# Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky & Musical Form



## P The D (Aug 25, 2009)

I have read in more than one place, although both were on the internet & as such may have been drawn from the same high Google search result or something, that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was not a master of form, but that he was a master of melody & also had significant skill working with harmony.

I am hoping I can get some analysis, opinions & examples from Talk Classical forum members regarding Tchaikovsky's weakness with musical form as well as some examples of compositions that are considered to exhibit mastery of form.


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## tahnak (Jan 19, 2009)

P The D said:


> I have read in more than one place, although both were on the internet & as such may have been drawn from the same high Google search result or something, that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was not a master of form, but that he was a master of melody & also had significant skill working with harmony.
> 
> I am hoping I can get some analysis, opinions & examples from Talk Classical forum members regarding Tchaikovsky's weakness with musical form as well as some examples of compositions that are considered to exhibit mastery of form.


Yes Tchaikovsky was not a consummate skilled composer in the mould of a Mozart, Bach or Beethoven but we, as humble followers, can't even come to the first page of his skills. He was neurotic (most of his climaxes are impulsive and neurotic) ; yet they carry a distinct individual stamp of his style.

Talking of form, consider his piano and violin concerti. They were deemed as unplayable and difficult when he brought them out for performance and today, they keep competitions for higher pinnacle grades where they consider his first piano concerto as ultimate epitome of a concert pianist's testing skills; so also with his violin concerto.

He has given us abundant , prolific output in all forms be it chamber music, solo music, a cappella vocal music like the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; Seasons - an album of piano pieces for children's studies; piano trios, quartets, rococo variations for cello, operas, concertos, ballets (is there anyone better than him in ballet scores?), tone poems, symphonic poems, overtures and symphonies. Consider the final movement of his Pathetique symphony and see how innovative and pathbreaking this movement is.

It is the truly individual melodic outburst that separates him from other composers even if he is considered inferior as a contrapuntist or theoretical perfectionist.


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