In 1866 Mily Balakirev was involved in the study of the folk songs of the southern and western Slavs. In the reunions with his composer friends, he used to play the melodies he was researching. The young Rimsky-Korsakov was very much under the musical influence of Balakirev, who was going to conduct a concert of pan-Slavic music in May 1867. For that occasion, Rimsky wrote his Fantasia on Serbian Themes. The work was well received by the audience and favourably reviewed by Tchaikovsky. Its first section is based on a melancholic theme than bears some resemblance with the one used later by Tchaikovsky for the opening of his Slavonic March. This theme is heard at the opening on the horns and repeated by the strings.

The oboe introduces a subsidiary theme, which alternates with the first in various moods. The second section is a lively dance. The themes from both sections are intertwined and reappear in several guises in the following part. The first theme makes a last appearance in a powerful version in the brass, which is followed by the dance tune in a crescendo that reaches its climax towards the end.

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