Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky accepted 800 roubles to write Swan Lake for Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre in the summer of 1875 for two reasons, as he wrote to fellow composer Rimsky-Korsakov: “Partly because I need the money and partly because I have long cherished a desire to try my hand at this kind of music.” Most serious composers thought that ballet music was beneath them, especially as, according to custom, it could be chopped about at the whim of the choreographer.

Tchaikovsky is often praised as the first truly celebrated serious composer to write for the ballet, and the first to write ballet music whose complexity, sophistication and logical structure could be compared to symphonies or operas. In fact, Délibes had already blazed these trails in Paris, and Tchaikovsky knew and admired the Frenchman’s work. He did go much further, though, in composing ballet music that could be enjoyed on its own terms, regardless of whether or not it was accompanied by any dancing.

Video Link > Tchaikovsky’s three ballets

The music for the first two acts was already roughed out by August, and the score completed by April 1876. Indeed, some of the music had already been written before Tchaikovsky accepted the commission. The composer’s niece recalled him creating a small children’s ballet for her, called the Lake of the Swan, roughly eight years earlier. It is widely supposed, but not proven, that this became the theme associated with the Swan Queen, Odette. Tchaikovsky also used the love-duet from his unfinished opera, Undine, for one of Odette’s dances in the second act. The creation of his later ballets was a long-drawn-out process - Tchaikovsky would insist on detailed instructions from the choreographer, Marius Petipa, before he started composing, and attended rehearsals to supervise any changes. With Swan Lake, it seems likely that he just submitted the finished score and took no further part in the production before it opened.

Tchaikovsky put all the ingredients into Swan Lake that were thought necessary for a ballet at the time, such as parades for the grand entrances and exits of the corps de ballet, lots of fairly short, snappy dances or pas for the soloists, and a selection of colourful “national” dances meant to evoke exotic foreign lands.

The score was much closer to a concert work or an opera, however, in the frequent and systematic repetition of its musical themes, in vastly differing moods and dramatic situations. It also used different, recurring keys for each character, that subtly suggested the contrasts and affinities between them. In fact, one of the criticisms levelled at the music after the first performance was that it was too repetitive. Another widely voiced opinion, apparently shared by the choreographer, Weisinger, was that it was “undanceable”. And even Tchaikovsky’s friends thought that it was too loud and violent for a ballet.

Video Link > The lasting impact of the music and choreography

When the conductor Riccardo Drigo and the choreographers Petipa and Ivanov edited the score for the St Petersburg production of 1895, they showed little reverence. Every criticism of the original was acknowledged and addressed. They simply deleted some of the loudest music, such as the climax to the storm in the last act, and the cuts did not stop there. Many repeats were omitted, along with entire dances, including a pas de six in the third act. In all, 2150 bars were cut, representing more than a third of the score. To improve the “danceability” they moved other sections - for example, the third act Black Swan pas de deux, which was originally in Act I - so that the most dramatic music did not all clump together.

Finally, Drigo took three pieces from a series of piano music, Op 72, that Tchaikovsky wrote shortly before his death, orchestrated them and inserted them into the last two acts. Even with these additions, the St Petersburg Swan Lake was only three-quarters as long as its Moscow forerunner. There is no way of knowing how Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893, would have reacted to these revisions. Even in its new, more lightweight form, the music attracted criticism from some quarters. The Petersburgski listok newspaper wrote: “The principal defect of this ballet is its music, and it is simply inconceivable that it was written by such a great master as the late P. I. Tchaikovsky.” Nevertheless, no ballet score in history has drawn so many choreographers to it, or inspired such a wide range of interpretations.