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More than a century after the first production of Swan Lake at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre on 4 March 1877, it has long been the most universally popular of classical ballets and the music most closely identified with Tchaikovsky. It was the first of his three celebrated scores for ballet (The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker did not follow until over a decade later), and was commissioned by the director of the Moscow Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Petrovich Begichev. He was on friendly terms with Tchaikovsky, and seems to have played a large part in mapping out the ballet’s scenario.
Tchaikovsky at this time was thirty-five years old, a melancholy, introspective man on the verge of his brief, disastrous marriage and finding teaching at the Conservatory increasingly irksome. He had composed his first three symphonies and the B flat minor Piano Concerto, as well as four operas including Undine and The Voyevode, from both of which he borrowed musical ideas to use in Swan Lake. He told Rimsky-Korsakov he undertook the ballet partly because he needed the money and also because ‘I have long wanted to try my hand at this kind of music’.
That was unusual at a time when music for ballets was customarily supplied by staff composers at the theatres, who readily tailored it to the needs of the ballet-master in choreographing the dances. Other composers found this not to their liking but, without actually setting out to ‘reform’ ballet music, Tchaikovsky seems to have gone about his task as primarily a musical conception. He was guided only by the dance-forms he had already used in his symphonies and operas, but he treated the balletic narrative as a dance-drama worthy of a stronger and more imaginative musical element.
Nobody was credited with the story in the original programme, but it may have had some association with a children’s entertainment devised some years previously among the family and friends of Tchaikovsky’s sister, Alexandra Davidova, for which he wrote some music. The subject was, of course, of much wider provenance from collections of folk-tales familiar in Germany, Scandinavia and even India, and its treatment was very much of the Romantic epoch in showing man’s quest for an ideal in terms of a love that is unattainable, poetically similar to earlier ballet classics like La Sylphide (1832) and Giselle (1841).
To unfold the tale in dance, Tchaikovsky composed what is, in effect, a four-part tone-poem, divided into the short Pas de deux, ensembles, character-dances and mime scenes necessary to dancing, but symphonically unified by a carefully planned key-structure and identifiable melodic shapes. The music opens in B minor and ends in B major, and around these circulate mainly flat keys for the forces of evil and bewitchment, sharper keys for the character-dances and wider-ranging divertissements.
Some instrumental associations are also apparent, as in the oboe linked throughout with the bewitched Odette, while her sinister double, Odile, has the slithery clarinet to personify her. The falling oboe phrase in the minor that begins the Prelude is a signal of tragedy for Tchaikovsky not just here, but in other works such as Eugene Onegin and the ‘Pathétique’ Symphony; it recurs in the ballet in varied form both to lead the Prince from reality into fantasy at the end of Act One, and again to precipitate the climax of Act Four. The ‘national’ dances in Act Three are worth close musical attention for their wit and invention, and even the six would-be brides are musically differentiated in the Pas de six (No. 19) that should present them individually to the Prince (though it is seldom seen this way on the stage).
Such richness of musical content disconcerted artists and audiences alike at the first performances, which seem to have been poorly played and conducted. Tchaikovsky made himself amenable to some changes, writing the extra ‘Russian Dance’ for Act Three (here between Nos. 20 and 21), and composing a new Pas de deux in this Act (between Nos. 19 and 20) to steps already set (by Marius Petipa) for a more senior ballerina at the ballet’s fourth performance. This had used music conveniently written by Léon Minkus, but Tchaikovsky was rightly not prepared to tolerate this being interpolated into his score (both the extra numbers are published as appendices to the full score in the Collected Edition).
In spite of indifferent choreography by two ballet-masters (Wenzel Reisinger first in 1877; Joseph Hansen in 1880 and again in 1882), Swan Lake achieved forty-one performances up to 1883, although Nikolai Kashkin, who wrote the piano score, noted: ‘Not only the decor became ragged, but the music suffered more and more until nearly one-third was exchanged with music from other ballets – and not necessarily good ones’. Thereafter it was not performed again before Tchaikovsky died, although evidence suggests that revivals were planned after the success of his later ballets.
After his death a new staging of Act Two only was given at St Petersburg as a memorial tribute in 1894, and the complete ballet there the following year in what became the crucial historical version with choreography by Petipa (Acts One and Three) and Lev Ivanov (the Lakeside scenes). Modest Tchaikovsky, the composer’s brother, helped to modify the storyline for this and sanctioned some musical changes, of which the most important involved the transfer from Act One to Act Three of No. 5, the music now known as the ‘Black Swan’ Pas de deux. Some other music was cut, and three Tchaikovsky piano pieces orchestrated by the conductor Riccardo Drigo were added.
This 1895 version was recorded in Stepanov notation and brought with other ballets to Britain by Nicholas Sergeyev, the St Petersburg régisseur, to become the basis for later Western productions beginning at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, in 1934 (led by Alicia Markova and Robert Helpmann, with Margot Fonteyn among the corps de ballet). Productions within Russia descended from the same source by way of other choreographer/directors, and since Vladimir Bourmeister at Moscow in 1953 there have been occasional versions restoring the music as originally composed, still the most rewarding way to hear it in recorded performance.
Noël Goodwin
The first audiences for Swan Lake would have had a surprise even as they settled themselves into their seats, for instead of the conventional overture to cover conversation and the arrival of late-comers, Tchaikovsky wrote a short outline of the emotional content of the drama. The opening melody is the first Swan theme, and presently there sounds beneath it one of the descending ‘Fate’ scales that mark the whole invention. The movement, brief as it is, serves to call attention both to the serious nature of the drama and to some of the musical techniques that will be called upon to express it.
In a magnificent park, with a castle visible in the background, Prince Siegfried and his friends are seated drinking. A crowd of peasants comes to congratulate the Prince on his birthday, and they entertain him with their dances. These are light in nature, and set within a more ambitious musical structure.
By setting this, one of the most famous waltzes in history, in the ‘action’ key of A, Tchaikovsky confirms its role as organic, connected to the birthday celebrations and the Prince’s need to choose a wife.
Prince Siegfried’s mother arrives to enjoin marriage upon him; he is aware, despite the consolations of Benno, that this means an end to his carefree life. The Princess’s fanfares interrupt the young people’s A major merry-making, turning their light triplets into something more serious; this is abandoned for a shortened version of the opening music when she has left.
The first of two divertissements for the peasants, in six sections, this lies in B flat and ‘outside’ the plot. The numbers are: Intrada; Andante sostenuto; Allegro semplice (a lively polka); Moderato; Allegro; and a more substantial Coda (Allegro vivace).
The second divertissement, for two of the merry-makers, consists of two waltzes separated by a contrasting movement. The numbers are: Tempo di valse; Andante – AIIegro, a slow violin solo leading into a fast dance; Tempo di valse; Coda.
The tutor Wolfgang, drunk, lurches into an awkward dance. His dignified theme gradually falls into disarray, and then collapses; the others take his theme up in a new form for a general dance.
It is growing dark. One of the guests proposes that the last dance shall be with their goblets in their hands.
A brilliant polonaise, anchored to E major though with suggestions of menace in the chromatic inflections and in the pulls to flat keys.
A flight of swans appears. Benno suggests a hunt; they agree to abandon the now incapable Wolfgang. A new ‘Swan-maiden’ melody appears (possibly retained from the original children’s ballet), and this main theme is developed into a powerful B major climax, ending Act I on an ominous note.
Siegfried and his friends watch the swans as they cross a moonlit lake. Originally designed as an entr’acte, this later became a so-called scenic tableau.
As the hunters take aim, the swans become beautiful girls; their leader is Princess Odette, bewitched by her evil stepmother and Rothbart. Only a marriage vow contracted in the face of death can break the spell. Rothbart appears, and menaces Siegfried. This is the most elaborately narrative section of the score so far, deriving its form from the detail of the action.
Siegfried throws away his weapon, and begs Odette to attend the ball on the morrow at which he must choose his bride. A second scene of narrative and action.
Though having the function of a divertissement in an act of narrative, this is an essential part of the plot and the lyrical centre of the act as Siegfried and Odette declare their love. It is therefore quite closely organized, as a Rondo with an A major waltz as the theme (one of the episodes is the dance now usually known, since Petipa, as the Dance of the Young Swans; Tchaikovsky reserved that title for his No. 27) There follows a substantial pas d’action (originally part of the love duet from the discarded opera Undine). This satisfies the need for a Grand Adagio in the convention of contemporary Russian ballet; but its musical substance gives it a greater expressive weight than was then normal. There is a reprise of the Waltz, and a Coda that takes the form of a general dance.
In the ballroom of the castle, the guests are admitted, followed by the Princess, Siegfried and their retinue.
The Master of Ceremonies orders the revels to commence. In contrast to the principal dance, with full orchestra, the dwarfs’ dance is scored, with neat oddity, for woodwind and horns answered by pizzicato.
The guests include six eligible Princesses. There is a double introduction to the waltz, before it finally gets under way.
Siegfried refuses to choose a bride; but when Rothbart enters with Odile in the guise of Odette, he welcomes her. The waltz music is modified into 4/4 and Odile’s arrival is to an open statement of the Fate theme, with the harsh scoring of the swan theme suggesting her outward resemblance to Odette.
Variations for the visiting Princesses; an Intrada, five variations and a coda, skilfully designed by Tchaikovsky so that the occasion for a divertissement is also brought structurally into the drama as each Princess is brought forward as a candidate for Siegfried’s choice. Tchaikovsky added here a Pas de deux for Siegfried and Odile in the form of an Introduction, two variations, and coda; however, only the second variation was orchestrated by him. There then follows a set of national dances, which Tchaikovsky is careful to set outside the key ‘plot’ by casting them in a sequence of sharp keys:
A dance cast in the csárdás pattern of lassu-friss, slow followed by vigorous, fast, stamping rhythms.
At this point, Tchaikovsky was forced to add a Russian Dance for Pelagaya Karpakova. Its repetition of the slow-fast pattern is rather too close to the Hungarian Dance for the dance sequence, but Tchaikovsky liked it enough to arrange it as No. 10 of his op. 40 piano pieces.
A bolero, opening with clicking castanets and vehement dotted rhythms, and including a warmer central tune.
A cornet Andantino followed by a Tarantella.
For full orchestra with a central section on oboes and clarinets, danced by soloists and corps de ballet.
The Princess is pleased that Siegfried accepts Odile. He announces their betrothal. But the hall darkens; Rothbart turns into an owl and flees screeching; and as he glimpses the true Odette through the castle archway as a white swan, Siegfried rushes out into the night. The need to compress much action into a short space turned Tchaikovsky towards motivic methods, with themes taken from the waltz (No. 17) and from the main swan music; and by bringing the act to a very abrupt, harsh end, he is enabled to emphasise the irony between the easy pleasure of the dances and the sudden horror that has interrupted them.
The music is taken over from Tchaikovsky’s early opera The Voyevoda, the introduction to Act III (in turn based on a duet from Act II).
Odette’s friends await her return by the lake. The music of the Entr’acte is developed in new forms, its fragmentation suggesting the confusion among Odette’s friends.
A melancholy, concentrated dance, deriving from the Voyevoda theme and taking another theme from Act I of the opera.
Odette, heartbroken at Siegfried’s apparent desertion, rushes into the arms of her friends; Siegfried pursues her through a rising storm. This is the emotional climax of the four numbers of the Act. The music is, from the rise of the curtain, the most concentrated and symphonic of the ballet; but rather than depending upon thematic development, Tchaikovsky draws on the classic Russian method, first put into general currency by Glinka, of developing by means of modified repetition. Thus the themes introduced at the start of the Act recur to bind the action together, with even the Dance of the Young Swans taking its place as a reflection of the tragedy, as they circle obsessively around the theme, trapped in their distress and incomprehension.
The Prince begs Odetta’s forgiveness, but she dies of grief in his arms. The waters rise and engulf the lovers; and as the surface calms, the swans are seen gliding across the lake. More music from The Voyevoda introduces the scene. The swan theme achieves a triumphant B major climax over Fate; but it is perhaps the enigmatic open B, neither major nor minor, which provides the true ending to the tragedy.
John Warrack
No. 1 Scène (Allegro giusto)
No. 2 Valse (Tempo di valse)
No. 3 Scène (Allegro moderato)
No. 4 Pas de trois
I Intrada (Allegro)
II Andante sostenuto
III Allegro semplice – Presto
IV Moderato
V Allegro
VI Coda (Allegro vivace)
No. 5 Pas de deux
I Tempo di valse ma non troppo vivo, quasi moderato
II Andante – Allegro – Molto più mosso
III Tempo di valse
IV Coda (Allegro molto vivace)
No. 6 Pas d’action (Andantino quasi moderato – Allegro)
No. 7 Sujet
No. 8 Danse des coupes (Dance with goblets) (Tempo di polacca)
No. 9 Finale (Andante)
No. 10 Scène (Moderato)
No. 11 Scène (Allegro moderato – Moderato – Allegro vivo)
No. 12 Scène (Allegro – Moderato assai quasi andante)
No. 13 Danses des cygnes (Dances of the swans)
I Tempo di valse
II Moderato assai – Molto più mosso
III Tempo di valse
IV Allegro moderato
V Pas d’action (Andante – Andante non troppo – Tempo I – Allegro)
VI Tempo di valse
VII Coda (Allegro vivo)
No. 15 Allegro giusto
No. 16 Danses du corps de ballet et des nains (Dances of the corps de ballet and the dwarfs) (Moderato assai – Allegro vivo)
No. 17 Scène. Sortie des invités et valse (Arrival of the guests and waltz) (Allegro – Tempo di valse)
No. 18 Scène (Allegro – Allegro giusto)
No. 19 Pas de six
I Intrada
II Moderato assai
III Variation 1 (Allegro)
IV Variation 2 (Andante con moto)
V Variation 3 (Moderato)
VI Variation 4 (Allegro)
VII Variation 5 (Moderato – Allegro simplice)
VIII Coda (Allegro molto vivace)
Numero supplémentaire: Pas de deux
I Introduction
II Moderato – Andante
III Variation 1 (Allegro moderato)
IV Variation 2 (Allegro)
V Coda (Allegro molto vivace)
No. 20 Danse hongroise. Czardas (Hungarian dance) (Moderato assai – Allegro moderato – Vivace)
No. 20a Numero supplémentaire: Danse russe (Russian dance) (Moderato – Andante simplice – Allegro vivo – Presto)
No. 21 Danse espagnole (Spanish dance) (Allegro non troppo. Tempo di bolero)
No. 22 Danse napolitaine (Neapolitan dance) (Allegro moderato – Andantino quasi moderato – Presto)
No. 23 Mazurka (Tempo di mazurka)
No. 24 Scène (Allegro – valse – Allegro vivo)
No. 25 Entr’acte (Moderato)
No. 26 Scène (Allegro non troppo)
No. 27 Danses des petits cygnes (Dances of the young swans) (Moderato)
No. 28 Scène (Allegro agitato – Molto meno mosso – Allegro vivace)
No. 29 Scène finale (Andante – Allegro agitato – Alla breve. Moderato e maestoso – Moderato)