A Tchaikovsky manuscript?

[Originally authored on August 20, 2019]

In the Memorial Library of Music sits a mysterious piece of music. Just 41 measures in length and just one leaf of music recto (front side) and verso (back), this fragment of a manuscript is woefully incomplete. Set in A-flat Major and marked Allegro vivace, the work is scored for violin solo, four violin parts, viola, cello, double bass, and piano, though the sheet of music has been cut, so the bottom four parts are missing from the lower system on both sides of the page. This triple meter work begins with a piano entrance, which is subsequently followed by the cello and bass, and the violins then enter on top. On the verso, there is a double bar after a partial measure of rest, and this is followed by a change in texture to sweeping arpeggios, complemented by chords and a measure of 5-against-4 rhythm in the viola and cello parts. Whoever wrote this down has used shorthand to make notating the work quicker: repeat signs are used liberally on the verso side.

What makes this fragment interesting is its description in both Russian and German. The German says “Serenade of/from Tchaikovsky” (In German: Serenade von Tchaikovsky), indicating that it might be a composition by the Romantic Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93), but that is not exactly a translation of the Russian. The Russian title at the top reads “Love Song,” and this might reflect some sort of interplay between the piano and violin parts, though whether that is the case is not possible to know, given the short fragment that survives. In Russian, there is also “Serenade from Tchaikovsky,” but these are ambiguous, if not intentionally misleading words. If it was actually by Tchaikovsky, it would read “Sereneda Chaikovskovo,” without the middle word. Did Tchaikovsky compose this piece, in which case given its draft status, it might be a possible autograph manuscript, or did he merely present the piece, or simply pass it along? In blue pencil, there does appear to be a second hand, but it is unclear whether that is the work of the composer or a conductor.

Tchaikovsky did write works that could be categorized as serenades, but this is not one of them. Moreover, as far as I can tell, it does not match any of the works in his thematic catalogue. One thing we can do is make a comparison with Tchaikovsky’s own drafts: the image above shows an autograph draft of his Symphony No. 6 in B Minor “Pathétique,” Op. 74; and the image below shows the first page of the autograph arrangement for two pianos of his First Piano Concerto in B-flat Minor, Op. 23. The Symphony draft is far messier than the autograph arrangement—but in both cases, I am not encouraged by a comparison with the mystery fragment. Note the way that the clefs are drawn in the mystery fragment, how there’s a line between 3 and 4 in the time signature, and the way that the “A” is written in allegro vivace. These elements are quite different in the two images.

It is tantalizing to imagine that this could be a long-missing composition by Tchaikovsky, but in the absence of additional evidence, it is probably best to categorize it as highly unsecure, dubious, or even outright spurious. We cannot also discount the possibility that this was a fake, designed to fool the unknowing. This is a disappointing conclusion, no doubt, but it can also serve as a reminder that things are not always as they appear.

Benjamin Ory received his Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University in 2022.

This article is one in a series highlighting rare music materials in the Stanford Libraries collections.