The Seasons (Tchaikovsky)
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The Seasons, op. 37b is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). The work is also sometimes heard in orchestral arrangements produced by other musicians.
The 12 pieces with their titles are:
- January: At the Fireside
- February: Carnival
- March: Song of the Lark
- April: Snowdrop
- May: Starlight Nights
- June: Barcarolle
- July: Song of the Reaper
- August: Harvest
- September: The Hunt
- October: Autumn Song
- November: Troika
- December: Christmas
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[edit] Historic background
Tchaikovsky wrote Les saisons (The Seasons) from December 1875 to November 1876 at the request of N. M. Bernard, the editor of the Nuvellist, a St. Petersburg monthly music magazine. This magazine published musical supplements and had brought out two songs by Tchaikovsky in 1873. He was asked to contribute a 'season' per month, and — according to the composer — he told his servant to remind him each month when another 'season' was due then wrote each on that day. Les saisons were therefore conceived as separate items, and not as a unified composition.
Tchaikovsky did not regard the monthly obligation as anything of musical significance and charged his manservant to remind him of it each month. The servant carried out his instructions very punctiliously, and once a month on the agreed day said: "Pyotr Ilyich, it’s time to send off to St. Petersburg" — and Pyotr Ilyich wrote a piece at a single sitting and sent it off. The composer also referred to these pieces as 'pancakes:' "…quickly tossed and served…". These rather mechanical circumstances did not prevent him from producing some highly attractive and characteristic pieces.
[edit] Orchestral arrangements
A number of musicians have orchestrated Tchaikovsky's pieces. Alexander Gauk arranged The Seasons for symphony orchestra in 1942. More recent orchestral versions have been produced by David Matthews (for symphony orchestra) and Peter Breiner (for solo violin and symphony orchestra).
[edit] Poetic Epigraphs
Following is a translation of some of the poetic epigraphs contained in the Russian edition:
1. Janvier (January): Au coin du feu (At the Fireside)
- A little corner of peaceful bliss,
- The night dressed in twilight;
- The little fire is dying in the fireplace,
- And the candle has burned out.
- (Alexandr Pushkin)
6. Juin (June): Barcarolle (Barcarole)
- Let us go to the shore;
- There the waves will kiss our legs.
- With mysterious sadness
- The stars will shine down on us.
- (Aleksey Plescheev)
7. Juillet (July): Chant du faucheur (Song of the Reaper)
- Move the shoulders,
- Shake the arms!
- And the noon wind
- Breathes in the face.
- (Aleksey Koltsov)
10. Octobre (October): Chant d'automne (Autumn Song)
- Autumn, falling down on our poor orchard,
- The yellow leaves are flying in the wind.
- (Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy)
11. Novembre (November): Troïka (Troika)
- In your loneliness do not look at the road,
- And do not rush out after the troika.
- Suppress at once and forever
- The fear of longing in your heart.
- (Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov)
12. Décembre (December): Noël (Christmas)
- Once upon a Christmas night
- The girls were telling fortunes:
- Taking their slippers off their feet
- And throwing them out of the gate.
- (Korney Chukovsky)
[edit] Romantic traits
Some of these miniatures reveal a strong influence of Robert Schumann. Even the title, By the Fireside (Am Kamin) has been used by the German composer in his Kinderszenen. The openings of both pieces show a certain kinship in their declamative narration, but rhythm and articulation in Tchaikovsky’s declamation show a marked Slavic tinge lending it a greater epic breath. In Tchaikovsky there is a rather strange rhythmic displacement of the strong beat and we will certainly perceive the downbeat as an upbeat. But the third beat is equally strong, suggesting a certain exaggerated speech pattern used to give the narration an air of expressive significance.
[edit] Barcarolle (June)
Felix Mendelssohn’s Venetianisches Gondellied (Venetian Boat Song) comes to mind when listening to Tchaikovsky’s Barcarolle but whereas Mendelssohn places a monotonous song over an ‘undulating’ accompaniment, Tchaikovsky is more interested in developing the melodic flow.
[edit] Chant du faucheur (July)
Like Edvard Grieg in his Lyric Pieces, Tchaikovsky uses a very picturesque realism in some of the 'seasons.' In Song of the Reaper we can almost see the rustic figure of the serf, energetically "moving the shoulders" and "shaking the arms." The Mussorgsky-like pentatonic melody might as well be a Chinese folk song. The middle section has a certain "mechanic" quality (this passage could as well be by Béla Bartók) evoking the rattling of a bulky threshing-machine.
[edit] Troïka (November)
In Troïka one can literally hear the jingling sleigh-bells in the right hand. Troïka has become famous in the (rather mannered) interpretation of Sergei Rachmaninov, which has been adopted by Russian pianists as the ‘standard’ model interpretation. Together with Barcarolle this is the most famous piece from the cycle.
[edit] Chant d'automne (October), Noël (December)
Less known are October and December. The elegiac Chant d’autumn and the elegant characteristic salon waltz Noël could be music right out of Tchaikovsky’s operas or ballets respectively.
Once upon a time the Seasons enjoyed enormous popularity. Only recently have they been rediscovered by pianists. In recent years, Vladimir Ashkenazy has made a notable recording of it.
