Circle City Clarinerd

The oboe exudes a smooth A. The hall is silent. The conductor strolls to the podium, shakes the concertmaster’s hand, and raises his baton. Suddenly, the sounds of two unison clarinets, against the soft, eerie backdrop of low strings, emanate from the woodwind section. For the first minute or so of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, the audience focuses only on the rich sounds of the clarinet.

In my completely biased opinion, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony has one of the most powerful openings of any orchestral work (an assertion that bassoonists, whose instrument opens Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, would most likely dispute). I myself played the duet with my friend in my college orchestra last year, and I have yet to have an orchestral experience as electric as playing this opening, creating the only sounds in the hall for over two minutes.

As the Clarinerd, I cannot help but pen a blog post about this amazing opening duet. Yet, as an intern hesitant to bore blog readers and ISO fans with the details of the clarinet part – trust me, I could wax on for paragraphs about the powerful sound of the unison Bb’s, the struggles of getting the throat tones in tune and the dynamic contrasts and crescendo swells in the second utterance of the phrase – I feel I must also relate how the beginning of the symphony introduces the theme of the entire work.

While composing the early sketches of the Symphony, Tchaikovsky scribbled the following in one of his notebooks: “Introduction: Total Submission before Fate or what is the same thing, the inscrutable designs of Providence.”

Although music scholars have argued over whether Tchaikovsky’s Fifth is a programmatic piece – one in which the music is composed to tell a specific story – the fact that the introduction reflects a Fate Motif is widely accepted. About this motif, English conductor Edward Downes said, “The Symphony is unified by a striking theme, which reappears so dramatically in all four movements that a ‘plot’ of some sort is strongly suggested.” The clarinets introduce this motif right from the beginning. Listen to the first two or so minutes of the symphony to get a sense of this main musical idea.

The Fate Motif returns throughout Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. Although the second movement is largely characterized by the unparalleled gorgeous horn solo, towards the end of the movement (around 10:00), the motif in the trumpets and harshly interrupts the graceful, song-like melody.

Although it is a waltz, the end of the third movement contains hints of the Fate Motif. Listen around 5:00 (the end of the movement) to hear how this idea reappears even in the midst of a waltz.

Finally, the Fate Motif is reiterated at the beginning of the fourth movement, but in longer, more heroic-sounding chords, emphasizing that the conclusion of the Fifth Symphony is triumphant, not somber. This movement is edge-of-your-seat exciting. (Even my mom, a non-musician, once said that Tchaikovsky’s Fifth was the most stirring symphony she had ever heard and is eagerly anticipating this weekend’s ISO concert).

This weekend, as you hear Indianapolis Symphony perform Tchaikovsky’s Fifth under the direction of powerhouse female conductor Xian Zhang, listen for the prominent clarinet and horn solos, but also for the powerful way in which Tchaikovsky weaves his ideas about fate throughout the entire symphony. Check out this intro video by ISO horn player Rick Graef to hear more about this weekend’s performance: