Symphony #6 Theme (First Movement, Pathetique): A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, belongs to the last year of his life: he sketched it in February and March 1893, completing the first movement's draft by 9 February (Old Style), then began orchestrating it at Klin in July, finishing the score in August, and dedicated it to his nephew Vladimir Davydov.[1] Writing to Davydov that February, he said he had destroyed an earlier symphony and that the new one would carry a program the public would have to guess.[2] He conducted the first performance himself in St Petersburg on 16/28 October 1893, at a Russian Musical Society concert.[1] He died in the same city on 25 October (6 November) 1893.[3] Whether cholera or suicide killed him is still argued, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic's program note treats the question as unresolved.[4] The Russian title, Pateticheskaya, has its own uncertainty: Modest Tchaikovsky later said he proposed it the day after the premiere, but letters from the publisher Pyotr Jurgenson that autumn cast doubt on his account.[1]

Lithograph of the wide Neva River in St Petersburg with rowing boats, sailing ships and colonnaded buildings along the embankment.

Karl Petrovich Beggrov, The Neva River, lithograph, ca. 1800-1850. The Neva River in St Petersburg, where Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance in 1893; the lithograph has no connection to the symphony.

The opening movement, an Adagio leading to an Allegro non troppo, runs roughly twice as long as any of the other three.[1][4] A brooding introduction and a restless first theme give way to an Andante melody that the Rhode Island Philharmonic ranks among the composer's best known.[2] Thomas May, writing for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, traces that lyrical theme to Don José's "Flower Song" in Bizet's Carmen.[4] Later in the movement, Tchaikovsky works in a phrase from the Orthodox Requiem, a prayer for the soul of the departed.[1]

The symphony also found its way into American popular music: Al Hoffman, Mann Curtis and Jerry Livingston adapted it as "The Story of a Starry Night," which Glenn Miller's orchestra recorded with singer Ray Eberle on 8 December 1941 for a Bluebird release in February 1942.[5] Hal McIntyre's band cut a version for Victor in New York the following March, its label noting the song was adapted from the Pathétique.[6] AllMusic's catalog identifies the source as the symphony's first movement.[7] Shelley Stevens arranges "Symphony #6 Theme, First Movement, Pathetique" for DAD-tuned dulcimer in Classical Music For Mountain Dulcimer, a Fingers Of Steel set of twenty-six intermediate solos first issued as The Three String Orchestra, Vol. II; the listing does not say which of the movement's melodies it uses.[8]

Our book that contains the song "Symphony #6 Theme (First Movement, Pathetique)"

Sources

  1. Tchaikovsky Research: "Symphony No. 6".
  2. Rhode Island Philharmonic: "The Story Behind: Tchaikovsky's Pathétique".
  3. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky".
  4. Los Angeles Philharmonic / Hollywood Bowl (Thomas May): "Symphony No. 6, Pathétique".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Bluebird B-11462".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-073434. The story of a starry night / Carl Denny ; Hal McIntyre Orchestra".
  7. AllMusic: "The Story of a Starry Night (Adapted from the First Movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6)".
  8. Fingers Of Steel: "Shelley Stevens, Classical Music For Mountain Dulcimer".
  9. Image: Karl Petrovich Beggrov, The Neva River, lithograph, ca. 1800-1850. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song