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Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 “Pathètique” , 4th Movement Easy Piano solo with sheet music
The “Symphony No. 6 in B minor” (Pathetic) Op.74 was composed between February and August 1893. It premiered in St. Petersburg on October 28, 1893 conducted by the composer himself. Pathetic’s name was given by his brother Modest a few days before its premiere.
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Exactly the name suggested in Russian is papetichesky, which means pompous, passionate, emotional, not exactly corresponding to the meaning of our word pathetic. Although the composer initially liked the subtitle, two days later he asked his publisher to remove it. However, the work was published under the name Symphonie pathétique.
The work was dedicated to his nephew Vladimir Davidov, known as Bob, son of his sister Alexandra, who died shortly before Tchaikovsky’s trip to America. Although he did not leave any written comment on the meaning of the work, it can be understood that it is a programmatic work, reflecting his own feelings.
In this work, Tchaikovsky managed to bring together the two prevailing trends in symphonic music at the end of the 19th century. On the one hand it was a work of pure music and on the other programmatic. On February 10, 1893, he wrote his nephew Bob a letter announcing that he had started a new programmatic symphony. ‘But that program is full of subjective feelings and often while composing it, my eyes filled with tears.’
It is possible that it is an autobiography of the composer himself, narrating his beginnings, his struggles, triumphs and his final fall. In the description of the work, we will give our own personal version of the meaning of the symphony.
The first movement begins with an adagio. A somber bassoon solo opens the work. A nervous motif will lead to the first theme of the allegro ma non troppo. The second theme of sonata form is a heartfelt melody delivered by the strings with passionate lyricism. A loud burst from the orchestra starts the development section. During it the themes are taken to the maximum expressiveness. The coda ends with the winds intoning a chorale.
It begins by showing us the sad fate of our hero. But he is still young and thinks of a bright future. He looks for love and it seems that he finds it. He expresses the sweetness of the loved one, but with the melancholy that the idea of losing him produces.
We feel the struggles that life brings him, from which he initially manages to emerge triumphant. But he also feels the failures, becoming despondent. But he again awakens his love, leading him to moments of great intimacy and sweetness. Our hero seems to have triumphed, but it will only be an illusion.
The second movement allegro con grazia is written in the form of a lied A, B, A. The first theme is in the form of an elegant waltz. The central part contrasts with its intimate form, using melancholic notes. Then the waltz resumes, ending with a quiet coda in which painful sighs appear.
It seems that love has triumphed, and it presents us with our hero dancing in an elegant and illuminated room with the being of his dreams. In an intermission of the dance, intimate feelings are confessed, expressing their need to love. The dance resumes, but doubts assail him at the end, fearing that his happiness may end.
The third movement allegro molto vivace corresponds to the scherzo. It is composed of a theme in the form of a march. It culminates in a long crescendo based on the march theme that leads into a series of embellishments. The march is then solemnly resumed, bringing it to its climax. A brilliant coda closes the movement.
Our hero has reached his peak. Dragged by the force of love, it seems that nothing and no one can stop him. His march is powerful, overwhelming.
He ends with the mournful walking tragic. The first theme shows his bitterness in descending scales. The second theme also expresses sadness, but with a feeling of resignation. The call of destiny is dragging him towards death. In the final coda the notes descend, each time lower in a devastating way, until ending only with the notes of the cellos and double basses.
But suddenly everything has changed. Our hero has lost the most appreciated thing, love. The feeling of loneliness invades him. He feels destroyed, without strength at all. A comforting vision comes before him, but he finds himself unable to save himself. His wails are getting louder. Memories of his past happiness drive him to despair. Fate drags him towards his fatal outcome, from which he cannot escape. He slowly introduces himself into the enigmatic shadows of death.
Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky‘s romantic melodies, his passionate life, have captivated the people for several generations. An easy-to-understand sentimental music has made him the most popular Russian musician.
The most outstanding member of the Moscow school continues in a certain way the work carried out by the nationalists, but Westernizing his style, giving it a certain academicism. This does not prevent her from clearly expressing his feelings that appear during his tormented life.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was born on May 7, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, a metallurgical center east of Moscow. His father was a mining engineer and the family lived comfortably. At the age of 10 he entered the Saint Petersburg School of Jurisprudence, completing his studies in 1859.
First he was an official of the Ministry of Justice. In September 1862, the Russian Music Society opened a Conservatory in Saint Petersburg under the direction of Anton Rubinstein. Tchaikovsky signs up and begins taking composition classes. He finally decides to leave his civil service job and dedicate himself to music.
In 1866, he moved to Moscow, following the advice of Anton Rubinstein, to take charge of the harmony lessons at the Conservatory that had just been founded, taking the Saint Petersburg Conservatory as a model and under the direction of his brother Nikolai Rubinstein.
A few days after the play’s premiere of the 6th Symphony, Tchaikovsky died of cholera on November 6, according to the official version of events. But it seems that the truth was different, hidden by the biography that his brother Modest made, covering up the real facts.
The investigations of the Russian musicologist Alexandra Orlova show that the truth had been very different. Tchaikovsky committed suicide by poisoning himself with arsenic.
In the fall of 1893 a terrible misfortune occurred in the life of the composer. Duke Stenbok-Fermor was annoyed at the particular attention Tchaikovsky showed his young nephew. He then wrote a letter of accusation against the composer to Jacobi, a high official in the bureaucracy, for transmission to the Tsar. The scandal was served. To avoid this, Jacobi made the decision to form a court of honor at the School of Jurisprudence, made up of former companions of the composer. They asked him to take his own life.
It seems that the arsenic was delivered to him on October 31 by a colleague of his. On November 2, he took it at lunchtime, not calling the doctor until November 3, when the action of the poison was well advanced. Doctors certified his death from cholera. As confirmation, his brother Modest published a note recounting the event falsely. On November 7, his companions from the School of Jurisprudence celebrated a Requiem in his honor.