TSCHAIKOWSKY
(Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky: born in Votinsk, in the government of Viatka, Russia, May 7, 1840; died in St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893)
"ROMEO AND JULIET," OVERTURE-FANTASIE[163]
"Romeo and Juliet" ("overture-fantasie after Shakespeare"), composed in 1869-70, is the second of Tschaikowsky's programmatic works for orchestra.[164] There is no note of any kind attached to the score; but according to responsible interpreters the music is concerned with definite aspects of Shakespeare's tragedy. At the start is presented the figure of Friar Laurence (churchly harmonies in the clarinets and bassoons); later, the conflict of the opposing houses, expressed in a tumultuous passage full of strife and fury. Then follows the love scene, introducing two themes of rich emotional suggestion. The first of these themes—the rhapsodic and song-like phrase announced by muted[165] violas and English horn—was used by Tschaikowsky in the fragmentary "Duo from 'Romeo and Juliet'" found among his papers after his death, where it voices these words sung by Romeo: O nuit d'extase, arrête toi, O nuit d'amour, étends ton voile noir sur nous! ("O linger, night of ecstasy; O night of love, spread thy dark veil over us!"). The second theme—the lovely sequence of chords scored for muted and divided violins—forms, in the duet, the accompaniment to the impassioned dialogue of the enamoured pair in the chamber scene.[166] Following the love scene is a resumption of the stress and conflict of the first part, against which the solemn warning of Friar Laurence protests in vain. The lovers are again evoked, with more passionate insistence than before; there is a cumulative moment of arresting intensity; then, after a brief and portentous silence, a dolorous reminiscence of Romeo's ecstatic song, now dirge-like and woful (violins, 'cellos, bassoons; afterwards, declaimed with greater breadth, in the strings, with accompaniment of wood-wind, horns, and harp), brings the music to a close.