Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(b. May 7, 1840, Votkinsk, Russia; d. November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg)
In 1869 Tchaikovsky was stuck, unsatisfied with the promptings of his own muse, and turned to Mily Balakirev. Balakirev stepped in and suggested Tchaikovsky base a piece on Romeo and Juliet. Abstract suggestions proved insufficient, so Balakirev pushed further, offering Tchaikovsky specific musical ideas and organization. Tchaikovsky finally set to work in earnest, sending Balakirev draft after draft. Slowly he incorporated enough of Balakirev’s ideas that a playable piece emerged and was first performed in Moscow, March 16, 1870. Balakirev was still unhappy and pushed for more changes. Like water wearing away stone, he persisted and slowly Tchaikovsky came to see his wisdom, producing a second version in 1872 and a last version in 1880. Tchaikovsky’s first “greatest hit” was finalized, but it is not often appreciated how much of a collaborative effort it was.
The music is a single sonata-form movement beginning with a slow, chorale-like introduction. Three story-line threads are featured. The first is Friar Laurence’s theme (a Balakirev suggestion) that is gentle but tinged with impending doom. The second, the Montagues and Capulets go to war. Cymbal crashes denote the sword fight.
The third, the love theme, occurs in three contexts. First, the couple meets and the theme is pure and gentle, the English horn representing Romeo and the flute, Juliet. Second, their marriage is consummated and the music soars passionately, but their fate is sealed again with cymbals to mark their suicides. Finally the theme recurs subtly, subdued and more colorlessly as the sad end is known to all. “For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
Tchaikovsky’s mother died of cholera when he was just 14. For someone already prone to moodiness and depression, it was a blow he never fully recovered from. Insecurities in his family’s financial situation led his parents to steer him away from music and into civil service, a career he qualified for and pursued for three years. Music won out, however, but the way he entered it—roundabout without any enthusiastic champions—couldn’t have been good for his self-esteem. The uncertainties in launching his chosen career nevertheless proved serendipitous.
In 1856 Balakirev began to surround himself with like-minded outsiders to found a group simply known as “The Five.” Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, for example, were members with careers eclipsing Balakirev’s own but his exceptional leadership ability, new ideas, and fervent advocacy for Russian nationalism in music influenced all of them profoundly.
Tchaikovsky was not a member of The Five but understood Balakirev as a kindred spirit. Balakirev was largely self-taught and might not be dismissive of another composer whose background was also unconventional. When Tchaikovsky reached out to Balakirev, Balakirev saw his potential. After Tchaikovsky dedicated an early tone poem to Balakirev it began a friendship that lasted the rest of Tchaikovsky’s life.