Tchaikovsky, the Melancholy
It is commonly believed that in music the public wants something “quick and devilish”; but this is far from the truth. For social, political, and especially climatic reasons, the Russians, with their long and dreary winters, are supposed to be a melancholy nation. The most melancholy of their composers is Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, and of his works the most popular by far, throughout the world, is the most lugubrious of them all, the heart rending “Pathetic Symphony,” which is today second in popularity to no other orchestral work of any country. “All hope abandon, ye who enter here,” might well be its motto. More than any funeral march ever composed, it embodies, in the adagio lamentoso, which ends it, the concentrated quintessence of despair, “the luxury of woe.” It was Tchaikovsky’s symphonic swan song. At the time of his death there was a rumor that he had written it deliberately as his own dirge before committing suicide; but it is now known that he died of cholera.
What endears the “Pathetic Symphony” to such a multitude of music lovers is, furthermore, its abundance of soulful melody. This abundance characterizes many of his other compositions. Indeed, so conspicuous, so ingratiating, is the flow of melody in his works, that one might think he was one of those Italian masters who made their home in Russia. It must be borne in mind, however, that the Italians have not a monopoly of melodists—think of the Austrians, Haydn, Mozart (who was the idol of Tchaikovsky’s youth) and Schubert; the Germans, Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner; the Frenchmen, Bizet and Gounod; the Norwegian, Grieg; the Pole, Chopin. With them as a melodist ranks Tchaikovsky, and this is the highest praise that could be bestowed on him. The charm of original melody gives distinction to his songs, the best of which are the “Spanish Serenade,” “None but a Lonely Heart,” and “Why So Pale Are the Roses?”
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There is less of it in his piano pieces, but his first concerto for piano and orchestra, and his violin concerto, have an abundance of it and are therefore popular favorites—as much as his “Slavic March,” his “1812” overture, and his “Nut Cracker Suite,” which is also full of quaint humor, and which had the distinction of introducing a new instrument now much used in orchestras—the “celesta”—a small keyboard instrument, the hammers of which strike thin plates of steel, producing silvery bell-like tones. This suite consists of pieces taken from his ballet of the same name.
Among his stage works are eight operas, only two of which, “Eugene Onegin” and “The Queen of Spades,” have, however, been successful outside of Russia; but in Russia the first named has long been second in popularity only to “A Life for the Czar.”