Romeo and Juliet, TH 42, ČW 39, is an orchestral piece written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It is called an Overture-Fantasy and is based on Shakespeare’s play with the same name. Like composers Berlioz and Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky was greatly inspired by Shakespeare and created other works based on The Tempest and Hamlet.

Unlike most of Tchaikovsky’s other major works, Romeo and Juliet does not have an opus number. Instead, it is listed with the alternative catalog numbers TH 42 and ČW 39.

Musical structure

The composer called this piece an "Overture-Fantasy," but it follows the structure of a symphonic poem in sonata form, including an introduction and an epilogue. The work is based on three main parts of the Shakespeare story. The first part, written in F-sharp minor as suggested by Mily Balakirev, is the introduction representing the holy Friar Laurence. Here, the lower strings play a somber melody that hints at future tragedy. The Friar Laurence theme is played in F-sharp minor with plucked strings and ends in E minor. The introduction sounds like a hymn.

A single B minor chord, played in first inversion and passed between strings and woodwinds, grows into the second part in B minor. This section represents the conflict between the Capulets and Montagues, including a depiction of a sword fight with crashing cymbals. Quick, agitated sixteenth notes are heard. The music suddenly slows, shifting from B minor to D-flat as Balakirev suggested, and the "love theme" begins. This theme, passionate and longing, represents Romeo and Juliet meeting and the scene at Juliet's balcony. The English horn and viola represent Romeo, while the flutes represent Juliet.

In the development section, the conflict theme returns with greater intensity and buildup, and the Friar Laurence theme is heard in F-sharp minor with agitation. This section is repeated a semitone higher. A loud passage follows, with trumpets playing a changed version of the Friar Laurence theme while the rest of the orchestra plays off-beat rhythms in B minor. This leads to the recapitulation, where the conflict theme returns.

A transition occurs as the clarinets play a changed version of the love theme over restless violin phrases. The strings then play a rich, floating melody, with the flute and oboe soaring above with the love theme, now loud and in D major, symbolizing the couple's marriage. This is interrupted by two powerful orchestral hits with cymbal crashes, representing the families' war disrupting their love and leading to their deaths, with hatred overcoming love. A final battle theme is played, followed by a slow, mournful dirge in B major. The timpani play a repeated triplet pattern, and the tuba holds a B natural for 16 bars. The woodwinds play a gentle tribute to the lovers, and a final reference to the love theme leads to the climax. The timpani begin a loud crescendo with a rolling B natural, and the orchestra plays unified shouts of a B major chord. The piece ends with the full orchestra powerfully playing a final B natural.

Composition

In 1869, Tchaikovsky was a 28-year-old professor at the Moscow Conservatory. After writing his first symphony and an opera, he next composed a symphonic poem called Fatum. At first, he was happy with the piece when Nikolai Rubinstein conducted it in Moscow. Tchaikovsky dedicated it to Balakirev and sent it to him to conduct in St. Petersburg. However, Fatum was not very well received. Balakirev wrote a detailed letter to Tchaikovsky, pointing out its flaws but also offering encouragement.

Tchaikovsky was self-critical and understood the truth in Balakirev's comments. He accepted the criticism, and the two continued to write to each other. Later, Tchaikovsky destroyed the score of Fatum. The score was rebuilt after his death using the parts from the orchestra. Balakirev was suspicious of people who had formal training at a conservatory, but he clearly saw Tchaikovsky's great talent. Tchaikovsky admired Balakirev, though he told his brother Anatoly, "I never feel quite at home with him. I especially dislike the narrowness of his musical views and the sharpness of his tone."

Balakirev suggested Tchaikovsky write a piece based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. At the time, Tchaikovsky was struggling with an opera called Undine, which he would later destroy. He complained, "I'm completely burned out," but Balakirev kept pushing him, as was his habit. Balakirev gave suggestions about the structure of Romeo and Juliet, including details about the type of music needed in each section and even opinions on which musical keys to use.

Tchaikovsky grew to love the drama of Romeo and Juliet. He wrote to Nadezhda von Meck, "Do you not think that this great work of the arch-genius is well adapted to inspire a musician?" Two days later, he wrote to his brother:

Balakirev had suggested his own overture King Lear as a model for Romeo and Juliet—a wise choice, since he had noticed Tchaikovsky's weakness in writing unstructured music in Fatum. King Lear is not a symphonic poem like those of Liszt. It is a tragic overture in sonata form, similar to Beethoven's overtures, focusing more on the dramatic potential of sonata form than on a literary story. Balakirev had transformed King Lear into an instrumental drama and offered it as a model for Tchaikovsky. While Balakirev suggested using King Lear as a model, the idea to reduce the plot of Romeo and Juliet to one central conflict and combine it with the binary structure of sonata form was Tchaikovsky's. However, the final version of the piece came only after two major revisions.

In the first version of Romeo and Juliet, the development section included an opening fugato and a confrontation of the two themes—what a formally trained composer might expect to create. Balakirev praised the love theme, writing to Tchaikovsky, "I play it often, and I want very much to hug you for it." However, he discarded many of the early drafts Tchaikovsky sent him, such as the opening, which sounded more like a Haydn quartet than the Liszt chorale he had suggested. The piece was constantly sent back and forth between Moscow and St. Petersburg, going to Tchaikovsky or Balakirev.

Tchaikovsky accepted some, but not all, of Balakirev's suggestions and completed the work, dedicating it to Balakirev. The first performance on March 16, 1870, was affected by a sensational court case involving Tchaikovsky's friend Nikolai Rubinstein and a female student. The court had ruled against Rubinstein the day before, and this led to a noisy demonstration in his favor when he appeared on the concert platform. The demonstration proved more interesting to the audience than the new overture. The result was not encouraging for the premiere of Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky said of the premiere:

The initial failure of Romeo and Juliet made Tchaikovsky fully accept Balakirev's criticisms and rework the piece. It also forced him to go beyond his musical training and rewrite much of the music into the form it is known today. This included removing the love theme from the development section and saving its confrontation with the first theme (the conflict of the Capulets and Montagues) for the second half of the recapitulation. In the exposition, the love theme remains protected from the first theme's violence. In the recapitulation, the first theme strongly influences the love theme and ultimately destroys it. By following this pattern, Tchaikovsky shifted the true musical conflict from the development section to the recapitulation, where it climaxes in dramatic catastrophe.

Meanwhile, Rubinstein had become impressed with Tchaikovsky's compositional talents, especially with Romeo and Juliet. He arranged for the publishing house Bote and Bock to publish the piece in 1870. This was an accomplishment because Tchaikovsky's music was nearly unknown in Germany at the time. Balakirev thought Tchaikovsky had rushed the publication of the overture. "It is a pity that you, or rather Rubinstein, should have rushed the publication of the Overture," he wrote to the composer. "Although the new introduction is a decided improvement, there were other changes I had wanted you to make. I had hoped that for the sake of your future compositions, this one would remain in your hands somewhat longer." Balakirev closed by hoping that P. Jurgenson would someday publish a "revised and improved version of the Overture." The second version was premiered in St. Petersburg on February 17, 1872, under Eduard Nápravník.

In 1880, ten years after his first reworking of the piece, Tchaikovsky rewrote the ending and gave the piece the subtitle "Overture-Fantasia." It was completed by September 10, 1880, but did not receive its premiere until May 1, 1886, in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire), under Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov.

This third and final version is the one that is now performed.

Reception

At first, Romeo and Juliet was not successful in Russia and Europe. The audience was not very excited during the first performance in March 1870. When the piece was played in Vienna in November 1876 by Hans Richter, people shouted loudly in disapproval. A critic named Eduard Hanslick strongly criticized the work afterward. The performance in Paris two weeks later, led by Jules Pasdeloup, also did not go well. Sergei Taneyev, a friend of Tchaikovsky who attended the Paris performance, believed the lack of success there might have been because Pasdeloup did not understand the music. However, some Parisian composers and musicians, including Camille Saint-Saëns, admired the piece.

A group that immediately appreciated Romeo and Juliet was a group of five Russian composers called the "kuchka" ("The Five"). Balakirev, who had the full score of the music, wrote about their enthusiastic response. He noted that everyone was happy with the "D-flat bit" (the love theme), including Vladimir Stasov, who said, "There were five of you: now there are six!" Balakirev also mentioned that the beginning and end of the piece were strongly criticized and needed to be rewritten. Despite this, the kuchka loved the music so much that they asked Balakirev to play it every time they met. Eventually, he memorized the piece because he played it so often.

In popular culture

The love theme from the Overture has been used in many TV shows and movies, including Moonraker, Columbo, The Jazz Singer (1927), Wayne's World, Animaniacs, Taz-Mania, Tiny Toon Adventures, Scrubs, Seeing Double, The Simpsons, South Park, Clueless, A Christmas Story, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, SpongeBob SquarePants, Pushing Daisies, Sesame Street, El Chavo, The Three Musketeers, and The Ren & Stimpy Show, among others.

Different versions of the love theme were played in the original The Sims video game when two Sims completed the "Kiss" action. How strong the theme sounded depended on how compatible or in love the Sims were with each other.

Along with another piece by Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Reed Flutes from The Nutcracker, the Romeo and Juliet love theme was used together with the song "Love, So Lovely" in the direct-to-video Disney film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers.

Parts of the Overture's score were used in the 2005 ballet Anna Karenina, choreographed by Boris Eifman.

The main theme of the Overture to Romeo and Juliet was changed into a popular song called "Our Love" in 1939 by bandleader Larry Clinton. The lyrics were written by Buddy Bernier and Bob Emmerich, and the song was recorded by Clinton and Jimmy Dorsey.

Composer Walter Murphy created a disco version of the Overture-Fantasy on his 1979 album Walter Murphy's Discosymphony.

Parts of the Overture were played during the fireworks at the opening of APEC China 2014 in Beijing, where leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathered.