Tchaikovsky
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It's Not the Wind That Bends the Branch

То не ветер ветку клонит

Harmonisation of the Russian folk-song (1893).

History

Made by Tchaikovsky in July 1893 at Grankino or Klin, at the request of Konstantin Koninskii. "It would be very good of you to agree harmonize this melody... I attempted it, but was truly lacking in ‘divine inspiration’. I would have liked to have made such that the theme is repeated in the bass while the soprano line stands out on its own, but failed because I lack the talent and know-how, so is it possible for me to make this single request of you to help with my chorus?", Koninskii wrote to Tchaikovsky on 1/131 July 1893 [1].

In his letter of reply from Grankino of 19/31 July 1893, Tchaikovsky advised Konstantin Koninskii to consult collections of Russian folk-songs by Vasilii Prokunin and Niklolai Rimskii-Korsakov, but on the second page of the letter he wrote out the required harmonization [2].

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 420–421
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

Notes:

1. Letter from Konstantin Koninskii to Tchaikovsky, 1/13 July 1893. In this letter Koninskii added a note: "I would really like you to correct my mistakes". Both this letter and the autograph of Koninskii’s harmonization are preserved in the Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
2. A facsimile of the autograph was published in «Неизданный музыкальный отрывок Чайковского», Русская музыкальая газета (1899), No. 1, p. 16 [back]