From house to house, people

Prepared for harvest,

Began to gather in

The ripened rye.

Bundles of rye

Were piled high,

And wagons everywhere, all night long,

Creaked their music.

The epigraph is from Koltsov's "The Harvest" (1835).

The subtitle "Scherzo" in parentheses in the title was not added by the publisher Bernard, but by Tchaikovsky himself.

While "July" depicted field work before the harvest, this piece portrays the harvest itself.

The bustling scene of the harvest is depicted with a rich variety of sounds. The key of B minor, the Vivace tempo marking, and the detailed articulation evoke a sense of urgency. Each voice played on the piano sounds as if an orchestral instrument is assigned to it. The middle section in D major perhaps depicts a brief respite, or a moment of tranquility in the quiet of the night.