The Tchaikovsky Handbook: Volume 1: Thematic Catalogue of Works,
by Librarian at Slavic and East European Collection Alexander Poznansky
Category: Music

The Tchaikovsky Handbook is a comprehensive guide to all known Tchaikovsky resource materials—to every composition (with incipits), all the writings, every piece of correspondence, all the diaries, every interview, every photograph (with images included here), and everything written about Tchaikovsky—and even more. In addition to the basic bibliographical data, the catalog of works gives information on the circumstances surrounding their composition and their earliest performances, arrangements for other instruments, locations of manuscripts (and any peculiarities that they exhibit), publication history, and any related works (for example, other works in which Tchaikovsky used the same melodic material). A tremendous bibliographical undertaking, the Handbook raises the bar for Tchaikovsky scholarship. Volume 1 includes a chronology of the composer's life; a catalog of all the compositions, writings, interviews, and photographs; a translation of his brief 1889 autobiography; and listings of the works by opus number, in chronological order, and by titles and variant titles. A general index completes the volume. Volume 2 gives a full catalog of the correspondence, with an index of the correspondents and information about each of them, and a guide to locations of Tchaikovsky's autograph letters. The bibliography is arranged topically and is also indexed to make the work optimally useful and usable. The volume concludes with a new genealogy of the composer.