One of my favorite aspects of music is its indescribable ability to capture a story and tell it in a new way. This occasional segment aims to pick apart some of the pieces I think are most powerful and look at ways they tell a powerful musical story. I hope that this can encourage people to look at music in a new way and remind people that art and music tell much more than colors or a canvas or notes on a page.
This first segment pieces apart one of my personal favorites–Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture”.
The piece tells a story we all know from high school English class– a story of rivalry, love and loss. Tchaikovsky picks apart these emotions and expertly writes a piece that describes a journey, using musical themes that evolve constantly. The piece begins with a simple theme played only by bassoons and clarinets, reminiscent of church music. In fact, this section is reminiscent of four-part harmonies written by older composers such as Bach. It’s simple, yet elegant–but it will be particularly memorable when it makes appearances later on in the piece. Pay attention to this! (0:00-0:30)
Shakespeare’s play opens in “fair Verona”, but in this first section of the piece, it’s as if Tchaikovsky is reminding us that this story does not end well.
And suddenly, everything changes. The key (the musical “center” where the pitches fall) changes dramatically, and now we have something that sounds ethereal, representing the love shared between Romeo and Juliet. (1:10-1:33)
Once again, at 2:15, we here the same musical material, but it feels different because the context has changed. String are playing eighth notes underneath, which adds tension to a melody that was introduced in its purest form. Changing musical context is one of the most effective tools in the toolkit because you are reminded of something familiar but also sense that something is changing.
This whole structure repeats itself in this new context until things start to evolve and get faster at 4:18. Notice how the transitions here are restatements of things we’ve heard before (a genius move by Tchaikovsky). And finally, we reach a climactic moment at 4:42–representative of the feud between the two families. This moment is eerily similar to the pure church music we heard earlier, and I think that this choice was intentional. In my eyes, this represents that this feud was one that affected members of the whole community.
Once things die down a bit, we hear the aftermath of their battles, and suddenly the music shifts to the next theme–a “fighting theme”- that’s hard-hitting and powerful. What follows is a sort of call and response of this melodic idea, which represents two characters as they duel. The big moment (all of this section is actually pretty big) finally arrives at 6:28, hinting back at the church choir theme from before.
After a moment of transition, things change. From a musical perspective, the key changes to Db major (far away from the B minor)–another compositional tool to show that things have really shifted. Finally, the English horn sings the love theme, a tune that’s so famous, you see it in cat commercials. This tune is complex, far from the major scale it’s based on. This melody changes contexts a few times (the transition motion at 9:30 is particularly cool).
There’s a reason this theme is so powerful–there are pushes and pulls built into the melody itself, and Tchaikovsky isn’t afraid to break some rules. The tritone, the distance between C and F#, is used a lot here. And this is weird because for forever, the tritone was associated with the devil. If you’ll notice, the tritone wants to pull you one note higher, and this contributes so much to why this melody symbolizes love and longing. There’s a lot of other things to dissect in this melody (including hints to other keys like Bb minor and Db minor), but I’ll save the technical mumbo-jumbo for later.
After a brief moment of love, we are back to the epic fight scenes that Tchaikovsky invokes. We hear the church choir theme, but this time it is moving and changing. At 13:05, we hear stabbing sounds from earlier. To me, this is the part of the music where Romeo kills Tybalt, sealing the lovers’ fate. Finally, we reach a section of the piece called the recapitulation, a quick journey through everything we have already heard. A quick transition leads the first fighting theme into the second love theme. At 14:21, the entire orchestra is singing this love theme. At 16:00, the first theme interrupts the second, and things are building in tension. At 16:37, the two lovers, condemned by fate, take their own lives in this section, and you are reminded of the family’s feud. The music here is theatrical, the tension of the violin ascending lines keep you on the edge of your seat, until the metaphorical stage light dim at 17:16. Fair Verona is forever changed.
The timpani plays steady triplets at 17:30, opening the funeral dirge. Notice how by changing the orchestral voices and a few chords here, you hear the love theme in a totally different context, one that is heart-breaking. 18:18 marks a short prayer given by Friar Lawrence that is simple and straightforward (which is derived partially from the love theme). 19:13 is a restatement of the love theme, and one of my favorite parts of the whole piece. It serves as a reminder that while the town lives in the tragic aftermath of Romeo and Juliet’s death, the families see the errors of their ways and once again live in harmony.
This piece has stood the test of time because it captures the love, loss and violence that make Shakespeare’s story such a powerful one. And the magic of it is that each section does its part in telling a story that cannot be told completely by simply dissecting its musical elements. Of course, there is a lot still left to be told about this piece, but for now, I will hold off on the technicalities. Just listen to the musical story.