Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)

by Timothy L. Jackson

Overview

Tchaikovsky's final symphony has fascinated generations of music lovers since its first performance just over a century ago. Professor Jackson explores sensitively and without prejudice the question of the Pathétique's program and its relation to Tchaikovsky's homosexuality and death. The book covers the work's conception, genesis, and reception, and presents an in-depth analysis of its remarkable formal structure. The reception chapter investigates the Pathétique's impact on Tchaikovsky's younger contemporaries as well as its political interpretation in the twentieth century, especially its transformation into a cultural icon of the Third Reich.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521641111
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/07/1999
Series:	Cambridge Music Handbooks
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. 'Pathetic' metaphors for sexuality and race, gambling and destiny; 2. Background and early reception; 3. Form and large-scale harmony; 4. The 'not-so-secret' program - a hypothesis; 5. Compositional genesis: the Six Romances Op. 73 and the Pathétique; 6. Deconstructing homosexual Grand Passion Pathétique; 7. Platonic postlude.