6.Again, As Before

This dark song has a fateful distinction: it is the final of a collection of six of Tchaikovsky's last completed opus. It also bears a cruel irony in that its text and music convey an abject sense of resignation and desolation, the kind of mental state the melancholic Tchaikovsky grappled with for most of his adult life and which drove him to ponder, even attempt, if half-heartedly, suicide. (Some say his death was the result of a suicide demanded by the composer's former jurisprudence classmates over an alleged homosexual encounter by Tchaikovsky.) The text, by the little-known Danil Maximovich Rathaus, who provided verses for all songs in the set, divulges no great poetic talent, but is effective in conveying its message of wretched loneliness.

The piano sets the dark mood at the outset with urgent, anguished chords, paced slowly, after which the vocalist presents the melancholy main theme with the title words. The melody is beautiful in its mixture of yearning and gloom, and immediately develops a heightened sense of anxiety and desolation, despite the deliberate tempo. The music reaches a powerful climax midway through as the soloist sings a variant of the main theme, which rises higher and higher until it reaches an hysterical plateau. The singer seems to cry out in desperation here; afterwards, the main theme returns and the song closes despondently, if not despairingly, the poet invoking prayers in the text.

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6 Romances, Op.73 (arr. orchestra by L. Stokowski)

This was the last song collection by Tchaikovsky, written in his final year while he was working on his tragic Symphony No. 6, the Pathétique. This Op. 73 group is viewed as one of his more important sets, owing to the composer's advancing expressive language in some of the songs. For example, the second item, "Night," has been viewed as Impressionistic, having elements of a style that Debussy was just then forming. All six works are settings of poems by Danil Maximovich Rathaus (1868-1937), whose mostly sentimental emotions and direct manner worked well with Tchaikovsky's similar musical temperament.

The first of these songs—or Romances, as they are often called—is "We Sat Together." The text tells of a couple who cannot talk to each other to resolve their personal differences. The music is melancholy and slow-paced, although the middle section features much passion and animation. The close returns to the sad mood of the opening. The character of the second song is similar to that of its predecessor, but the emotional pitch here is both more intense and colder—colder because of its starkness and gloom. The text describes a woman's dying, and Tchaikovsky's music perfectly matches its dark emotional thrust.

"This Moonlit Night," No. 3, is brighter and livelier than the preceding songs, but its subject of frustrated love brings a sad close, though the lingering piano accompaniment continues in an upbeat mood. The fourth item, "The Sun Has Set," is a love song full of yearning and passion, and reaching an ecstatic outburst at the end. "On Gloomy Day," despite its title, continues the generally brighter moods heard in the last few songs. Here, in another outpouring of love, the music is effervescent and joyous, if tinged with anxiety. The ebullient melody soars, while the accompaniment is vivacious and colorful throughout.

The last song, "Once More, As Before," offers music returning to the mood in the first two. Gloom pervades and the pacing is slow as the music builds in intensity, finally arriving at a sense of serenity, a sense of resignation, effectively matching those sentiments in the text.

It is the first two and last songs in this group which are probably the most important. A performance of the entire set would last about 15 minutes.

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