As my musicological work has evolved over the years it has become increasingly interlinked with the use of a psychological line of approach, at first in only a broad sense, but then in a specifically psychoanalytic one. This has involved my aim, mainly through study of the classic psychoanalytic texts, i.e. those by Freud, and later pioneers such as Ronald Fairbairn, Donald Winnicott, Melanie Klein and the post-Kleinian theorists such as Wilfred Bion, to find a way of ascertaining, in specific instances, unconscious ideational content in a composer through the technical processes in his music. That correspondence is potentially analogous to the standard psychoanalytic procedure’s unearthing of psychological meaning in a dream or a verbal slip (‘parapraxis’) in an analysand. The process is a complex one, containing substantial difficulties. I would emphasize that I am not a psychoanalyst and have no training in any psychological field. Nevertheless, the possibility that the biographical endeavour might be not just facilitated, but greatly enabled, by this angle of approach has encouraged me to persevere, despite the length of the journey.
ARTICLES in:
Journals:
- ’The Music Review’:
(i) ’The Function of obsessive Elements in Tchaikovsky’s Style’, vol. 43 (1982), pp. 24-30.
(ii) ‘Tchaikovsky’s fourth Symphony’, vol. 45 (1984), pp. 265-76.
- ‘The Musical Times’:
(i) ‘Tchaikovsky: The Missing Piece of the Jigsaw Puzzle’, vol. 131 (1990), pp. 238-42 (psychoanalytic study of the composer, on the 150th anniversary of his birth, centering on the opera The Maid of Orléans). This article was subsequently revised and expanded, first to form a conference address (see listing of International Tchaikovsky Symposium, section (d)); that was, in its turn, later published (see item 4, below).
(ii) ‘Not To Be Born Were Best’, vol. 134 (1993), pp. 561-66 (psychoanalytic study of Tchaikovsky, on the centenary of his death, centering on the Pathétique Symphony).
- The Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Literatur und Kunst section:
‘Auf der Schwelle einer andern Zeit. Tschaikowsky: eine notwendige Neubewertung’, 14/15 Aug. 1993, p. 53 (general reassessment of the composer, on the centenary of his death).
- Čajkovskij-Studien [Tchaikovsky Studies], journal of the Tschaikowsky-Gesellschaft, Tübingen, published by Schott, Mainz:
‘On Čajkovskij’s [Tchaikovsky’s] Psychopathology and Its Relationship with His Creativity’, vol. 1 (1995), pp. 307-28 (published form of the paper given as an address to the International Tchaikovsky Symposium in 1993; see section (d)).
Websites:
Tchaikovsky Research Website:
1. ’Tchaikovsky, Cui and Russian Chamber Music: Commemorative Article on the 175th Anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s Birth’; this was published on the website in 2015, the stated anniversary. The site is:
www.tchaikovsky-research.net and the article may be accessed through the section on chamber music, or that on the composer/critic César Cui; or, it can be directly accessed on this link:
www.tchaikovsky-research.net/files/Zajaczkowski-Cui-Tchaikovsky-2015.pdf
2. ‘An Interview With Galina von Meck’
This interview with Tchaikovsky’s great-niece which I carried out on 7 September 1982 was published in 2018 in respect of the 125th anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s death. It can be accessed on this link:
http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Galina_von_Meck
BOOKS:
- Tchaikovsky’s Musical Style (UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor/London, 1987), vol. 19 of the series ‘Russian Music Studies’, ed. Malcolm Hamrick Brown. The book is a revised form of the Ph.D thesis of the same title, 1985 (see section (a)).
A free pdf of the book is now available: see Downloads - An Introduction to Tchaikovsky’s Operas (Praeger, Westport/London, 2005).
Also: Reviews of books, sheet music, CDs, and opera performances in staged/concert presentation, in ‘The Music Review’, vols. 42-47 and vol. 49, and ‘The Musical Times’, vols. 131-35; Concert Programme Notes for The Wigmore Hall, London, 1981-82 (see section (b)) and the Edinburgh Festival, 1992; CD liner notes for the Etcetera Recording Company.