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Program Notes Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Nationalism in music is the practice of using native material—such as fblk songs, dance and religious music of a people—in such compositions as operas, symphonies, oratorios, songs, and suites. Nationalism was a strong current in the 19th Century, and nowhere stronger than in Russia. Düring the first half of the 1800s, the premier Russian nationalist was Mikhail Glinka, who in effect fired the starting gun with his opera A Life for the Czar, in 1836. He was the inspiration fbr a group of avowed Russian nationalists who fbllowed, and were known as “The Five”—also as “The Russian Five” or “The Mighty Handful”. They were Mili Balaldrev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin. They all believed strongly that Russian music should be truly Russian, and their compositions, rieh in authentic Russian elements and spirit, bear this out. So where was Tchaikovsky in all this? He also was a nationalist and was friendly and empathic with The Five, espedally with Balakirev. You’d think they would have included him, malting it The Six. Not so. They all were part-time composers, and largely self-taught. Tchaikovsky was a clas- sically trained musidan, which means that in structure, harmonic design, and other musical matters he reflected the traditions of France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and other European countries—even when he was using authentic Russian themes and ideas in his compositions. So it was out of this atmosphere that Tchaikovsky wrote his Second Symphony, known as the Little Russian and partly based on Ukranian fblk tunes. Musicologists find similarities to Glinka’s work in the structure of the first and second movements. The Scherzo shows the influence of Borodin’s First Symphony. Most Russian is the Finale, in which a fblk song tided “The Crane” is introduced and developed. Its first Statement has been likened to the “promenade” theme in Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. ♦ Program notes by Norman Nadel.