'The Seasons': About P.I. Tchaikovsky's piano cycle

Abstract

Vitalii Mikhailovich Markov was the Doctor of Philology and Professor at Kazan University. This paper was written in 2003 and is published with the permission of V.M. Markov’s widow, Zaikonnikova Tatyana Pavlovna, which has the original manuscript. The paper presents the analysis of P.I. Tchaikovsky’s piano cycle “The Seasons” (1876). The history of its creation, genre specifics of the music pieces, as well as the problem of how the musical character of miniatures is related to their poetic epigraphs. Based on the study of musicological literature and the epistolary heritage of the composer, the conclusions have been made that the plays within the cycle should not be opposed to their interpretation based on epigraphs, as well as about the inevitable subjectivity during interpretation of the miniatures and about the impossibility of categorical description of these piano works.

Keywords

• p.i. tchaikovsky
• cycle “the seasons”
• piano miniature
• music studies