The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky

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J. Lane, 1906 - 782 pages
 

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Page 300 - ... through the medium of his art — express his feelings at the moment when he is moved, make the greatest mistake. Emotions — sad or joyful — can only be expressed retrospectively, so to speak. Without any special reason for rejoicing...
Page 384 - The overture will be very noisy. I wrote it without much warmth of enthusiasm; therefore it has no great artistic value. The Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from an inward impulse ; I felt it, and venture to hope that this work is not without artistic qualities.
Page 300 - Those who imagine that a creative artist can— through the medium of his art— express his feelings at the moment when he is moved, make the greatest mistake. Emotions— sad or joyful— can only be expressed retrospectively, so to speak.
Page 258 - a strange dream; something remote, a weird nightmare in which a man bearing my name, my likeness, and my consciousness acted as one acts in dreams: in a meaningless, disconnected, paradoxical way. That •was not my sane self, in possession of logical and reasonable willpowers. Everything I then did bore the character of an unhealthy conflict between will and intelligence, which is nothing less than insanity.
Page 269 - ... the picture of a tipsy peasant and a street song. From afar come the sounds of a military band. These are the kind of confused images which pass through our brains as we fall asleep. They have no connection with actuality, but are simply wild, strange, and bizarre. "The fourth movement. If you can find no reasons for happiness in yourself, look at others. Go to the people.
Page 300 - Do you know, dear friend, that it is very difficult to give a satisfactory answer to your question, because the circumstances under which a new work comes into the world vary considerably in each case. 'First, I must divide my works into two categories, for this is important in trying to explain my methods, (i) Works which I compose on my own initiative — that is to say, from an invincible inward impulse.
Page 270 - Just as I was putting my letter into the envelope 1 began to read it again, and to feel misgivings as to the confused and incomplete program which I am sending you. For the first time in my life I have attempted to put my musical thoughts and forms into words and phrases.
Page 269 - ... recollections of youth are sweet. We regret the past, although we have neither courage nor desire to start a new life. We are rather weary of existence. We would fain rest awhile and look back, recalling many things. There were moments when young blood pulsed warm through our veins and life gave all we asked. There were also moments of sorrow, irreparable loss. All this has receded so far into the past.
Page 698 - I did wisely, for it contained little that was really fine — an empty pattern of sounds without any inspiration. Just as I was starting on my journey (the visit to Paris in December, 1892) the idea came to me for a new Symphony. This time with a programme; but a programme of a kind which remains an enigma to all — let them guess it who can. The work will be entitled "A Programme Symphony
Page 268 - It is but a dream, Fate awakens us roughly. So all life is but a continual alternation between grim truth and fleeting continued on next page Tchaikovsky's Last Symphonies [continued] dreams of happiness. There is no haven. The waves drive us hither and thither, until the sea engulfs us. This is, approximately, the programme of the first movement. "The second movement expresses another phase of suffering. Now it is the melancholy which steals over us when at evening we sit indoors alone, weary of...

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