In 1875 Nikolay Bernard, editor of the music magazine Nouvellist, commissioned Tchaikovsky to write 12 short piano pieces, one for each month of the year, and suggested a subtitle for each month's piece. Tchaikovsky accepted the commission and readers of the magazine were promised a new Tchaikovsky piece each month throughout 1876. This lovely Barcarolle Tchaikovsky wrote for the June installment was published with an evocative poem by Aleksey Pleshcheyev:

Let us go to the shore; there the waves will kiss our feet.

With mysterious sadness the stars will shine down on us.

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