A lullaby is supposed to lull someone to sleep. However, In Rachmaninoff’s piano transcription of Tchaikovsky’s song “Lullaby” (op.16 no.1), it becomes a lullaby that disrupts the slumber itself—what other significance could this transcription carries, besides merely reproducing the original in another medium or for virtuosity’s sake? A similar kind of transcription can be seen in Dalí’s series of symbolic paintings on The Angelus of Millet, and he uses Lacan’s theory to develop his “paranoid-critical method” in elaborating his interpretation of The Angelus. Parallel to Dalí’s project, this paper proposes to interpret Rachmaninoff’s transcription in the light of Freud’s theory of dreams. Freud sees sleeping as desired by the preconscious, but disrupted when the subconscious generates too much excitement (“anxiety dream”). In the five sections of this piece, ABACA, B and C are shorter passages in major mode, signifying the preconscious’s desire for a sound sleep; in contrast, the gloomy chromatics within the interludes in A signify the subconscious: every time when language ceases, they grow rampantly. In the final A section, large-scale chromatics arouse to a whole-tone climax and break down the cradling itself: the overwhelming energy released by the subconscious overcomes the preconscious. But the anxiety is not completely exhausted, thus the dream resumes, with the chromatics haunting again. In interpreting this lullaby as a Freudian “anxiety dream,” this studies aims to explore the methodology of engaging psychoanalysis as musical hermeneutics.

Keywords: Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, lullaby, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics