Tchaikovsky The Snow Maiden Incidental Music "Snegurochka"

The music to The Snow Maiden was written in March--April 1873, at the request of the management committee of the Moscow Imperial Theatres [1].

At the beginning of 1873, the Maly Theatre in Moscow was closed for structural repairs, with the result that all three companies—drama, opera and ballet—performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. The management committee of the Moscow Imperial Theatres—Pavel Kavelin, L. N. Auber and Vladimir Begichev (on the initiative of the latter)—decided to make the most of this opportunity to unite for a single fairy-tale production. The committee approached Aleksandr Ostrovsky with a request that he should write a suitable piece, the music for which, at the recommendation of the committee and the personal request of Ostrovsky, was to be written by Tchaikovsky.

Both the dramatist and the composer worked with great enthusiasm, and collaborated closely on the work.

Tchaikovsky received the first portion of the text from Aleksandr Ostrovsky in early/mid March. On 9/21 March the writer finished the rough draft of the first act. On 15/27 March 1873, Ostrovsky sent the composer the text for the blind gusli players' song in the second act of the piece. "I am sending you", Ostrovsky wrote, "the song of the blind gusli players. It seems to me that the rhythm fits the words; I derived this rhythm from a 12th-century poem, The Tale of Igor's Campaign (Слово о полку Игореве). Although it is generally considered that this text does not have a definite metre, still on reading it closely, it seems to me that one can hear precisely this rhythm. The song is set in couplets. It might be better if this song had a soloist, i.e. if the first three lines of each couplet were sung by a single voice, and the remaining three by a small chorus? But do as you see fit, I won't make any directions on this point" [2].

The writer got his way, and the song of the blind gusli players was written for a soloist and small choir.

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