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Alesha and the Laundress

Алеша и прачка

Sketches (1883).

History

This note of two themes is contained in Tchaikovsky’s notebook for 1883, and was made while he was staying with his brother Anatolii at Podushkino, near Moscow. The first theme is a variant of the folk-song «Мамашенька браниця» ['Mother reproaches me’], and the second resembles the folk-tune «Не веляи Маше» [‘Masha is not allowed’].

It remains unclear whether Tchaikovsky was simply noting down tunes which he had heard, or whether he was making sketches for a projected vocal entertainment at Podushkino. "Alesha" was the name of Tchaikovsky’s servant Aleksei Sofronov.

From: The Tchaikovsky Handbook, vol. 1 (2002), p. 405
Copyright © 2002 Alexander Poznansky and Brett Langston