"THE VOYVODE,"[178] ORCHESTRAL BALLAD (Posthumous): Op. 78
Tschaikowsky composed Le Voyvode at Tiflis in 1890, under the inspiration of a poem by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855). It is said that after the first performance of the work at Moscow in November, 1891, Tschaikowsky, disheartened over the cool reception of his music by the audience, and by the adverse criticism of his friends, "tore his score in pieces, exclaiming, 'Such rubbish should never have been written!'" [179] The orchestral parts are alleged to have been preserved, and the score restored from them. At all events, the work was published in 1897, four years after Tschaikowsky's death.
Mickiewicz's poem, in French and Russian, prefaces the score. It has been translated into English prose as follows:[180]
"The voyvode comes back from the war late at night. He orders silence, rushes toward the nuptial bed, draws aside the curtains. 'Tis, then, true! No one; the bed is empty.
"Darker than black night, he lowers his eyes shot with rage, twists his grizzling mustache; then, throwing back his long sleeves, he leaves, and bolts the door. 'Hallo, there,' he cries, 'Devil's food!'
"'Why do I not see at the gate bolts or watch dogs? Race of Ham! Quick, my gun; bring a sack, a cord, and take the carbine hanging on the wall. Follow me. I shall make known my vengeance on this woman!'
"The master and the young servant spy along the wall. They go into the garden and see through the bushes the young woman, all in white, seated near the fountain with a young man at her feet.
"He was saying: 'And so nothing is left to me of those former delights, of that which I so dearly loved! The sighs of your white breast, the pressure of your soft hand—these the voyvode has bought!
"'How many years did I sigh after you, how many years did I seek you, and you have renounced me! The voyvode did not seek you, he did not sigh for you—he made his money jingle and you gave yourself to him!
"'I have passed through the darkness of the night to see the eyes of my well-beloved, to press her soft hand, to wish her in her new dwelling many prosperous years, much joy, and then to leave her forever.'...
"The fair one wept and mourned; the young man embraced her knees; and the other two watched them through the bushes. They laid their guns on the ground; they took cartridges from their belts; they bit them and rammed them home.
"Then they crept up gently. 'Master, I cannot aim,' said the poor servant; 'is it the wind? But there are tears in my eyes—I tremble—my arms are growing weak; there is no priming powder in the pan'— "'Be silent, slave; I'll teach you to whimper! Fill the pan—now aim—aim at the forehead of the false woman—more to the left—higher—I'll take care of the lover—hush—my turn first—wait!'
"The carbine-shot rang through the garden. The young servant could not wait. The voyvode screamed; the voyvode staggered. The servant's aim, it seems, was poor: the ball pierced the voyvode's forehead."
FOOTNOTES:
[163] Without opus number.
[164] The first of Tschaikowsky's programmatic orchestral works is the virtually unknown Fatum ("Destiny"), to which are attached lines from a poem by Batioushkov. This work was composed in 1868, and produced at Moscow in March of the following year. Tschaikowsky destroyed the score "during the seventies"; but the orchestral parts were preserved, and the score was reconstructed from them and published in 1896. Batioushkov's lines were affixed to the score after its completion, on the eve of the concert at which the work was produced.