In Tchaikovsky’s second symphony, instead of following the traditional Russian school principal, Tchaikovsky opted for a more western approach, playing around, changing and transposing the melody, adding inner conversation between the lines.

The first part of the symphony begins with a slow introduction. Here, a solo horn plays the Ukrainian version of the famous Russian folk song “Down by the Mother Volga”, which kept its form throughout the exposition. The tune repeats a few times, with each time having a different harmonization and instrumentation. Sometimes, the melody stops altogether and breaks off into another completely different theme.

In the accompaniment, we find something quite interesting: the bassline moves in a melodic fashion, with the inner parts interacting, resolving itself in response to the tensions created by its neighbors. In German music, this would have seemed to be very normal, this harmonic movement is prevalent in music of those such as Brahns, Beethoven, and Bruch. However, for contemporary Russian composers of the century, this was much less common.

This can also be seen in his other implementation in the symphony. The second movement appears to us as a scene, the extreme sections of which are based on the scene of the wedding procession from the early opera “Undine” that was destroyed by the composer himself. And in the middle section the Russian folk song “Strands, my spinner” (Пряди, моя пряха) was introduced. While the melody remains unchanged, the harmony and embellishment are both colorful, exchanging lines back and forth and forming new background dialogues.

After repeating the themes quite a few times, the themes in Tchaikovsky’s music would see themselves slowly develop, following the traditional German thematic development. For example, in the part after the introduction of the folk theme in the second movement of his symphony, the rhythmic pattern of the folk tune was mimicked and by the succeeding melody(left) which would lead into further development and introduction of a new theme (right):

These Russian folk music originally have much simpler harmonies. For example, in minor keys, we would see i - iv - V very often. Tcahikovksy’s approach was a mix of the melody-dominant traditional Russian school: repeat the main theme a few times and change up the accompaniment; and western practice: develop the theme and harmonize such that the tensions and resolutions from the background help drive the music forward.

Tchaikovsky had always liked to travel, and on his trip, he would jot down every little idea he had along the way, be it on a piece of paper, or a bank note. (letter 778) This is also evidenced in his other letter he wrote to Nadezhda von Meck during his holiday in Italy (at the time of writing he was in Pisa) after his encounter with a young street singer:

“I do not remember any simple folk song ever having made such an impression upon me. This time the lad sang me a charming new melody (see the picture above), which I intend to make him sing again, so that I may write it down for my own use on some future occasion.” (letter 765)

Another well-known incorporation of folk music into his work is the inclusion of Во поле береза стояла (In the Field Stood a Birch Tree) as the secondary theme of the last movement of his 4th symphony.

When the theme repeats again after the first introduction, we see a textural change mainly in the embellishment line: running sixteenth notes are passed back and forth between the string section. The main theme is also doubled with more woodwinds.

This textural development would continue for a few times:

Eventually, the theme is developed, first, by transposing the key(top) and then by rhythmic permutations (two in the middle). What we see before the recapitulation of the first theme of the 4th movement is now, after having gone through many developments, is just a melodic contour of the folk theme (bottom):

These permutations, as we will see in the following analysis of some of the music from the members of “The Mighty Five”, were not at all prevalent in other nationalistic Russian composers.

The music shares its name with a traditional style of Russian folk dance. And it was the first Russian orchestral work to be based entirely on Russian folk song. This music also served as one of the main inspirations for Tchaikovsky’s 2nd symphony, as it showed how folk songs can be used as symphonic materials. ( Warrack, Symphonies, pg. 17) One of Glinka’s composition Жизнь за царя(A Life for the Tsar) was also amongst one of his earliest musical impressions from his family’s orchestrion alongside Don Giovanni. (M. Tchaikovsky, pg. 23)

In previous examples of Tchaikovsky’s music, we see how he used harmony and melody to propel his music forward, creating tension and resolution. The themes inside Tchaikovsky’s music felt much more malleable; they seem to bend and adapt into their musical surroundings. On the contrary, Glinka’s music has a relatively more viscous implementation, most notoriously is how the ostinato in his 2nd theme stagnates the motivic development as it would break the character of the theme. Instead, the theme is repeated 75 times with textural developments happening in the background. (Brown, Final, 424)

This theme would repeat several times with varying and colorful accompaniment.

However, several measures later, the theme remains in its same, unchanged form. And this repetition of the main theme can also be seen in the works of the composers from “The Mighty Five” as well.

Again, compare that repetition of theme with Tchaikovksy’s more western approach. Below are the middle theme from the second movement of his 6th symphony from two places, one directly from the exposition, and the other from around the ending of the theme. (B major)

The harmony of these slavic folk songs can be inferred from their simple melodies, similar to western music. The tempo marking says швиденько or “quickly”.

Here, in the first two bars, we have the tonic, supertonic, mediant, and subdominant note, each can be assigned the most common chord progression for this type of pattern: I V I IV.

The third and fourth bar, it is apparent, as indicated by the intervals that the first beat of both bars are I chord, while the 2nd beat of both bars, we can safely generalize as V without breaking the harmonic functions.

In the B part (in the repeat sign), we can give each of the 4 measures V I V I respectively.

Ignoring the chord markings, this song, with its simple melody, is still easy to derive the underlying harmony thanks to the leading tone in the harmonic minor key.

We can also see that the note groupings are in groups of two: Am for 2 bars, E7 for 4, Dm for 2, and so on and so forth.

Other underlying details will be discussed in the Russian folk music section as the two are nearly, if not completely identical.

Conclusion for folk music from Ukraine:

• Each note in the melodic line implies the underlying harmony.

• Both the harmony and melody are simple.

• Note groupings are even (2 bars, 2 notes, 4 bars etc., but never odd numbers).

This song deserves special attention as it was incorporated into two other important Russian composers of the same school: Mussorgsky Исходила младёшенька from his opera Хованщина(left) and Korsakov Исходила младенька from his 100 Russian folk song collection(right).

Even though the texts and the harmonies in the two versions are somewhat different, we can still see that they share the same folk origin.

In both versions, we have the melody in 6/4 time signatures that are set to their own text. This fact is important as it is a common refrain in folk music adaptations of composers from the Russian school. As opposed to the freedom Tchaikovsky had shown in his works, composers from this school had the propensity to stick to the melodic contour of the original melody. In other words, the transcriptions aimed to be as accurate as possible as to not alter the text-music relationship of a song.

The 6/4 time signatures as opposed to Tchaikovksy’s ¾ (bottom) signature in his adaptation give therefore more freedom of expression when it comes to timing, which is more true to how folk music traditionally performed.

In Tchaikovsky’s adaptation, other than different harmonizations we have the aforementioned ¾ signature and most noticeable, fewer long notes. Some of the half notes from the first two versions are contracted into quarters.

Such changes can be found virtually anywhere in his 50 Russian folk songs. Why he did it, we can only speculate, but what this shows is his abstraction of text. As we have seen in the analysis section, this abstraction had surely helped some of the adaptations of these tunes in his works such as his symphonies stand out from the compositions of his contemporaries.

Tchaikovsky’s vacillation between different styles, even in a short period of time, is a sure impediment to us arriving at an unequivocal conclusion pertaining to his style. But, again, seeing how this research is part fact, part truth, we will just take this information as is.

This song by Nikolai Nekrasov, also known as Korobushka/Кoробушка, is arguably one of the most famous traditional Russian music thanks to it being used as the video game Tetris’s main theme.

Had the chord names not been notated, following the melodic contour of this song, we would have arrived at a similar, if not completely identical set of chord progressions.

Without crazy harmonizations like the ones given to the piece above by the three composers, the bare bones Russian folk music is not that complex. We can use western music theory to help us analyze -- confirm in this case -- the harmony of this music.

The A section consists of 2 4-bar phrases. Similar to slavic music from other regions such as from Ukraine, the melody is simple enough that we can see the underlying harmonic structure from the melody alone: the first two bars are basically just a broken 5 chord and the 5th and 6th bar consist of chord tones that are connected by passing tones. The chord between the mentioned 4 bars can also be deduced from the simple melody line: the 3rd and 4th bars are the chord tones of the tonic chord, connected by passing notes, while the last two bars are just chord tones. Referring to our western music theory, this indeed does not break our harmonic progression rules.

In the last 4 bars -- the B section -- we see similar patterns forming: chord tones with passing tones, broken chords in the melody, and just chord tones, from which we can be certain that similar harmony can also be applied here (the written chord is different, but that does not really concern us).

Conclusion for folk music from Ukraine:

• The conclusion is the same as music from Ukraine: simple melodic/harmonic relationship where the melody controls the harmony with no motivic development.

• The melodies are simple chord tones connected by passing notes in most cases.

Tchaikovksy’s admiration for Italian folk music is mentioned several times in his letters. Though not mentioned explicitly nor is it known if this untitled song had inspired him to create any particular composition, the fact that he loved it so much he noted it down is a good enough justification for it to be included here.

The music for this type of dance was indeed characterized by fast (allegretto) and 6/8 time signatures. Judging from the tempo, the time signature, and the region this music was found, we will make an educated guess that this music possibly belongs to the Italian Tarantella folk dances.

It seems that this music, at least harmonically, is more complicated than Russian folk music. From the picture above, we see an A# which implies a secondary dominant, a V/IV in the key of G major. Other than that, the rest of the harmony and the structure appear to be equally simple.

The melody in both A and B sections are grouped in a 4-measure phrase with each 2nd repeat having different final measure. For example, the 4th measure, the end of the exposition of the first phrase ends with a dominant, implying a half cadence, while the 8th measure, the end of the repeat of the melody comprises mainly a sustained tonic, which of course, implies a perfect cadence.

Whether Tchaikovsky used this melody in his composition or not, we cannot know for certain, but one striking coincidence is the 2nd bar of this tune (left) and the 20th - 21st bar of this waltz from his third symphony (right).

Or the fact that the rhythm of the main motif of this waltz is similar to the 2nd bar and the similar ascending line preceding the waltz’s main theme and the 1st bar of the folk tune.

Tarantella’s popularity is evidenced in its widespread implementation, for example in Chopin’s Tarantella Op.43 and in the finale of Mendelssohn.

Originating sometime in the 17th century, Tarantella had seen itself being adopted throughout Italy like wildfire, replacing the name of many pre-existing Italian dance music.

Bear in mind that there are many types of Italian Tarantella dances, we will however be looking at only one from the lot: the Tarantella Napoletana, a Tarantella of Neapolitan origin.

Tarantella Napoletana, though itself is not a song, the name is often associated with this particular Italian Tarantella tune in the Tarantella Napoletana style. This tune is, like Korobushka, was popularized by various forms of media, be it music, TV shows, internet, etc. The first modern implementation of the tune is probably Buddy Arnold and Milton Berle’s “Lucky Lucky Lucky Me”, which also uses not only the dance rhythm, but the melody as well.

The melody is, like all other songs in this list, rather simple. Again, we won’t be following the notated chord but will infer simple chordal structure using western music theory.

The song is divided into 3 sections: A B C. With the exception of the first section, the melody of each section repeats itself 4 times. In section A, we can use the firs chord until the 3rd 2nd beat of the third bar and the first beat of the fourth bar, inferring from the notes, a four chord would be more appropriate. After that we go back again to the first chord in the fourth beat of the fourth bar and the first beat of the fifth bar.

Now, without having to go further, we see a pattern forming: all the heavy beats are chord tones, so most of these are just i iv and V except the C section which has a broken III chord in the melody.

Like folk music from Ukraine, is that when it comes to non-chord tones, there is a fixed shape and direction as to how a certain pattern is used. For example, this pattern will always be a non chord tone sandwiched between two chord tones, which is led into by a series of ascending or descending notes.

This fixed pattern that is prone to change in folk music is one of the reasons why we see stagnation in the musical development of music from the Mighty Five and Glinka. We can see that in such a strict and short environment, should anything be changed, it simply wouldn’t sound like the same song.

• No motivic development.

• Notes approaches are more sophisticated than the rest in this list.

• Simple melody

• A little more complex in terms of harmony.

This “Neue Wiener” by Joseph Lanner is maybe not the best example of folk Ländler as it borders on being a classical music itself, but it does help give us some ideas and help see some distinctions between itself and waltz.

While the tempo of Ländler is more akin to that of Minuet than waltz, due to them being more closely related, harmonically, Ländler relies heavily on I IV V chords and rarely deviates from this pattern. For example, in Beethoven’s 7 Ländler in D major, other than modulations, we don’t see any other chord being used at all other than I IV and V of their respective key.

Melodically, Ländler, and as we’ll see in a moment, its cousin Waltz is more like a collection of tunes/variations, so again, no motivic development.

There are chromatic approaches here and there, whether this really existed in older Ländler or not does not concern us, so we will assume that this is possible in all Ländler.

And unlike waltz, if we look at the first few bars, we see that Ländler, other than being slower, is more heavy on the first beat whereas waltz is more syncopated and feels less grounded thanks to its 2nd beat accentuation.

Even harder to separate from classical music is the waltz. Ever since its conception around the 13th century, waltz had seen itself spreading throughout Europe, picked up by various nations quickly. To ensure that we get the one closest to our folk music in terms of simplicity, in that it is not too musically complicated like most classical waltz, we will pick one from a book of almost 200 years in age.

This waltz tune from the 1826 TB Dance Book does not have much to say harmonically. It is exactly like Ländler. But what is intriguing now are the phrasings.

In the 2nd system, the articulation of the melody changes within the 2nd beat, from legato to staccato. In the 3rd system, we see explicit markings of sforzando on the 2nd beat, clearly indicating accents on the weakest beat.

This distinction, though slight, is a clear cut difference between Ländler and waltz, by having the accent on the weakest beat, the music becomes more free and less grounded, which is preferred when it comes to dance music and possibly why it became more popular. We see this phenomenon practically everywhere in modern music, be it jazz, rock, blues, dubstep, rock’n roll, pop, etc.

• A lot of variations or many melodies in a single piece of music.

• More sophisticated approaches using diatonic and chromatic.

• Simple melody

• Not much tension, most of the focus is on the rhythm.