The orchestra and its instruments . story maybe quoted. Once at the composition class, saidRubinstein, I set him to write out contrapuntalvariations on a given theme, and I mentioned thatin this class of work not only quality but quantitywas of importance. I thought perhaps he wouldwrite about a dozen variations. But not at all. Atthe next class I received over two hundred. Toexamine all these would have taken me more timethan it took him to write them. When Nicholas Rubinstein organized the Con-servatory in Moscow in 1866, he gave Tschaikowskythe chair of professor of harmony. He spent muchti
The orchestra and its instruments . story maybe quoted. Once at the composition class, saidRubinstein, I set him to write out contrapuntalvariations on a given theme, and I mentioned thatin this class of work not only quality but quantitywas of importance. I thought perhaps he wouldwrite about a dozen variations. But not at all. Atthe next class I received over two hundred. Toexamine all these would have taken me more timethan it took him to write them. When Nicholas Rubinstein organized the Con-servatory in Moscow in 1866, he gave Tschaikowskythe chair of professor of harmony. He spent muchtime in composing and Nicholas Rubinstein broughtout his works at the concerts of the Russian Musi-cal Society. Tschaikowskys life is in his in Petrograd, Moscow, in his country home,in Paris, or travelling, he was always composing; and,consequently, his list of works is long. Although Tschaikowsky wrote light operas, he ischiefly known for his orchestral music — his mag-nificent symphonies and his symphonic poems. So. ((- COst^yfiwh. T TSCHAIKOWSKY Photograph taken in Petrograd THE ORCHESTRA 267 immense are these works in their effect that the heareroften imagines that Tschaikowsky called for an or-chestra with as many additional instruments, newand old, as Richard Strauss. This is not the case,however. For instance, in the Symphonie pathetiquehe has the Beethoven orchestra with the addition of thebass tuba. A remarkable feature of his scoring is the extrememodern effect secured with comparatively modestmeans. He expressed himself in a language of pro-found pathos which was in part due to the embodi-ment of weird and gloomy orchestration. He madeprominent use of low woodwind, which were constantlycombined with the violas, and he evinced peculiarpredilection for clarinets in their low range andbassoons in their upper range. * In the Casse Noisette Suite (Nutcracker Suite),which is so charming in its playfulness, his instru-mentation is particularly novel. In it he
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