ABSTRACT
Tchaikovsky opens the symphony with a slow 18-bar Introduction that anticipates the tragic denouement of the story that follows, very similar to what he did in Romeo and Juliet and, even more so, to what Mozart did in Don Giovanni, from the very first moment striking the audience with the music of the Commentator's appearance. The closest model for Tchaikovsky, however, was the St Matthew Passion. The opening chorus from the St Matthew Passion is even closer to the Introduction to the Sixth, and Tchaikovsky. In Tchaikovsky's hands, this theme serves as excellent material for the highly dynamic and rich, truly Beethovenian development, as becomes obvious from the first bars. A descending melody with non-chordal notes on strong and relatively strong beats had been extremely common in Western music for centuries, and became very popular in nineteenth-century Russian romance music, enhanced by gypsy music and gypsy expression.
