Russian composer Mily Balakirev's symphonic poem Tamara, or Thamar, today one of his best-known works, was the result of 15 years of thought. One of the leaders of the famed Mighty Handful, Balakirev produced a colorful orchestral work that affected not only his fellow Russian composers, especially Rimsky-Korsakov and Ippolitov-Ivanov, but also the generation following, including Sibelius and Ravel.

Tamara was based on a ballad by the poet Mikhail Lermontov, himself inspired by an ancient local legend while exiled to the Caucasus. Balakirev initially saw the work as a possible symbol of the recent political unification of the Caucasus under Russian rule. The poetic style and romantic language of the poem are as important to an understanding of the work as its plot, which describes a beautiful but evil princess (Tamara) whose songs lure travelers to her enchanted castle in the Caucasus by the river Terek. After a night of passion, the princess murders the traveler, whose body is borne away by the river.

Balakirev began the work in 1867; work progressed sporadically. In the mid-1870s, during a four-year battle with depression, his friends confiscated his sketches fearing what he might do to them. Yet in 1876 it was Balakirev's friends who helped rekindle his interest in music again by returning the score to him and begging him to resume its composition. Three years later, he performed Tamara on piano to an enthusiastic audience of friends, but when two more years went by without orchestration or performance, it was a gently nagging letter from Stasov which provided the final impetus. In March 1883, a year later, it was premiered with the composer conducting, and the 15-year odyssey, of which perhaps only three years total were spent intensively working on Tamara, was finally completed.

Dedicated to Franz Liszt, originator of the tone poem, Tamara bears his influence in form and language, which sometimes embraces an Oriental exoticism, but remains distinctively Russian in the vast scope of its orchestration. Liszt asked for a four-hand arrangement of the work, which Balakirev later provided. In 1912 Diaghilev and Fokine produced a ballet to Balakirev's score.

The slow and soft introduction (and conclusion) to Tamara, the rest of which is noticeably faster, is a characteristic of Balakirev's mature orchestral works. The work opens with rippling figures in the strings and low brass, representing the river, which establish the impressively pervasive feeling of foreboding; the key is an ominous B minor. Lyrically supple woodwind melodies abound in the work, and the first few notes of what will later be identified as Tamara's love song are heard from the English horn. After a few more notes of the love song are heard, the rippling returns. The bulk of the piece is then taken up with the two love themes of Tamara. Balakirev develops these melodies from seductive lyricism to driving passion to the murderous climax, after which they ironically assume their original form, and the river music returns. A surprisingly sweet-sounding codetta frames the fairy tale.

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