Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky)

Lore & Background

After a lukewarm reception, Balakirev wrote a detailed letter criticizing Fatum's form and structure, but also offered encouragement. Tchaikovsky accepted the criticism, and the two continued corresponding. Balakirev suggested Tchaikovsky write a piece based on Romeo and Juliet, offering his own overture King Lear as a model. Tchaikovsky grew to love the play, writing that he felt 'somewhat destined to set that drama to music.'

The first version of Romeo and Juliet included a fugato in the development and a confrontation of themes. Balakirev discarded many early drafts, and the piece was constantly mailed between Moscow and St. Petersburg. Tchaikovsky noted that no one spoke to him about the overture the entire evening. The initial failure induced Tchaikovsky to fully accept Balakirev's criticisms and rework the piece. He rewrote much of the music into the form known today, including leaving the love theme out of the development section and saving its confrontation with the strife theme for the second half of the recapitulation.

Reader's Guide

Romeo and Juliet is significant as a pivotal work in Tchaikovsky's development, demonstrating his ability to transform literary drama into instrumental music through sonata form. The piece is structured around three main strands: the Friar Laurence theme in F♯ minor, the strife theme of the Capulets and Montagues in B minor, and the love theme, which shifts from D♭ to D major and E major. The work's legacy lies in its dramatic use of key relationships, suggested by Balakirev, and its emotional narrative arc from love to conflict to tragedy. Unlike Tchaikovsky's other major compositions, it lacks an opus number. The piece underwent two radical revisions after its initial failure, with Tchaikovsky ultimately creating a version that balances academic structure with expressive power. Its influence extends to later composers who set Shakespeare to music, and it remains a staple of the orchestral repertoire.

Did You Know?

• Tchaikovsky dedicated the first version of Romeo and Juliet to Mily Balakirev.
• The love theme in the overture is first heard in D♭ major, then later in D major and E major.
• Tchaikovsky later destroyed the score of his earlier symphonic poem Fatum, which was reconstructed posthumously from orchestral parts.
• The English horn and viola represent Romeo, while the flutes represent Juliet in the love theme.