These are actually twelve etudes of moderate difficulty, composed during the same period as Swan Lake, Francesca da Rimini, the Fourth Symphony, and the Violin Concerto.

Only the first piece is forthrightly labeled "etude"; it's all brilliant tumult in one mad dash, without Tchaikovsky's usual contrasting middle section. The second piece is the well-known Chanson triste in G minor. The haunting, highly expressive main theme sounds like a sad Russian folk song, although no folk source has been identified; the middle section is more tender and hymn-like. Third comes a lengthy funeral march, marked "doloroso con molto sentimento." Tchaikovsky somehow never could write a fully tragic funeral march, though; this one is simply gentle, except for the occasional intrusion of something sounding like fanfares, and a major-mode middle section.

Fourth is a cheerful, graceful mazurka. The fifth piece is a second mazurka maintaining the jaunty mood, although its chordal middle section is more sober. Item Six is another of Tchaikovsky's Songs Without Words, this one containing heavy Russian folk overtones with an intense mid-section; it also circulates in a Stokowski orchestration. The seventh piece, Au village, is a dumka, beginning as a hushed Russian soliloquy that bursts into a flamboyant keyboard dance. The eighth and ninth items are waltzes, the first a typically graceful Tchaikovsky whirl (with a typically repetitive trio), the second a brisk Schumannesque rhapsody.

Tenth comes a Danse russe, which Tchaikovsky had originally sketched for Swan Lake. It's a dumka, too, even though the first section is too bouncy to be depressing, with the second section being the expected hurtle through Russian dance styles. Next is a fervid, staccato Scherzo with a more graceful trio. The set ends with a Rêverie interrompue (Interrupted Dream); the reverie is full of slow arpeggios, but a marcato tune breaks in; this is noted in the score as a "popular Venetian melody written down in 1877." It's a catchy tune with a strummed, guitar-like accompaniment; Tchaikovsky had already just used this melody in the Organ Grinder movement of his Children's Album.

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