Last year we did the Tchaikovsky #6, the Pathetique Symphony, all four movements, over the course of three weeks. And some people moaned, because Tchaikovsky brings out the snob in people. It's understandable. Some of his works, like his Piano Concerto #1 and Nutcracker Suite, have been played to death by Pops orchestras like the Boston Pops, to the point where people lose respect for it. But the Tchaikovsky #4 is a romantic masterpiece, and it hasn't been overplayed to the same degree.
Tchaikovsky Symphony #4 in F minor, second movement, performed by Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
The second movement, above, is fairly simple, ABACA form. The first melody is a great example of a suspension, the long fourth note of the main theme lingering just a little too long -- "in suspense" before it drops down to the correct note for the chord.
Oh, what a conflict I have here in deciding which clips to use.
It turns out there is a youtube recording with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, perhaps the best romantic conductor in the world combined with the best romantic orchestra in the world. But after comparing it to the Tilson-Thomas clips, which have better audio, and excellent conducting, I had to do something I would not have predicted, and I went with Tilson-Thomas for today's diary. And that's just as well, because Michael Tilson-Thomas has made the Tchaikovsky 4th one of his specialties. I just wish I could find a clip of his remarkable PBS special analyzing the Tchaikovsky 4th.
The second movement is a nice way to get things started, but the real meat is in the first movement, a more difficult and longer sonata-form piece, which is what I really want to talk about today.
Sonata form? What the hell is that, Dumbo?
Oh, we've had quite a few diaries explaining sonata form, including our very first diary, which was nominated for a Koscar by the way. Just sayin'. We've had to explain it so many times, though, I made a graphic to save myself some typing.
Sonata form. That's 70% of all classical music RIGHT THERE.
I'm going to assume you know most of the above, and if you don't refer you back to our first diary.
What makes the movement we are about to cover most interesting is the 12/8 rhythm.
Dumbo? 12/8? WTF?
Yeah, that's a weird one. 4/4 is march rhythm. 3/4 is waltz rhythm (One two three, one two three...). When we did the Tchaikovsky 6th, we had an example of 5/4, which is very strange, indeed, with five beats. If you're familiar with Pink Floyd, you may remember Money, which is in 7/4 rhythm.
So what can we guess about 12/8? Well, it's divisible by three, so it's going to have characteristics of a waltz. And it's divisible by four, so it's going to have march characteristics. And it's probably going to be rhythmically "messed up." It is.
The Tchaikovsky 4th is also a very emotional symphony, as all of Tchaikovsky's works are. Here's Leonard Bernstein talking about the emotions in the first movement of Tchaikovsky's 4th in his famous Young People's Concert series.
I'm not going to analyze it that way, though, in terms of emotions. We did that with Tchaikovsky's 6th. Tchaikovsky's 4th is actually just good pure music, a sprawling rhythm head-trip, easier than Mahler's music certainly, but difficult enough to get lost in the first time it is heard. The jagged introductory theme is chopped up many ways to create the different themes of the symphony, and in the chopping, the fragments of those rhythms overlap in unusual ways.
So let's get started!
Tchaikovsky Symphony #4 in F minor, first movement, (clip 1 of 2) performed by Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Introduction (0:00 to 1:44)
The introductory theme, stated the first time by the brass from 0:00 to 0:32, contains all the musical material that the rest of the movement is made from. The trumpets then join in and restate it more dramatically. And already we can hear how tricky the rhythm of this movement is going to be. The brass are joined by the strings and fade away, to prepare us for
The Exposition (1:44 to 9:32)
First theme (1:44 to 4:45)
The main theme is introduced by the violins, gentle but anxious. It's almost a waltz, although not quite. A club-footed waltz. The choppy accompaniment in the bass gives it a sullen edge. At 2:55, the theme is handed off to the basses and to the woodwinds, who gradually raise the tension level. At 3:35, the theme finally passes to the full orchestra, who blare it out, violent and anguished.
Bridge to the second theme (4:45 to 5:30)
After the first theme climaxes, the orchestra calms. A soft passage from the woodwinds moves us to the new key of the coming second theme. (We've moved from F minor to G# minor.).
Second theme (5:30 to 8:16)
The new theme begins, a simpler, more waltzy theme.
The woodwinds trade off presenting it while the strings. At 6:58, violins play it in the brighter key of B major in its softest, gentlest form. The woodwinds accompany it with the choppy rhythmic figure of the intro.
Codetta (8:16 to 9:32) The tempo speeds up and the full orchestra comes in to round out the exposition with a new theme, joyous and positive, in the tricky rhythm of the intro.
Development Section (9:32 --)
Trumpets blare the intro theme (now in B minor) over the steady rumble of the drums, the announcement that we are entering the development. However... this is where the first clip ends.
Tchaikovsky Symphony #4 in F minor, first movement, (clip 2 of 2) performed by Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Development continued... (0:00 to 3:00)
Tchaikovsky plays off parts of the first and second theme against each other. At 1:20, as the tension builds, a new theme emerges from the violins, a very Tchaikovsky-ish romantic theme, filled with yearning. (This one, too, is constructed from the intro-theme.) This is perhaps the sweetest moment in the movement. Conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas does a great job here, by the way. The theme starts out softly, but gains volume as it rises through different keys. More of the orchestra joins in.
At 1:58, as the yearning theme reaches its apogee, the brass interrupt it, restating the intro theme, violent in contrast. The development is entering its final stretches, working towards a conflicted climax now, with violins and brass and woodwinds clashing rhythmically with each other.
Recapitulation (3:00 - 7:01)
As the development reaches it climax, the first theme returns (3:00), but now it is drenched in anguish, a typical Tchaikovsky climax, with rising scales in the trombones, just like the Tchaikovsky 6th. It crashes downwards into a rumbling lull.
Return of the Second Theme (3:27). The return of the first theme was very short-lived. Now the second theme returns, somewhat somber, first in the bassoon, and is then passed around amongst the woodwinds. After the tension of the development, this provides a needed emotional rest for the movement. The rest of this is very similar to the first appearance of the second theme. The codetta theme (6:25) as well.
Coda (7:01 to end)
The drums and trumpets announce the intro theme, just as they did at the beginning of the development, but this is the beginning of the coda, a long coda. A new theme is introduced in the woodwinds at 7:24 as the strings work up a fast horse gallop based on the intro rhythm. More of the orchestra joins the gallop. The brass enter with fanfare at 8:24 with broad, dramatic chords setting up the final climax. At 8:41, the strings, in sounds of deep anguish, repeat the first theme one more time, as the brass and drums pound us out to the ending.
Next week:
Next week will be our OPUS 41 diary, the 41st diary of this series, started last summer. And what better way to celebrate it than to cover Mozart's last symphony, his Symphony #41 in C major, the Jupiter symphony?
I was all set to do Mahler's 3rd today, and we still will, but just not today. About 3:30, I realized I wasn't going to make it, and, furthermore, I wasn't really in the mood to do it right, so decided to pull a quick rabbit out of a hat and do the Tchaikovsky 4th, a much easier work.