Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's String Quartet No. 1 in D major Op. 11 was the first of his three completed

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinist ...

s that were published during his lifetime. An earlier attempt had been abandoned after the first movement was completed. Composed in February 1871, it was premiered in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

on 16/28 March 1871 by four members of the Russian Musical Society:

Ferdinand Laub Ferdinand Laub (January 19, 1832March 17, 1875) was a Czech violinist and composer. Life and career Laub was born in Prague from a German Bohemian family which had assimilated into the ethnic Czech community. His father Erasmus (1794–1865) arr ...

and Ludvig Minkus, violins; Pryanishnikov, viola; and

Wilhelm Fitzenhagen Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Fitzenhagen (15 September 1848 – 14 February 1890) was a German cellist, composer and teacher, best known today as the dedicatee of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ''Variations on a Rococo Theme''. Life Fitzenhagen was born in ...

, cello. Tchaikovsky arranged the second movement for cello and

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

in 1888.

Structure

The quartet has four movements:

Second movement - Andante cantabile

The melancholic second movement, which has become famous in its own right, was based on a

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

the composer heard at his sister's house at KamenkaCatherine Steinegger's Notes to Recording of Keller Quartet (Erato, 2292-45965-2) states: ‘Based on a folksong which the composer had heard at Kamenka, while he was staying with his sister’

André Lischke André Lischke (born 1952 in Paris) is a French musicologist and translator, specialising in Russian classical music. Biography André Lischke was born into a family of Russian immigrant musicians. He began his musical education at the piano. A ...

's Notes to Recording of Quatuor du Moscou (CDM, RUS 288 101) states: ‘…Russian folk tune that Tchaikovsky had noted down in 1869, well before the composition of the Quartet’ whistled by a house painter.

Leo Tolstoy

When the quartet was performed at a tribute concert for

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

, the author was said to have been brought to tears by this movement: “…Tolstoy, sitting next to me and listening to the Andante of my First Quartet, burst into tears".Galina von Meck (with notes by Percy M Young) ''An Autobiography of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Letters to his Family'' also mentions this in the footnote to Letter 131 (Alexandra Davydova, 8/11/1876, Moscow) Stein & Day 1973/1981/1982

Helen Keller

When the Zoellner Quartet, at her request, performed the second movement for Helen Keller, who rested her fingertips on a resonant tabletop to sense the vibrations, she, too, reacted strongly.Scrapbook clipping attributed to ''Musician'', Volume 22, April 1917, page 303
accessed June 4, 2012. She quickly sensed the musical vibrations, swaying in time, alternately crying and smiling."First Number Citizens Lecture Course Monday, November Fifth,"''The Weekly Spectrum''
, North Dakota Agricultural College, Volume XXXVI no. 3, November 7, 1917. Afterward, Keller reacted as follows:

Other occurrences

The melody from second theme of the Andante cantabile, in

D major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : Ch ...

, was used as the basis for the popular song "On the Isle of May", popularized by

Connee Boswell Constance Foore "Connie" Boswell (December 3, 1907 – October 11, 1976) was an American vocalist born in Kansas City but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With sisters Martha and Helvetia "Vet", she performed in the 1920s and 1930s as the trio ...

in 1940. This movement ends with plagal cadence.

Footnotes

External links

*
Performance of String Quartet No. 1
by the

Borromeo String Quartet The Borromeo String Quartet is an American string quartet, in residence at the New England Conservatory since 1992. They have performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, at numerous festivals and in many distinguished chamber mu ...

from the

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

format
Tchaikovsky Research
{{Authority control String Quartet No. 1 Compositions in D major 1871 compositions