staying at Kamenka from 11 April to 12 May 1878, at Brailov from 17 to 30 May, at Kamenka from 13 to 26 June, and at Verbovka. from 26 June to 5 August 1878.

On 30 April, Tchaikovsky shared his plans with Nadezhda von Meck: "I am sufficiently busy. The sonata is already done, as are 12 Pieces of moderate difficulty for solo piano solo - but that is to say, only in rough... Tomorrow I shall start on a collection of miniature pieces for children... Then I shall take up the romances and violin pieces [9]. By 4 March the Children's Album had been composed, but on 27 May Tchaikovsky told Nadezhda von Meck: "In my case I have a whole mass of sketches. Besides the violin pieces, I have written: 6 romances, around a dozen piano pieces, an album of little pieces for children... a Grand Sonata, and the whole Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. It will take a long time, possibly up to a month and a half, for all these to be put in order and copied out" [10]. From this letter it follows that the remaining romances were written between 4 and 27 May (Nos. 1 to 4, all to words by Aleksei Tolstoi), at the same time as the violin pieces Souvenir d'un lieu cher and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

The violin pieces were the first to be copied out (by 30 May), and then the composer brought the piano sonata to its final form (from 15 June). On 4 July he started copying out the romances: "The sonata is already done, and tomorrow I shall start on the fair copies of some romances, which were partly written abroad and partly at Kamenka in April" [11]. One of the romances I am copying out tomorrow is set to the text of Lermontov’s The Love of a Dead Man [12]. On 13 July, Tchaikovsky informed Nadezhda von Meck that he had finished copying out all the romances and the twelve piano pieces, Op. 40 [13].

Tchaikovsky singled out It was in the Early Spring (No. 2) as one of his most popular romances [14].

In the romance The Love of a Dead Man (No. 5), Lermontov's verses are shortened, and Tchaikovsky made some alterations to the texts in Don Juan’s Serenade (No. 1), O, If Only You Could (No. 4), and The Love of a Dead Man (No. 5).

The romances were published for the first time by Petr Jurgenson, appearing in mid-November 1878 [15].

All the romances are dedicated to Anatolii Tchaikovsky.

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 444-446
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

Texts

1. Don Juan's Serenade

2. It Was in the Early Spring

3. Amid the Din of the Ball

4. O, If Only You Could

5. The Love of a Dead Man

6. Pimpinella (Florentine Song)

Notes:

1. See letter 761 to Petr Jurgenson, 14/26 February 1878, and letters 758 and 762 to Nadezhda von Meck, 12/24 and 16/28 February 1878 [back]
2. Letter 798 to Nadezhda von Meck, 24 March/5 April 1878 [back]
3. Letter 780 to Nadezhda von Meck, 7/19 March 1878 [back]
4. See letter 756 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, and letter 758 to Nadezhda von Meck, both 12/24 February 1878 [back]
5. Letter 866 to Nadezhda von Meck, 4/16 July 1878. See also letter 1018 to Nadezhda von Meck, 12/24 December 1878 [back]
6. Letter 775 to Nadezhda von Meck, 28 February/12 March 1878. See also letter 765 to Nadezhda von Meck, 20 February/4 March 1878, and letter 766 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 22 February/6 March 1878 [back]
7. Letter 1018 to Nadezhda von Meck, 12/24 December 1878 [back]
8. Letter 789 to Petr Jurgenson, 15/27 March 1878. The "seven small pieces" were from the Twelve Pieces, Op. 40, and the sonata was the Grand Sonata [back]
9. Letter 820 to Nadezhda von Meck, 30 April/12 May 1878 [back]
10. Letter 843 to Nadezhda von Meck, 27 May/8 June 1878 [back]
11. Here Tchaikovsky inaccurately recalled the date of composition [back]
12. Letter 866 to Nadezhda von Meck, 4/16 July 1878 [back]
13. See letter 871 to Nadezhda von Meck, 13/25 July 1878 [back]
14. See letter 1849 to Petr Jurgenson, 1/13 September 1881 [back]
15. Passed by the censor on 2 September 1878 [back]