This, one of Tchaikovsky's best-loved vocal pieces, comes from his collection of six songs, Op. 6. The fact that it was composed to a Russian translation of its original German text by Goethe often obscures its membership in the large family of setting of the same poem, "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" (Only he who knows loneliness). One of Mignon's songs from the novel Wilhelm Meister, this text inspired most of the Romantic lieder composers, most notably Schubert, Schumann, and Wolf, to compose some of their most memorable settings; the poem's sense of desolate yearning speaks to the very heart of Romanticism, and Tchaikovsky certainly owed allegiance to that aesthetic.

Tchaikovsky's setting makes use of a syncopated chordal accompaniment; the lack of rhythmic grounding and the chromatic nature of chosen harmonies the inner harmony voices conspire to highlight the restless, disquieted tone of Goethe's text.

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5.Why?

Although this is one of six Romances in Tchaikovsky's first collection of songs, it nevertheless displays considerable skill in vocal writing. Indeed, Tchaikovsky had already written several songs without opus, as well as an opera, The Voyevoda, which, however, he would later suppress. Why? is a setting of a poem by Heine, entitled "Why then are the roses so pale?" The Russian translation used by Tchaikovsky was fashioned by Lev Aleksandrovich Mey, who also provided a version of a Goethe poem that served as the text for the final song in this set, Only he who knows longing.

Why? begins with gentle chords in the piano, over which the vocalist sings the wistful main theme. It is a lovely melody, centered around its first three notes, which ascend sharply and reappear in different guises throughout the song. The music is lush in its soaring lyricism, passionate in its stately sorrow, twice working up to climactic moments and each time reaching a sense of consolation. After the second of these climaxes, the music retreats to an even more gentle world than heard at the opening, the vocalist silent while the piano whisperingly plays strains of the lovely main theme. The ending conveys a charming fairy tale-like character in its mixture of innocence and sadness.

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