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Tchaikovsky, Pytr Il'ich : Les saisons - 12 Morceaux caracteristiques No.4 "Perce-neige" B-Dur

Work Overview

Music ID : 22153
Instrumentation:Piano Solo 
Genre:pieces
Total Playing Time:2 min 00 sec
Copyright:Public Domain

Commentary (1)

Author : Yamamoto, Akihisa

Last Updated: June 25, 2019
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Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Sky-blue, pure

Snowdrop flowers

Beside them, transparent

Lingering light snow

Dedicated to passing sorrows,

The last tears, and

Dedicated to happiness soon to come,

The first dreams...

The epigraph is the entire poem "Spring" from Apollon Maykov's poetry collection In the Fields (1857).

Although written in 6/8 time, interestingly, when each measure is divided into two, it sounds like an elegant waltz. While in a major key, similar to "January", the frequent absence of accompaniment on strong beats evokes hesitation or incompleteness. The salon-like melody, which frequently uses appoggiaturas, is initially presented in the uppermost voice but often shifts to inner voices. The somewhat lengthy middle section is written in D minor, characterized by a melancholic yet light upper voice. As described above, both the main section and the middle section possess an ambivalence, lacking a unified character. Furthermore, dynamic markings are generally biased towards soft dynamics, and a sense of strength or determination is not strongly felt. From this piece, similar to "March", one can perceive the faint brightness of early spring, where winter has not yet fully receded.