Tchaikovsky Waltz Essay

Christian Wilson-Zavaleta
10/7/12
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.6 Movement #2
This section in the piece is considered to be the waltz. After the epic and sad first part I did not know what to expect. What makes this section even more guess worthy and unexpected is that this waltz is different from most, which are done in threes. This one is a waltz in counts of four (or fives I can’t remember what was said in class and even when I listened I couldn’t tell which it was). So before I listened I pondered the initial sound I was going to hear. To me it at first just sounded like a piece with a very awkward dynamic. The sweet smooth gentle rhythm of the flutes kept things in a somewhat normal fashion of a waltz. Still very different in the count which made this a difficult listen for me. After all the listening I did to this piece I still couldn’t really get an emotional connection with this movement
personally. I could only provide what I could from my analysis of the basic sound I heard. The piece still has somewhat of a sad undertone portrayed by the building of the violins in the minute and through the four minute marks.
It still gives me a romantic feeling throughout with a happy key of the flutes midway through. The movement barely lasted over eight minutes so I got the impression that maybe Tchaikovsky didn’t want his audience dancing happily for very long. As this being a way shorter movement then the majority of the pieces we have listened to so far. I gave it more opportunities for the music to try and move me listening to it a few more times. I had a very hard time locking in on what I thought it meant to me or why Tchaikovsky wanted it to sound like this. It was way different from any waltz or dance tune I have heard of. I finally noticed in the very end the final notes of this mostly happy section were brought down into a far sadder place by the wind instruments. All was mostly happy until the very end where the last three notes were sad drones. The entire thing almost sounds like happy and sad at the exact same time if that makes any
sense. After a few more listens my only conclusion from hearing this is that maybe the composer needed a short and sweet happy section in his symphony to tide the listener’s ears over. He did it to compensate for what sadness and heartbreak lied ahead in his last two movements. He let you know this by adding in subtle elements of sadness with the randomly placed minor keys throughout the segment (again mentioning the ending measure). Even though it sounded elegant and beautiful he let it be known that it was still going be sad and stay that way. The title “Pathetique” gives it away that maybe this was his intent the entire time.