Tchaikovsky: Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27 (1875) V. Did mother give me life?

Tchaikovsky: Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27
(1875)
V. Did mother give me life? (Али мать меня роэжала)
Allegro non troppo. Tempo di Mazurka (E-flat minor)


Tchaikovsky's Six Romances and Songs (Шесть романсов и песен), Op. 27 (TH 98 ; ČW 232-237), were written in March and April 1875 in Moscow.

Instrumentation:
Scored for medium voice (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6) or low voice (No. 2), with piano accompaniment.

Movements:

V. Did mother give me life? (Али мать меня роэжала) Allegro non troppo. Tempo di Mazurka (E-flat minor)

Did mother give me life?
Is his great sorrow my destiny?
Or was it wished upon me by a witch
Who cursed the nest where I was born?

All through the days and nights
I cry like a child;
Matchmakers will come, but I have no strength
To survive be looked over.

Oh, he left and disappeared
Vanished with the army;
He left his lass here all alone
Abandoned with her sorrow.

It's clear at the girlfriends in the church
Burn lightly in the church;
Mine alone, unlucky me
Extinguishes immediately.

Fall is in the field; the leaf drops down;
Our dog digs the ground
An owl perches on the roof:
"What are you soon?" he screeches.

Soon my sweetheart, I'll be with you
We’ll meet, we’ll be together!

When mother gave me life
Was there great sorrow in my destiny?
Or was it wished upon me by a witch
Who cursed the nest where I was born?
Or was it wished upon me by a witch
Who cursed the nest where I was born?

Lev Mey, from his poem of the same name (1857) — a translation from the Polish of Teofil Lenartowicz's (1822–1893) ballad Tęsknota (1843).

Composition:
The history of these romances is undocumented. They were probably composed sometime between mid/late March (after the Six Romances, Op. 25) and 7/19 April 1875 (the date they were received by Pyotr Jurgenson, as noted on the manuscript).

Performances:
The romance Evening (No. 4) was performed, possibly for the first time, by Aleksandra Svyatlovskaya in Moscow on 17/29 December 1876, at the sixth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society.

Publication:
The romances were published by Pyotr Jurgenson in May 1875. A new edition, containing the second version of My Spoiled Darling (No. 6), was issued by Jurgenson in August 1892.

The set (including both versions of No. 6) was published in volume 44 of Tchaikovsky's Complete Collected Works (1940), edited by Ivan Shishov and Nikolay Shemanin.

Arrangements:
The romance Do Not Leave Me (No. 3) was orchestrated by Sergey Taneyev in 1891, and this arrangement was published by Pyotr Jurgenson in 1892.

Autographs:
Tchaikovsky's manuscript scores of all six romances are now preserved in the Russian National Museum of Music in Moscow (ф. 88, No. 136).

The same archive also holds Sergey Taneyev's autograph arrangement of Do Not Leave Me (No. 3) for voice and orchestra, containing annotations by Tchaikovsky (ф. 85, No. 38).

Dedication:
All the romances are dedicated to Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya.