It was written in 1894, the year after the death of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in a tribute to that composer.
[2] Tchaikovsky's song was originally set to a Russian translation by Aleksey Pleshcheyev of a poem in English called "Roses and Thorns" by the American poet Richard Henry Stoddard.
[3][4] At the first performance of the quartet, the slow movement was so well received that Arensky soon arranged it as a separate piece for string orchestra, Op.
35a, in which form it has remained among the most popular of all Arensky's works.
[1][3] After Tchaikovsky's theme is heard, the piece has seven Variations followed by a Coda, set out as follows (mostly in the key of E minor):[1]