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Twelve Pieces

Двенадцать пьес

Moderate difficulty, Op. 40 (1878).

No. 1. Etude (Этюд)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 136 (as "Study").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: G major.
Tempo/Section Listing: Allegro giusto (G major, 114 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 2 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 2. Chanson triste (Грустная песенка)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 137 (as "Sad Song").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: G minor.
Tempo/Section Listing: Allegro non troppo (G minor, 68 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 3 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 3. Marche funèbre (Похоронный марш)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 138 (as "Funeral March").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: C minor.
Tempo/Section Listing: Tempo di Marcia funebre (C minor, 115 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 9 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 4. Mazurka (Мазурка)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 139.
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: C major.
Tempo/Section Listing: Tempo di Mazurka (C major, 153 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 3 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 5. Mazurka (Мазурка)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 140.
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: D major.
Tempo/Section Listing: Tempo di Mazurka (D major, 171 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 4 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 6. Chant sans paroles (Песенка без слов)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 141 (as "Song Without Words").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: A minor.
Tempo/Section Listing: Allegro moderato (A minor, 110 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 2 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 7. Au village (В деревне)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 142 (as "At the Countryside").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: A minor–C major.
Tempo/Section Listing: Andante sostenuto (A minor–C major).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 5 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 8. Valse (Вальс)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 143 (as "Waltz").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: A♭ major.
Tempo/Section Listing: Tempo di Valse (A♭ major, 191 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 3 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 9. Valse (Вальс)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 144 (as "Waltz").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: F♯ minor.
Tempo/Section Listing: Tempo di Valse (F♯ minor, 231 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
Klin: Tchaikovsky House-Museum Archive (variant).
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 6 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 10. Danse russe (Русская пляска)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 145 (as "Russian Dance").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: A minor.
Tempo/Section Listing: Andantino (A minor, 120 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
Naples: Biblioteca Conservatorio di musica San Pietro a majella.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 2 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
Note: Based on the Danse russe from Act III of the ballet Swan Lake.
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 11. Scherzo (Скерцо)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 146.
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: D minor.
Tempo/Section Listing: Allegro vivacissimo (D minor, 236 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 4 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).
No. 12. Rêverie interrompue (Прерванные грезы)
Catalogue References: TH 138 ; ČW 147 (as "Interrupted Reverie").
Date: February–April 1878.
Key: A♭ major.
Tempo/Section Listing: Andante un poco rubato e con molto espressione (A♭ major, 125 bars).
Instrumentation: Piano (solo).
Autograph Location: Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture.
First Publication: Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1879.
Average Duration: 5 minutes.
Dedication: Modest Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1850–1915).
External Links: Internet Music Score Library Project (downloadable score).

History

"I have decided that each morning I shall write something new. Yesterday I wrote a romance, and today a piano piece", Tchaikovsky wrote to Nadezhda von Meck from Florence on 12/24 February 1878 [1]. The result of this decision was the composition of twelve piano pieces of moderate difficulty.

Tchaikovsky referred to the piece Rêverie interrompue (No. 12) in another letter of 13/25 February 1878 [2]. For its middle section the composer used a song which he heard through his window in Venice sung by a single street-singer [3]. Danse russe (No. 10) was written in 1877 as an additional number for the ballet Swan Lake. An earlier version of the Waltz in F♯ minor (No. 9) was written on 4/16 June 1876 in Sergei Taneev’s notebook (according to the author's date) [4].

While travelling from Florence to Clarens (Switzerland), the composer continued work on the piano pieces. The next reference to the piano pieces was on 28 February/12 March 1878 in a letter to Anatolii Tchaikovsky [5]. By mid/late March he had already completed seven pieces [6]. At the same time Tchaikovsky was working on the Violin Concerto and the Grand Sonata in G major. The sketches for the pieces were completed at Kamenka in April. "The 12 pieces of moderate difficulty for solo piano are ready—but of course, only in draft" [7]. The copying out of the pieces was accomplished by 13/25 July [8]. On 29 July/10 August the composer sent the pieces to his publisher in Moscow, together with a number of other completed works (the Grand Sonata in G major, the Children's Album, the Six Romances (Op. 38), and the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom). While preparing the pieces for publication, Tchaikovsky asked Petr Jurgenson to: "ask Taneev to play through these pieces, and correct any mistakes he might find" [9]. The proofs were corrected by Nikolai Kashkin, although Tchaikovsky himself also reviewed them [10].

The pieces are dedicated to Modest Tchaikovsky. The manuscript score carries no dedication, but his name appeared on the first edition at the author’s request.

Published by Petr Jurgenson in 1879.

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 404–405
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

Notes:
  1. Letter 758 to Nadezhda von Meck, 12/24 February 1878 [back]
  2. See letter 759 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 13/25–14/26 February 1878, and also letters 696 and 758 to Nadezhda von Meck, 20 December 1877/1 January 1878 (with a note of the song) and 12/24 February 1878 [back]
  3. Modest Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 2 (1901), p. 205 [back]
  4. Until recently this piece had been wrongly dated to 1876 instead of 1878, and was consequently classified as an earlier, independent work – namely, the Waltz in F♯ minor. However, it has now been established that this was actually a later variant of the Valse—No. 9 of the Twelve Pieces (Op. 40)—made for Sergei Taneev [back]
  5. Letter 773 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 27 February/11 March–1/13 March 1878 [back]
  6. See letter 789 to Petr Jurgenson, 15/27 March 1878 [back]
  7. Letter 820 to Nadezhda von Meck, 30 April/12 May 1878 [back]
  8. See letter 871 to Nadezhda von Meck, 13/25 July 1878 [back]
  9. Letter 964 to Petr Jurgenson, 11/23 November 1878 [back]
  10. See letters from Petr Jurgenson to Tchaikovsky, 24 October/5 November, 27 October/8 November and 16/28 November 1878 – Klin House-Museum Archive – and letter 946 to Petr Jurgenson, 20 October/1 November 1878 [back]

This page was last updated on 05 November 2009