Symphony No. 4 in f minor, Op. 36

Composer: TCHAIKOVSKY, Peter Ilyich
  • Tchaikovsky began writing his Fourth Symphony in May of 1877, and he completed it in early 1878.1 It premiered on February 22, 1878, in Moscow. The Moscow Musical Society performed the premiere, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein.2
  • In the symphony’s final movement, Tchaikovsky used the melody of a Russian folk song, “In the Field a Little Birch Tree Stood”3 or “The Little Birch Tree.” The birch tree is frequently used as a symbol of Russia, and it has been associated with springtime and fertility in Slavic cultures since pre-Christian times.4 In the folk song, the singer gathers birch branches and brings them to her lover.5
    • The song’s melody is on page 8 of this book, and the lyrics are on page 9. 
    • Tchaikovsky’s Oxford Music article explains that the song’s little birch tree alone in the meadow symbolizes a solitary young woman. Tchaikovsky’s composition of the 4th Symphony coincided with his marriage to Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova (July 1877) – a marriage that turned out disastrously due to Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality (the couple separated after only two months). The Oxford Music article suggests that Tchaikovsky’s use of the “Little Birch Tree” folk song reflects his struggles to come to terms with his relationship with Antonina.6
  • Tchaikovsky dedicated the Fourth Symphony “To my best friend” – that is, to Nadezhda von Meck.7

Sources

  1. Roland John Wiley, “Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il′yich,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed May 20, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051766.
  2. “Symphony No.4, Op.36 (Tchaikovsky, Pyotr),” IMSLP, accessed May 20, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.4%2C_Op.36_(Tchaikovsky%2C_Pyotr).
  3. Wiley, “Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il’yich,” Grove Music Online.
  4. Christel Lane, The Rites of Rulers: Ritual in Industrial Society – The Soviet Case (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 134.
  5. Florence Hudson Botsford, Russian Folk Songs: Reprinted from Volume One of Folk Songs of Many People (New York: The Woman’s Press, 1922), 8-9.
  6. Wiley, “Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il’yich,” Grove Music Online.
  7. “Symphony No.4, Op.36 (Tchaikovsky, Pyotr),” IMSLP.

Cut IDs

18329 22248 23357 41025