Music Lesson on Tchaikovsky's Work

Introduction to March

So as I said, March is a very still, gloomy month, a very winter month. The lark, a very lonely bird that comes in, reminds me of a famous Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin. Of course, we know Tchaikovsky loved Pushkin.

• For example, his opera The Dam of Pic is based on a Pushkin story.

Pushkin has beautiful poetic lines about the arrival of spring from slumbering nature, eager to greet the youthful year.

Key Themes:

• The transition from winter to spring
• The reflective nature of the middle section of the piece

Middle Section Overview

Now we are onto the middle section, which starts in measure 11. The composer writes un pocchettino pomoso, meaning just a little bit with movement.

Important Dynamics:

• Poco piu forte: A little bit more loud.

I want to pause here and talk about the dynamics. When you see, or if you see his manuscript, the Urtext, Tchaikovsky was very meticulous about his dynamics. He would write out:

• Every crescendo
• Every diminuendo
• Every ritardando

If you look at the march, you'll mostly see piano, two pianos, or at the end, three pianos. There's no mezzo forte or forte.

When he writes poco piu forte, what he really means is just a little louder than the piano, sorry, a little louder than the piano before that.

Hope of Spring

The middle part gives us a hope of spring:

• It's in B flat major.
• It features bird imitation and light staccatos.

Types of Staccato

There are two sorts of staccato:

1. Light and separate staccato in measures 12 and 16.

   • I am imitating the ballerinas, very light.
   • I give a little movement to each note.

2. Another staccato in measures 24 and 26.

   • I attempt to do that lighter and in one continuous movement:
     • Down, up, down, up.

Practicing Dynamics

Now, for the middle section, once you've mastered the left hand and the right hand, dynamics are very important.

• I'll show you slowly how to apply crescendo and diminuendo.

Repeats within the Section

There are a lot of repeats within the second section:

• We repeat the first material almost identically with a different ending.
• Then, we repeat it an octave lower from measure 19.
• We repeat the material in measures 23 and again in 25.

Key Considerations:

• Be aware of the endings: Which way are you going? Are you going up or down?
• If you want to memorize the piece, pay attention to the crescendo to here and diminuendo on the next phrase.

Additional Dynamics and Intonation

Those little notes sometimes come out too harsh or too loud. To improve this:

• Relax your wrist and maintain a fluid motion.
• Practice crescendos with a different intonation and then diminuendo while moving everything to a lower register.

High Point of the Piece

Note that the D we repeat three times is the highest point of the piece. If we were to apply our own so-called mezzo forte or mezzo piano, I would suggest it here.

• Execute a bit of a crescendo to measures 28 and 29.
• Before we reach a ritardando and diminuendo to the third part, the movement goes like this:

A little more, then crescendo and diminuendo followed by poco ritardando, as the composer writes.

Conclusion

Before we move to the third section, I want to emphasize the importance of repeats in the second section.

• It makes our life much easier; we just need to really learn about a third of the text.
• Ensure to know where you're going.

Each phrase should be played with a different color to prevent it from sounding redundant or monotonous.