Orchestral Suite No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)
Encyclopedia
Orchestral Suite No. 1 in D minor
is an orchestral suite, Op. 43, written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
in 1878 and 1879. It was premiered on December 20, 1879 at a Russian Musical Society
concert in Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. The piece is dedicated to Tchaikovsky's patroness
, Nadezhda von Meck
.
.
The suite is written in six movements.
Brass
Percussion
Strings
. Instead, he decided to achieve the same classical polish and poise he had displayed in the Rococo Variations within his own compositional idiom. While the suite
could be simply a selection of excerpts from a larger composition, as Tchaikovsky would later do with his Nutcracker Suite, it had historically been an independent form in itself. This was most notably the case with the Baroque suites that Johann Sebastian Bach
composed for orchestra, keyboard and other instruments. These suites were made up mainly of dances of the time, such as allemande
s, courante
s, saraband
s and gigue
s.
Few of Tchaikovsky's compositions are as far removed from the idea of the composer as musical confessor as his orchestral suites would become, yet they would remain entirely true to the pre-Romantic ideal he wished to summon. They were an outgrowth of a trend beginning in Germany following the rediscovering of Bach's orchestral suites, and he valued the genre for formal freedom as well as its unrestricted musical fantasy. They would give the composer free rein to his penchant for short genre pieces and orchestration. Johannes Brahms
would happily find a similar outlet in his serenade
s, providing him with a medium in which to compose pure orchestral music more relaxed than had previously been possible in the post-Beethoven symphony.
Tchaikovsky's First Suite would be rooted in the world of the ballet
divertissement
. To ensure that the piece did not come across as overtly light or frivolous in tone, the composer afforded himself some highmindedness with the opening introduction and fugue
. While Tchaikovsky had previously written extended fugato sections, he had written only one full-blown fugue in his compositions since leaving the St. Petersburg Conservatory, in his Op. 21 piano pieces. In addition, Tchaikovsky had to ensure that while the piece presented a wide range of styles and moods, it would add up to a coherent, satisfying experience. This caused him some difficulty as the piece's length rose to become the same as the Fourth Symphony and delayed its completion by a year.
The scherzo was the germ for the whole composition; it was after plunging headlong into writing it that "there arose in my head an array of orchestral pieces which would generate a Suite in the manner of Lachner.". (Franz Lachner
was a well-known and prolific composer in his day (1803–1890), though he is not now considered a major composer. His work was influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven
and his friend Franz Schubert
.) Complications arose when, once in Florence, Italy and anxious to continue the suite, Tchaikovsky realized the manuscripts for the three movements he had already finished were in his luggage, which had not arrived. He composed the final two movements he had planned while awaiting the luggage. The manuscripts were not among the luggage and were never found. Tchaikovsky completed the suite in April 1879
Complicating matters was that in August 1879, after Jurgenson had already started engraving the printing plates for the suite. Tchaikovsky realized all the movements were in duple meter—in other words, two beat
s per measure
. He quickly penned a Divertimento in triple meter, which he called a minuet but is actually a waltz, to break up this potential metric monotony. Tchaikovsky suggested replacing the March with the Divertimento. Jurgenson liked the March and suggested letting the suite expand to six movemnets. Six, to Tchaikovsky, was one movement too many. He suggested that Sergei Taneyev
be asked his opinion of the March. If Taneyev thought it worthwhile, then Tchaikovsky wanted to drop the Andante and reorder the movements as Introduction and Fugue, Divertimento, Scherzo, March, Gavotte. The Andante's case was then pleaded to the composer. By the time Rubinstein conducted the premiere, the order of the six movements was the one finally established.
When Claude Debussy
was employed as a tutor to Nadezhda von Meck
's children, he and she would play 4-hand piano arrangements of the Symphony No. 4
and the Suite No. 1. She wrote to Tchaikovsky that "he is in raptures over your music", and about the Suite No. 1 specifically, "He was in utter ecstasy over the fugue, expressing himself thus: Among modern fugues I've never seen anything so beautiful. Massenet
himself could never do anything like it".
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. In the harmonic minor, the C is raised to C. Its key signature has one flat ....
is an orchestral suite, Op. 43, written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
in 1878 and 1879. It was premiered on December 20, 1879 at a Russian Musical Society
Russian Musical Society
The Russian Musical Society was an organisation founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, with the intent of raising the standard of music in the country and disseminating musical education.Rubinstein and the Grand Duchess's...
concert in Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. The piece is dedicated to Tchaikovsky's patroness
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
, Nadezhda von Meck
Nadezhda von Meck
Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck was a Russian businesswoman, who is best known today for her artistic relationship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She supported him financially for 13 years, enabling him to devote himself full-time to composition, but she stipulated that they were never to meet. ...
.
Structure
Some critics have stated that since Tchaikovsky used specific pre-classical types for the outer movements (Introduction and Fugue and Gavotte), his model for this work was the Baroque suite and not, as he had written to von Meck, the orchestral suites of Franz LachnerFranz Lachner
Franz Paul Lachner was a German composer and conductor.Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family . He studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. In 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim...
.
The suite is written in six movements.
- Introduzione e fugaFugueIn music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
: Andante sostenuto—Moderato e con anima- A very spacious and portentPortentPortent may refer to:* Portent , a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future* The Portent, a comic book* USS Portent , an Auk-class minesweeper...
ous introduction (the Baroque equivalent of a prelude) leads into what could be called an "academic" fugue since its climax steps away from Baroque practice, very loudly, into the 19th century. The movement's end, however, is quiet.
- A very spacious and portent
- DivertimentoDivertimentoDivertimento is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted and it is generally composed for a small ensemble....
: Allegro moderato- This movement could have just as easily been titled Valse. Tchaikovsky gives the clarinet the task of "discovering" the opening tune. There is also a section of the three flutes' chattering that will return for the Mirlitons' Dance in The NutcrackerThe NutcrackerThe Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
.Brown, Man and Music, 192.
- This movement could have just as easily been titled Valse. Tchaikovsky gives the clarinet the task of "discovering" the opening tune. There is also a section of the three flutes' chattering that will return for the Mirlitons' Dance in The Nutcracker
- IntermezzoIntermezzoIn music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...
: AndantinoAndantinoAndantino can refer to:*Andantino , an Italian tempo marking meaning a tempo that is slightly faster than Andante but slower than Moderato*Andantino , a Jerome Robbins ballet*Andantino , a two-player board game...
semplice- This movement is more restrained in tone. Its first subject is actually a "glosting" of the fugue subject from the opening movement. It alternates with a broad, sustained melody in a five-section A-B-A-B-A structure.
- Marche miniature: Moderato con moto
- Scored for upper woodwind, with very discreeet contributions from the violins, triangle and bells, this music's confectionery lightness would have allowed it to fit easily into The Nutcracker.
- ScherzoScherzoA scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
: Allegro con moto- This was the first movement to be composed and was the reason for the suite's actually being written.
- GavotteGavotteThe gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo...
: Allegro- Tchaikovsky may have chosen to model this movement after a stately Baroque dance, but the music had less to do with J. S. BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's style than it does, with its discreet piquancy, as a precursor to the corresponding movement in Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Classical SymphonySymphony No. 1 (Prokofiev)Sergei Prokofiev began work on his Symphony No. 1 in D major in 1916, but wrote most of it in 1917, finishing work on September 10. It is written in loose imitation of the style of Haydn , and is widely known as the Classical Symphony, a name given to it by the composer...
.
- Tchaikovsky may have chosen to model this movement after a stately Baroque dance, but the music had less to do with J. S. Bach
Instrumentation
Woodwinds- Piccolo
- 3 Flutes
- 2 Oboes
- 2 Clarinets (B-flat and A)
- 2 Bassoons
Brass
- 4 Horns in F
- 2 Trumpets (D and F)
Percussion
- Timpani
- Triangle
- Glockenspiel
Strings
- Violins
- Violas
- Cellos
- Double basses.
New music, old forms
By the summer of 1878, Tchaikovsky was incapable of summoning the intense emotional resources he had unleashed musically the previous year in the Fourth Symphony. Because of this, he decided he needed a sabbatical from symphonic music. However, in foregoing the composition of emotionally heavy music, he did not wish to negate his personality as much as he had in writing the Variations on a Rococo ThemeVariations on a Rococo Theme
The Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33, for cello and orchestra was the closest Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ever came to writing a full concerto for cello and orchestra. The style was inspired by Mozart, Tchaikovsky's role model, and makes it clear that Tchaikovsky admired the Classical style very...
. Instead, he decided to achieve the same classical polish and poise he had displayed in the Rococo Variations within his own compositional idiom. While the suite
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
could be simply a selection of excerpts from a larger composition, as Tchaikovsky would later do with his Nutcracker Suite, it had historically been an independent form in itself. This was most notably the case with the Baroque suites that Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
composed for orchestra, keyboard and other instruments. These suites were made up mainly of dances of the time, such as allemande
Allemande
An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite...
s, courante
Courante
The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era....
s, saraband
Saraband
Saraband is a 2003 Swedish drama film directed by Ingmar Bergman, and his last theatrically released work. The film is a sequel to Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage , bringing back to the screen the characters of Johan and Marianne...
s and gigue
Gigue
The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite...
s.
Few of Tchaikovsky's compositions are as far removed from the idea of the composer as musical confessor as his orchestral suites would become, yet they would remain entirely true to the pre-Romantic ideal he wished to summon. They were an outgrowth of a trend beginning in Germany following the rediscovering of Bach's orchestral suites, and he valued the genre for formal freedom as well as its unrestricted musical fantasy. They would give the composer free rein to his penchant for short genre pieces and orchestration. Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
would happily find a similar outlet in his serenade
Serenade
In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
s, providing him with a medium in which to compose pure orchestral music more relaxed than had previously been possible in the post-Beethoven symphony.
Tchaikovsky's First Suite would be rooted in the world of the ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
divertissement
Divertimento
Divertimento is a musical genre, with most of its examples from the 18th century. The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted and it is generally composed for a small ensemble....
. To ensure that the piece did not come across as overtly light or frivolous in tone, the composer afforded himself some highmindedness with the opening introduction and fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
. While Tchaikovsky had previously written extended fugato sections, he had written only one full-blown fugue in his compositions since leaving the St. Petersburg Conservatory, in his Op. 21 piano pieces. In addition, Tchaikovsky had to ensure that while the piece presented a wide range of styles and moods, it would add up to a coherent, satisfying experience. This caused him some difficulty as the piece's length rose to become the same as the Fourth Symphony and delayed its completion by a year.
Composition
According to an August 1878 letter to von Meck, Tchaikovsky originally planned the suite to be in five movements:- Introduzione e fuga
- Scherzo
- Andante melanconico
- Intermezzo: March of the Liliputians
- Rondo: Dance of the Giants
The scherzo was the germ for the whole composition; it was after plunging headlong into writing it that "there arose in my head an array of orchestral pieces which would generate a Suite in the manner of Lachner.". (Franz Lachner
Franz Lachner
Franz Paul Lachner was a German composer and conductor.Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family . He studied music with Simon Sechter and Maximilian, the Abbé Stadler. He conducted at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. In 1834, he became Kapellmeister at Mannheim...
was a well-known and prolific composer in his day (1803–1890), though he is not now considered a major composer. His work was influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
and his friend Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
.) Complications arose when, once in Florence, Italy and anxious to continue the suite, Tchaikovsky realized the manuscripts for the three movements he had already finished were in his luggage, which had not arrived. He composed the final two movements he had planned while awaiting the luggage. The manuscripts were not among the luggage and were never found. Tchaikovsky completed the suite in April 1879
Complicating matters was that in August 1879, after Jurgenson had already started engraving the printing plates for the suite. Tchaikovsky realized all the movements were in duple meter—in other words, two beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
s per measure
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
. He quickly penned a Divertimento in triple meter, which he called a minuet but is actually a waltz, to break up this potential metric monotony. Tchaikovsky suggested replacing the March with the Divertimento. Jurgenson liked the March and suggested letting the suite expand to six movemnets. Six, to Tchaikovsky, was one movement too many. He suggested that Sergei Taneyev
Sergei Taneyev
Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev , was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.-Life:...
be asked his opinion of the March. If Taneyev thought it worthwhile, then Tchaikovsky wanted to drop the Andante and reorder the movements as Introduction and Fugue, Divertimento, Scherzo, March, Gavotte. The Andante's case was then pleaded to the composer. By the time Rubinstein conducted the premiere, the order of the six movements was the one finally established.
Reception
Keeping the March may have actually been a prudent move on Jurgenson's part—one which the publisher may have relished as he reported the First Suite's success at its premiere. Tchaikovsky had been in Rome and could not attend. Jurgenson wrote, "The first movement went off without fervent expressions of delight. The second evidently pleased. The Andante pleased very much, but the March drew applause which wouldn't stop until it was repeated. The Scherzo was very well received. The Gavotte found the audience by now fatigued and bursting to get away." The suite's St. Petersburg premiere followed on April 6, 1880. It was enthusiasticially received and the March again was the most successful movement. The March, in fact, would frequently become played separately because of its popularity.When Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
was employed as a tutor to Nadezhda von Meck
Nadezhda von Meck
Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck was a Russian businesswoman, who is best known today for her artistic relationship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She supported him financially for 13 years, enabling him to devote himself full-time to composition, but she stipulated that they were never to meet. ...
's children, he and she would play 4-hand piano arrangements of the Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, was written between 1877 and 1878. The symphony's first performance was at a Russian Musical Society concert in Saint Petersburg on February 10 /February 22 1878, with Nikolai Rubinstein as conductor.- Form :The symphony is in four...
and the Suite No. 1. She wrote to Tchaikovsky that "he is in raptures over your music", and about the Suite No. 1 specifically, "He was in utter ecstasy over the fugue, expressing himself thus: Among modern fugues I've never seen anything so beautiful. Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
himself could never do anything like it".
Selected Recordings
- Antal DorátiAntal DorátiAntal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
conducting the New Philharmonia OrchestraPhilharmonia OrchestraThe Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke... - Neeme JärviNeeme JärviNeeme Järvi is an Estonian-born conductor.-Early life:Järvi studied music first in Tallinn, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others...
conducting the Detroit Symphony OrchestraDetroit Symphony OrchestraThe Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood... - Dmitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (one movement cut)
- Stefan SanderlingStefan SanderlingStefan Sanderling is an orchestral conductor. His parents are the conductor Kurt Sanderling and the double-bass player Barbara Sanderling. His half-brother is the conductor Thomas Sanderling. His brother Michael Sanderling is a cellist and conductor.In his youth, Sanderling played the piano and...
conducting the RTÉ National Symphony OrchestraRTÉ National Symphony OrchestraThe RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is the concert music orchestra of Raidió Teilifís Éireann...