Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky)

Tchaikovsky’s *Romeo and Juliet* is an orchestral piece styled as an Overture-Fantasy, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy. It carries the catalogue numbers TH 42 and ČW 39, but unlike most of Tchaikovsky’s major works, it has no opus number. The composer also wrote pieces inspired by *The Tempest* and *Hamlet*, sharing the same Shakespearean fascination that moved Berlioz and Prokofiev. The work is structured as a symphonic poem in sonata form, with an introduction and epilogue. It draws on three main threads from the play. The first, in F♯ minor, follows a suggestion from Mily Balakirev: a chorale-like introduction representing Friar Laurence, with a sense of doom from the lower strings and plucked strings that end in E minor. The second thread, in B minor, is the strife theme of the Capulets and Montagues, introduced by a first inversion B minor chord passed between strings and woodwinds, building into agitated sixteenth notes and crashing cymbals that suggest a sword fight. The action then slows, shifting to D♭ major (another Balakirev suggestion), and the love theme appears—passionate and yearning, with an undercurrent of anxiety. The English horn and viola stand for Romeo, the flutes for Juliet, and the theme evokes their first meeting and the balcony scene. In the development, the battle theme returns with greater intensity, and the Friar Laurence theme sounds agitated in F♯ minor, repeated a semitone higher. A fortissimo follows, with trumpets playing an altered Friar Laurence theme over off-beat gestures in B minor. The recapitulation brings back the strife theme. A transition features clarinets playing a changed love theme over restless violins, then the strings enter with a lush melody as flute and oboe soar with the love theme, loud in D major (signaling the consummated marriage) and later in E major. Two large orchestral hits with cymbal crashes interrupt, symbolizing the families’ war disrupting the lovers’ lives and leading to their deaths. A final battle theme plays, then a soft, slow dirge in B major, with timpani repeating a triplet pattern and tuba holding a B natural for sixteen bars. The woodwinds offer a sweet homage, and a final allusion to the love theme builds into a crescendo on a timpani roll, ending with homophonic shouts of a B major chord and the full orchestra belting out a powerful B natural. The composition grew from a tense relationship. In 1869, Tchaikovsky, a 28-year-old professor at the Moscow Conservatory, had written his first symphony and an opera, then composed a symphonic poem called *Fatum*. Pleased when Nikolai Rubinstein conducted it in Moscow, he dedicated it to Balakirev and sent it to St. Petersburg. The reception was lukewarm. Balakirev wrote a detailed letter pointing out defects but offering encouragement: “Your *Fatum* has been performed reasonably well … There wasn’t much applause, probably because of the appalling cacophony at the end … It is not properly gestated, and seems to have been written in a very slapdash manner. The seams show, as does all your clumsy stitching. Above all, the form itself just does not work.” He added that the dedication was still precious to him. Tchaikovsky, too self-critical to ignore the truth, accepted the criticism, and they continued to correspond. (Tchaikovsky later destroyed the *Fatum* score; it was reconstructed posthumously from parts.) Balakirev remained wary of conservatory-trained composers but recognized Tchaikovsky’s talent. Tchaikovsky liked Balakirev but told his brother Anatoly, “I never feel quite at home with him. I particularly don’t like the narrowness of his musical views and the sharpness of his tone.”

Balakirev then suggested Tchaikovsky write a piece based on *Romeo and Juliet*. Tchaikovsky was struggling with an opera, *Undine*, which he would later destroy, and complained, “I’m completely burned out.” Balakirev persisted, offering suggestions on structure, the type of music for each section, and even which keys to use.