Assignment 5 June: Barcarolle_________Liu Yushuo

“June: Barcarolle” is one of Tchaikovsky's piano suites "The Seasons". In fact, there are 12 pieces in "The Seasons", representing 12 months, so each piece is named "Month + Title". It is obvious that “June - Barcarolle” is a depiction of the Russian landscape in June, which embodies the composer's love for nature and is based on a Russian folk dance or folk song, which is closely linked to the composer's emotions. With a sweet melody and soft harmonies the composer expresses the shimmering and rippling water, recreating scenes of landscape, life episodes and various scenes of social activities. In general, this music uses the triple meter and quadruple meter to imitate the feeling of evenly paddling Russian flat-bottom boats. Compared with most of the boat songs written in compound duple meter.The composer's arrangement is more able to reflect the mood of a light boat.

Bars 1 to 2 are the introductory section, which is in the key of G minor, with a calm, soothing tone and rhythmic disintegrating chords in the lower voices to create a tranquil atmosphere. The theme of the piece then emerges as a series of progressive scales from bottom to top. This is followed by a wave-like melody in the upper voices, like an oar paddling the water. The lower register echoes this, sounding as if the water is rippling broadly, smoothly and calmly across the surface of the river.

In the third phrase, the melody changes to a major key and the whole piece brightens up in color and intensifies in intensity. It gives me the impression that the hazy and enchanting glow of the moonlight envelops the entire water surface. The decomposed chords in the lower part also contain short melodic fragments echoing the right hand theme melody, giving a relaxed and happy atmosphere.

In the second section, the key changes to G major and the harmonies change color, while the tempo gradually increases and the left and right hands are misaligned by exactly half a beat, reminding me of a clear river reflecting the bright moonlight and even the starlight.

 

Next, the composer uses a decomposed chordal accompaniment to move the music forward, and I can feel the shimmering of the water in the melody, which reminds me of a summer day when people are enjoying the beautiful weather and nature in their boats on the river. The left hand then adds an additional melody, which continues to accelerate and intensify, becoming more complex.

You can see that here the rhythm changes again, where the mood varies considerably, and the music is pushed towards a small crescendo. The music here creates a light and relaxed atmosphere,  sounding like the trees passing by on both sides of the river.

The four sets of chromatic descents continue to pick up speed, bringing the piece to a climax, followed by a series of upward arpeggios that once again remind me of splashing water and waves being stirred up, which feels much more intense in contrast to the previous ones.

At the end, a series of notes and chords from top to bottom form the main theme, sounding as if the river is calm again, with only the ripples caused by the oars paddling the water, spreading outward in circles.

Finally alternating patterns appear in the left and right hands, creating with fading overtones that people are dispersing, leaving behind a silent night sky with stars twinkling, the river reflecting the trees on either side, and insects chirping in the trees, all returned to a beautiful summer night.

Reference：

Yang Chen. “Analysis of Tchaikovsky's works in four seasons--June Boat Song as an example.” The Voice of the Yellow River, 2020(13):1.