The Seasons

Tchaikovsky’s “Autumn Song” (October) from “The Seasons”: Olga Scheps

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In 1876, while completing the ballet score for Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky composed The Seasons, a series of atmospheric tone paintings for solo piano. Commissioned by the publisher, Nikolay Bernard, the brief pieces were published on the first day of each month in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist.  Set in D minor, Tchaikovsky’s October submission, Autumn Song, is quiet and melancholy. It accompanies a poem by Tolstoy which describes yellow windswept leaves. The interpretive marking is …

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Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons”: March, Song of the Lark

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In the 19th century, writers such as Charles Dickens commonly published books in monthly installments which appeared in popular periodicals. Published on the first day of each month in 1876 in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist, Tchaikovsky’s piano cycle, The Seasons, Op. 37a reached listeners in a similar way. Subtitled “12 characteristic scenes,” the atmospheric works are miniature tone paintings. Tchaikovsky composed them concurrently with the ballet, Swan Lake. In this era before recordings, …

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Three Pieces for the Beginning of Summer

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Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,  And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade  Nor lose possession …

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