By the River, By the Bridge

Tchaikovsky Research

Towards the end of 1862, Tchaikovsky is known to have composed a piano piece on the theme of the Russian folksong By the River, By the Bridge (Возле речки, возле моста).

Composition

This piece was written during Tchaikovsky's first months at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory for his friend Herman Laroche, who provides all the known information about the work: "Around this time [autumn 1862], at one of the musical society concerts, we became acquainted with a choral fantasia by Konstantin Lyadov, on the theme 'By the river, by the bridge'. Inspired by this, Pyotr Ilyich wrote and dedicated to me a piano piece on the same theme, all contained on a single page" [1].

No manuscript score has yet come to light, and the piece was never published.

Related Works

In 1877, the folksong 'By the river, by the bridge' was later harmonized by Tchaikovsky as No. 11 in Set 2 of Mariya Mamontova's collection of Children's Songs on Russian and Ukrainian Tunes.

Notes and References