Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture - Tchaikovsky

Wednesday, 04 March 2020

Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture, ‘Romeo and Juliet', continues to be a much-loved concert piece, with its central theme frequently quoted today in romantic scenes for film and television.

Originally arranged by Geoff Kingston for the Band of the Army Air Corps, circa 1995 for their Kneller Hall Band Inspection, this revisited score, with optional parts for tuned percussion, will test all sections of you band and offer a rewarding challenge; the result of which will enthral your audience.

Rather than portraying the play's events in the order in which they occur, Tchaikovsky presents a variety of characters and moods whose melodies offer effective musical contrast. The work opens with a serene solo Trumpet, supported by Trombones, that represents the lovers' ally, the sombre and reflective Friar Laurence. The music then shifts to suggest violence, with a chaotic theme for the feuding Montague and Capulet families. Soon Tchaikovsky introduces a new melody: the soaring love theme of Romeo and Juliet themselves. As the piece progresses, love and violence share the stage with a sense of growing urgency until the love theme is reprised in a minor key, suggesting their tragic deaths. The work concludes with a hint of Friar Laurence's melancholy theme (in the play he arrives on the scene too late to prevent the two suicides).

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