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TH 145

Dumka

Думка

Russian rustic scene, C minor, Op. 59 (1886).

• Composed February 1886.
• Scored for Piano solo (2 hands).
• Dedicated to Antoine Marmontel.
• Average duration: 8m 50s.

History

Composed in February 1886 at Maidanovo. Referring to the Dumka in his diary, Tchaikovsky called it " Mackar’s piece". Félix Mackar was a Parisian music publisher, who in the 1880s had begun to publish Tchaikovsky's works in France. It seems that Dumka was the result of a request from Mackar to write for a piano piece for his firm.

The earliest sketches for the Dumka were noted down in 1886. On 15 February we find the first note concerning the piece in Tchaikovsky's diary: "Wrote little and with difficulty (piece for Mackar)". On 21 February: "In the morning finished the rhapsody for Mackar... After tea... started copying out the rhapsody... Wrote out the first part of the rhapsody" [1].

There are no surviving documentary references to the publication of the Dumka by Félix Mackar. In the spring of 1886, Mackar asked Tchaikovsky to send him the autograph, which was then in Petr Jurgenson’s possession. In a letter of 14/26 April 1886, Mackar wrote to Tchaikovsky: "I don't know how to thank you for the privilege and honour you have shown to me by sending me your new manuscript... and assigning me the rights to this composition in all countries; I wanted immediately to yield ownership to Jurgenson in Moscow, through whom I own the rights to your other works" [2].

The composer asked Petr Jurgenson to send the autograph to Félix Mackar: "Can I prevail upon you to do this. i.e. to send it to him?" [3]. Two further letters from Mackar to Tchaikovsky contained complaints directed against Jurgenson for failing to send the manuscript to Paris. Evidently, Jurgenson avoided doing so, and the autograph remained in Russia.

Felix Blumenfeld performed the Dumka in the first Russian symphony concert on 20 November 1893. The Dumka is dedicated to Antoine Marmontel, professor of the piano class at the Paris Conservatory. It was published by Petr Jurgenson in Russia in 1886 [4].

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 413-414
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

Notes:

1. See Дневники П. И. Чайковского (1923), pp. 37-39 [back]
2. Letter from Félix Mackar to Tchaikovsky, 14/26 February 1886 - Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
3. Letter 2981 to Petr Jurgenson, 22 June/4 July 1886 [back]
4. See letter 2926 to Petr Jurgenson, 3/15 April 1886 [back]

See also:

• Dumka, Scène Rustique page on the Internet Music Score Library Project (external site)

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