Tonal Plan and Narrative Plot in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E Minor

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This article explains the large-scale tonal plan of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in terms of a dialectic between two keys, E and D. The work's thematic content and process define its narrative plot, which follows the familiar strife to victory archetype of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The ensuing discussion demonstrates the interaction of tonal plan, thematic materials, and emotional narrative, with reference to specific musical details. ressive narrative of the work-an exampl f the strife to ictory plot archetyp , defined by hematic content and rocess. In reviewing the analytical lot of this paper, it s int resting o note that a consideration of the emotional a rative of the first movement led to the recognition of D ajor s a ca alyst (rather than a simple antagonist) in the onal plan. Perhaps a lesson may be drawn from this seuence of events: a strateg of analytic l give and take etween musical structure and modes of expression has much o o fer us as we strive t enrich our understanding and njoyment of symphonic music-indeed, of all music-from I This content downloaded from 157.55.39.215 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 05:13:16 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms