List of compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) wrote several works well known among the general classical public—Romeo and Juliet, the 1812 Overture, his three ballets The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty. These, along with two of his four concertos, three of his six symphonies (seven if Manfred is included) and two of his 10 operas, are probably among his most familiar works. Almost as popular are the Manfred Symphony, Francesca da Rimini, the Capriccio Italien and the Serenade for Strings. His three string quartets and piano trio all contain beautiful passages, while recitalists still perform at least some of his 106 songs.[1] Tchaikovsky also wrote over 100 piano works, which range the entire span of his creative life. While some of these can be challenging technically, they are mostly charming, unpretentious compositions intended for amateur pianists.[2] However, there is more attractive and resourceful music in some of these pieces than one might be inclined to expect.[3]

Tchaikovsky's formal conservatory training allowed him to write works with Western-oriented attitudes and techniques. His music showcases a wide range and breadth of technique, from a poised "Classical" form simulating 18th century Rococo elegance, to a style more characteristic of Russian nationalists, or a musical idiom expressly to channel his own overwrought emotions.[4] Despite his reputation as a "weeping machine,"[1] self-expression was not a central principle for Tchaikovsky. In a letter to von Meck dated December 5, 1878, he explained there were two kinds of inspiration for a symphonic composer, a subjective and an objective one, and that program music could and should exist, just as it was impossible to demand that literature make do without the epic element and limit itself to lyricism alone. Correspondingly, the large scale orchestral works Tchaikovsky composed can be divided into two categories—symphonies in one category, and other works such as symphonic poems in the other. Both categories were equally valid.[5] Program music such as Francesca da Rimini or the Manfred Symphony was as much a part of the composer's artistic credo as the expression of his "lyric ego."[6] There is also a group of compositions which fall outside the dichotomy of program music versus "lyrical ego," where he hearkens toward pre-Romantic aesthetics. Works in this group include the four orchestral suites, Capriccio Italien, the Violin Concerto and the Serenade for Strings.[7]

Contents

Works by opus number

Works with opus numbers are listed in this section, together with their dates of composition. For a complete list of Tchaikovsky's works, including those without opus numbers, see here. For more detail on dates of composition, see here.

Opp. 75–80 were published posthumously.

Works by genre

Ballets

Tchaikovsky is well known for his ballets, although it was only in his last years, with his last two ballets, that his contemporaries came to fully appreciate his finer qualities as ballet music composer.

Operas

Tchaikovsky completed ten operas, although one of these is mostly lost and another exists in two significantly different versions. In the West his most famous operas are Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.

Full score destroyed by composer, but posthumously reconstructed from sketches and orchestral parts. Not related to the much later symphonic ballad The Voyevoda, Op. 78.
Not completed. Only a march sequence from this opera saw the light of day, as the second movement of his Symphony No. 2 in C minor and a few other segments are occasionally heard as concert pieces. Interestingly, while Tchaikovsky revised the Second symphony twice in his lifetime, he did not alter the second movement (taken from the Undina material) during either revision. The rest of the score of Undina was destroyed by the composer.
Premiere April 24 [OS April 12], 1874, Saint Petersburg
Revised later as Cherevichki, premiere December 6 [OS November 24], 1876, Saint Petersburg
Premiere March 29 [OS March 17] 1879 at the Moscow Conservatory
Premiere February 25 [OS February 13], 1881, Saint Petersburg
Premiere February 15 [OS February 3] 1884, Moscow
Premiere January 31 [OS January 19], 1887, Moscow)
Premiere November 1 [OS October 20] 1887, Saint Petersburg
Premiere December 19 [OS December 7] 1890, Saint Petersburg
First performance: Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, 1892. Originally performed on a double-bill with The Nutcracker

(Note: A "Chorus of Insects" was composed for the projected opera Mandragora [Мандрагора] of 1870).

Incidental music

Symphonies

Tchaikovsky's earlier symphonies are generally optimistic works of nationalistic character, while the later symphonies are more intensely dramatic, particularly the Sixth, generally interpreted as a declaration of despair. The last three of his numbered symphonies (the fourth, fifth and sixth) are recognized as highly original examples of symphonic form and are frequently performed.

Orchestral suites

In the ten years between the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, Tchaikovsky also wrote four orchestral suites. He originally intended to designate one of these a symphony—the Third, he told Taneyev, "but the title is of no importance.[9]" The suites are symphonic hybrid works, containing movements written in scholarly counterpoint and salon style, folk music, bizarre scherzos and character pieces. The composer wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck that he valued the orchestral suite precisely because of "the freedom it leaves the composer not to be bound by all sorts of traditions."[10] For Tchaikovsky, the suite was a genre of unrestricted musical fantasy.[11]

In addition to the above suites, Tchaikovsky made a short sketch for a Suite in 1889 or 1890, which was not subsequently developed.

Tchaikovsky himself arranged the suite from the ballet The Nutcracker. He also considered making suites from his two other ballets, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. He ended up not doing so, but after his death, others compiled and published suites from these ballets.

Concerti and concert pieces

Other works

Orchestra

Piano

Chamber music

Choral music

A considerable quantity of choral music (about 25 items), including:

Arrangements of the works of others[13]

Composer Work and forces Arranged for Date
Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, "Tempest", first movement Orchestra (4 versions) 1863
Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47 "Kreutzer", first movement Orchestra 1863–64
Bortniansky Complete Church Music, choir Choir, edited July – November 1881
Cimarosa "Le faccio un inchino", trio from Il matrimonio segreto (available for 3 voices and piano) 3 voices and orchestra 1870
Dargomyzhsky Little Russian Kazachok, orchestra Piano 1868
Dargomyzhsky "The golden cloud has slept", 3 voices and piano 3 voices and orchestra 1870
Dubuque Maria Dagmar Polka, piano Orchestra 1869
Glinka "Slavsya" from A Life for the Tsar, arr, couplets Mixed chorus and orchestra February 1883
Joseph Gungl Le Retour, waltz, piano Orchestra 1863–64
Haydn "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser", 4 voices Orchestra by 24 February 1874
Kral "Ceremonial March", piano Orchestra May 1867
Herman Laroche Karmosina, Fantasy Overture, piano Orchestra August – September 1888
Liszt "Es war ein Konig in Thule", voice and piano Voice and orchestra 3 November 1874
Alexei Lvov "God Save the Tsar!" (the then national anthem), chorus and piano Mixed chorus and orchestra February 1883
Sophie Menter Ungarische Zigeunerweisen, piano (short score) Piano and orchestra 1892
Mozart 4 works arr. orchestra as [[Orchestral Suite No. 4 Mozartiana (Tchaikovsky)|Mozartiana]] (Suite No. 4) June – August 1887
Mozart Fantasia in C minor, K. 475, piano Vocal quartet (Night) 15 March 1893
Anton Rubinstein Ivan the Terrible, Op. 79, orchestra Piano duet 18 October – 11 November 1869
Anton Rubinstein Don Quixote, Op. 87, orchestra Piano duet 1870
Schumann Symphonic Studies, Op. 13 (piano), Adagio and Allegro brillante Orchestra 1864
Schumann "Ballade vom Haidenknaben", Op. 122, No. 1, declamation and piano Declamation and orchestra 11 March 1874
Stradella "O del mio dolce", song with piano Voice and orchestra 10 November 1870
Tarnovsky Song "I remember all", arr. Dubuque for piano Piano duet 1868
Weber Piano Sonata in A-flat, J. 199, Scherzo Menuetto Orchestra 1863
Weber Piano sonata in C, J. 138 – Perpetuum mobile Piano left hand 1871

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Schonberg, 367.
  2. ^ Brown, Man and Music, 118.
  3. ^ Brown, The Final Years, 408.
  4. ^ Brown, New Grove, 18:606.
  5. ^ Wood, 75.
  6. ^ Maes, 154.
  7. ^ Maes, 154–155.
  8. ^ Russian Fairy Tales, Spring 1998: Snow Maiden
  9. ^ As quoted in Warrack, Tchaikovsky (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), 161.
  10. ^ Letter to von Meck, April 16, 1884. As Quoted in Maes, 155.
  11. ^ Maes, 155.
  12. ^ John Warrack, Tchaikovsky, Comprehensive List of Works: Choral Works, p. 273
  13. ^ John Warrack, Tchaikovsky, Comprehensive List of Works, p. 279

Bibliography

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