THE KREUTZER SONATA

ADAGIO SOSTENUTO

00:10 - 1:53

“….I was sitting not far from these two travelers, and as the train was not in motion, I could catch bits of their conversation when others were not talking...They talked first of the prices of goods and the conditions of business; they referred to a person whom they both knew; then they plunged into the fair at Nijni Novogorod….Their conversation not interesting me, I left the car to stretch my legs….”

"" And then she squarely declared to her husband," said the lawyer with a smile, as I passed by them, " that she neither could nor would live with him, because"...And he continued, but I did not hear the rest of the sentence, my attention being distracted by the passing of the conductor and a new traveller."

""But what is this love that consecrates marriage?" said, suddenly, the voice of the nervous and taciturn gentleman, who, unnoticed by us, had approached."

"People marry in the old fashion, without believing in what they do, and the result is falsehood, violence...The husband and wife simply deceive the world by professing to live monogamically."

""Yes, these critical episodes happen in marital life. For instance, there is the Posdnicheff affair," said the lawyer..."Have you read how he killed his wife through jealousy?"

""No, I have not had that pleasure.""

"The nervous gentleman said nothing, and changed color.."It is no great pleasure. I am Posdnicheff.""

Excerpts from chapter 1 pages 4 - 5, chapter 2 page 12 - 18

PRESTO

1:53 - 3:09

"Well, I am going then to tell you my life, and my whole frightful history,— yes, frightful. And the story itself is more frightful than the outcome."

"So what I called our quarrel was our actual situation as it appeared after the satisfaction of sensual desire. I did not realize that this cold hostility was our normal state, and that this first quarrel would soon be drowned under a new flood of the intensest sensuality."

" Oh, what a frightful feeling is jealousy!...This jealousy is frightful. Frightful, that is the word."

"I desire to leave the room, to leave them alone, and I do, in fact, go out ; but scarcely am I outside when I
am invaded by a fear of what is taking place within my absence."

Excerpt from chapter 4 page 20, chapter 12 page 48, chapter 15 page 62 - 63

FIGURE D, TEMPO 1

3:40 - 8:30

"She began to devote herself passionately to the piano, which had formerly stood forgotten in the corner. There, at the piano, began the adventure.
"The man appeared.""

"Then began the mutual trickery and deceit. I smiled agreeably, pretending that all this pleased me extremely. He, looking at my wife, as all debauches look at beautiful women, with an air of being interested solely in the subject of conversation,—that is, in that which did not interest him at all."

"I wanted to insult the man, and to drive him away, but I could do nothing of the kind. On the contrary, I felt that I was disturbing them, and that it was my fault."

"All that day I did not speak to my wife. I could not. Her proximity excited such hatred that I feared myself."

"...and suddenly a rage, such a hatred invaded me as I do not remember to have ever felt before. For the first time I desired to express this hatred physically."

Excerpt from chapter 19 page 88, chapter 21 page 97, chapter 22 page 105, chapter 22 page 107

FIGURE P

8:30 - 9:03

"The next morning, when, after the reconciliation, I confessed to her that I was jealous of Troukhatchevsky, she was not at all embarrassed, and began to laugh in the most natural way...

"'With such a man can an honest woman entertain any feeling beyond the pleasure of enjoying music with him? But if you like, I am ready to never see him again, even on Sunday, although everybody has been invited. Write him that I am indisposed, and that will end the matter.'"

"How shall I say it? Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own."

"In that state there was no room for jealousy. The same faces, and among them he and my wife, I saw in a different light. This music transported me into an unknown world, where there was no room for jealousy. Jealousy and the feelings that provoke it seemed to me trivialities, not worth thinking of."

"As for my wife, never had I seen her as she was that night. Those brilliant eyes, that severity and majestic expression while she was playing,
and then that utter languor, that weak, pitiable, and happy smile after she had finished,— I saw them all and attached no importance to them, believing that she felt as I did, that to her, as to me, new sentiments had been revealed, as
through a fog. During almost the whole evening I was not jealous."

Excerpt from chapter 22 page 108 - 109, chapter 23 page 111 -  114

TEMPO 1

9:03 - 11:48

"Two days later I was to start for the assembly of the Zemstvo, and for that reason, on taking leave of me and carrying all his scores with him, Troukhatchevsky asked me when I should return...Now I was not to return before his departure from the city. So we bade each other a definite farewell."

"...I found a letter from my wife, telling me of the children, of their uncle, of the servants, and, among other things, as if it were perfectly natural, that Troukhatchevsky had been at the house, and had brought her the promised scores."

"It had seemed to me on Sunday evening that he took a definite leave, and for this reason the news gave me a disagreeable surprise...It produced an extremely painful impression upon me. My heart swelled, and the mad beast of The Kreutser Sonata jealousy began to roar in his lair, and seemed to want to leap upon his prey. But I was afraid of this beast, and I imposed silence upon it."

"There was a bond between them, music, —the most refined form of sensual voluptuousness. What was there to restrain them ? Nothing.

Everything, on the contrary, attracted them."

"It was complete madness."

"All night I did not sleep, and at five o'clock, when it was not yet light, I decided that I could stand this strain no longer, and that I would leave directly...At eight o'clock I got into a tarantass and started off."

"...after boarding the train I could no longer control my imagination...The more I looked at these imaginary pictures, the more I believed in their reality, forgetting that they had no serious foundation."

"'How many times have I tormented myself in this way,' I thought (I recalled previous and similar fits of jealousy), ' and then seen it end in nothing at all?"

"I arrived at the steps. It was an hour past midnight...The first thing that leaped to my eyes in the hall, on the hat-stand, among other garments, was an overcoat. When I had asked Gregor who was there, and he had named Troukhatchevsky, I inquired whether there were other visitors. He answered: 'Nobody.'"

"All that I had imagined, all that I believed to be chimeras, all really existed. Here was the truth."

"Before, I had still doubts. I said to myself: 'Perhaps this is not true. Perhaps I am mistaken.' Now all doubt had disappeared. All was decided irrevocably."

"Not to wake the children, I ran lightly through the hall into my study. I dropped upon the sofa, and sobbed. 'I, an honest man, I, the son of my parents, who all my life long have dreamed of family happiness, I who have never betrayed ! . . .And here my five children, and she embracing a musician because he has red lips!"

"And I recalled the state in which I was then. Not only did I recall it, but I again entered into the same bestial state. And suddenly there came to me a desire to act, and all reasoning, except such as was necessary to action, vanished from my brain, and I was in the condition of a beast, and of a man under the influence of physical excitement pending a danger...and I took down a curved Damascus blade, which I had never used, and which was very sharp."

"I remember only the expression of their faces when I opened the door. I remember that, because it awakened in me a feeling of sorrowful joy. It was an expression of terror, such as I desired."

"But neither he nor she finished their remarks. The same rage that I had felt the previous week took possession of me. I felt the need of giving free course to my violence and 'the joy of wrath.' ...I threw myself upon her, still hiding the dagger, that he might not prevent me from striking where I desired, in her bosom, under the breast."

"I turned toward her...Her features exhibited fear and hatred toward me, her enemy, such as the rat exhibits when one lifts the rat-trap."

"With my left hand I seized her hands. She disengaged herself. Then, without dropping my dagger, I seized her by the throat, forced her to the floor, and began to strangle her...Then I struck her a blow with the dagger, in the left side, between the lower ribs."

"...promptly I decided that it was not even necessary, that all had happened in accordance with my wish, and that I had fulfilled my desire. I waited until she fell, and until the nurse, exclaiming, 'Oh, my God!' ran to her; then only I threw away the dagger and went out of the room."

"...I thought of nothing, I did not try to remember anything."

"I approached the bedside. With difficulty she raised her eyes, one of which was swollen, and uttered these words haltingly: 'You have accomplished what you desired. You have killed me.'"

​

" I began to understand only when I saw her in the coffin." . . .
He uttered a sob, and then immediately continued, with haste :
"Then only, when I saw her dead face, did I understand all that I had done. I understood that it was I, I, who had killed her."

Excerpt from chapter 23 page 114, chapter 24 page 115 - 118, chapter 25 page 120 - 124, chapter 26 page 126 - 130, chapter 27 page 131 - 139, chapter 28 page 140 - 142