The seasons : op. 37a : twelve characteristic pieces for the piano

Composed month by month through 1875 and 1876, on commission from the St. Petersburg music magazine Nouvellist, which published one piece each month alongside a short verse epigraph chosen by the editor. Tchaikovsky reportedly composed each installment quickly, sometimes prompted by a servant reminding him of the approaching deadline. Rather than depicting weather or landscape directly, most of the twelve pieces capture scenes of everyday Russian life tied to the calendar, from fireside evenings in January to a troika sleigh ride in November, making the set a kind of musical almanac.