- The Seasons is a cycle of 12 piano works written in 1876, each based on a month of the year:
- January: By the Hearth
- February: Carnival
- March: Song of the Lark
- April: Snowdrop
- May: May Nights
- June: Barcarolle
- July: Song of the Reaper
- August: The Harvest
- September: The Hunt
- October: Autumn Song
- November: Troika
- December: Christmas1
- The cycle was commissioned by music publisher Nikolai Matveyevich Bernard for his musical periodical Le Nouvelliste.
- Bernard came up with the poetry to preface each movement of the cycle, and we don’t know for certain how they resonated with Tchaikovsky.2
- The Seasons are not as difficult to play as Tchaikovsky’s larger piano works and reflect the emerging middle class in Russia and increased demand for piano compositions that could be played at home.3
Sources
- “The Seasons, Op.37a (Tchaikovsky, Pyotr),” IMSLP, accessed October 14, 2024, https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Seasons,_Op.37a_(Tchaikovsky,_Pyotr).
- Ludmila Korabelnikova & Polina Vajdman, “The Seasons op. 37bis,” G. Henle Verlag (1998), accessed October 14, 2024, https://www.henle.de/en/The-Seasons-op.-37bis/HN-616.
- Hermione Lai, “The Tchaikovsky’s Seasons (Months),” Interlude (2024), accessed October 14, 2024, https://interlude.hk/the-tchaikovskys-seasons-months/.
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