Symphony No. 3 (Tchaikovsky)

Tchaikovsky's symphony number 3 in D major, op.29, is the only of the 6 tchaikovsky symphonies in a major key (the others all being in minor keys), and like most of the others carries a nickname, the "poish" symphony. This name is in referance only to the recurring polish dance rhythms prominant in the symphony's final movement, and has zero pertinance what soever to the rest of the symphony's musical material. The symphony has 5 movements, against the conventions of classical symphonies, which typically have 4.

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The first movement, Introduzione ed Allegro, in common time, begins with a slow funeral march opening in the paralel minor (D minor). the movement then accelerandos and crescendos up to a key change back into the paralel major, where in a typical Allegro-Sonata form, after the exposition in the major key it modulates to the dominant, before repeating the whole thing from the key change and then returning to the tonic at the end instead of the dominant, with a developmental section in between before the recapitulation. The movement closes with a coda with happens twice essentially back to back, which accelerandos to an extrememly fast tempo towards the very end.

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the second movement, Alla Tedesca, is in a sort of ternary form and begins as a waltz in G minor/Bb major (although the first chord is C minor) in 3/4 time, and then after a trio consisting of a many times repeated triplet 8th note figure in the winds and strings, after which the beginning up to the trio is basically repeated again. The movement closes with a brief coda consisting of string pizzicatos and clarinet and bassoon solos.

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The third movement, Andante, is in F major/D minor (although this a scarecely adhered do to the movemetns more adventurous modulations and tonality) and is also in 3/4 time, and opens with all winds, notably a flute soli. This movement is the most romantic in nature of the 5, and it is roughly in a variation of slow-sonata/ternary form without a development, although the traditional dominant-tonic recapitualation is abondoned for more distant keys, the first being in Bb major (the subdominant to F) and the recapitulation in D major (the paralel major to D minor). In between the two is a contrasting middle section, consisting of material closely resembling the repeated eigth note triplet figures in the trio of the second movement. The movement closes with a breif coda with string tremelos, and the repeating of the wind solos accompanied by string pizzicatos from the opening of the movement.

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The fourth movement, scherzo, is in B minor (the relative minor to the symphony's D major tonic), and is in 2/4 time, but is effectively in 1 due to the speed. This is unusual and unique to this symphony, as scherzi in calssical music are traditionally in fast tripple meter or some other compound meter based on sets of 3, although the name scherzo (literally meaning 'joke' in Italian) does not in itself imply this metric convention. Like a scherzo, however, the movement is in ternary form, and after a prolonged 'question and answering' of 16th note figures between the upper strings and woodwinds, there is a trio in the form of a march, which modulates through a number of different keys, starting with G minor, before returning to the relative major to the tonic B minor of the movement, D major. The entire opening of the movement up to the trio is then repeated, and the movement closes with a brief reprise of some of the trio's march material. The entire movement has muted strings, and there is a trombone solo at the recapitulation after the trio, the only appearance of the trombone in the symphony outside of the first and last movements.

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The fifth movement, Finale, is in D major and is in 3/4 time and is charactarized by rhythms typical of a polacca, a Polish dance, from which the symphony draws its name. The opening theme is effectively a variety of a rondo theme, and it comes back several more times in the movement, with different episodes in between each occurance, the first is fugual, the second is a wind-choral, and the thrid is a section in the relative minor, B minor, where some of the 2nd movement's trio's triplet figures again make another reprise. There is then another longer fugual section, which is a variation of the main theme which modulates into a number of different keys along the way charactarized by staggered entrances of the theme, before another variation on another reprise of the main theme slows dramatically into a slower chorale section featuring all the winds and brass. There is then a section with another variation on the orriginal theme up to the orriginal tempo, and then a presto in 1 which drives to the end, which concludes with 12 D major chords over a long timpani roll, and then 3 long D's, the third of which is a fermata in the last bar of the symphony.

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The entire symphony runs approximately 50 minutes, rather long for a classical symphony.

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