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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
I was just listening to Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. I like it, a lot. It is based on Byron's epic poem, Manfred, about a man who wants to die, but is condemned to never die. There is serious music here, and pretty music, too. There is even a hint of the Nutcracker in it.
But, the reason that I am writing about the Manfred Symphony, is that many people call it a symphonic poem, like Liszt's Les Prelude or Dukas' Sorceror's Apprentice. Tchaikovsky called it a symphony. That is good enough for me. It is in four movements. Tchaikovsky modeled it after Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, which is called a symphony, always, as far as I know. So, let's call it a symphony.
Tchaikovsky is among the four most popular composers, the others being Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Tchaikovsky is not considered as great as these other three. But, he wrote a greater number of beautiful melodies that the other three put together, in my opinion. Even his little known pieces, operas, piano music, choral music, etc., are full of beautiful melodies.
"Tchaikovsky" is the American spelling. This apparently comes from "Tschaikowsky," which is the German spelling. German is the route through which western Europe (and the U.S.) gets most of its eastern European words, as most of eastern Europe uses different alphabets than we do.