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An amusing circumstance surrounds the fourth Elegy. According to Petri, someone had shown Busoni the melody Greensleeves, and had convinced him, or else Busoni had assumed, that it was an oriental tune. At any rate, Greensleeves makes its appearance in Turandot and in due course in these Elegies. Three separate settings of Greensleeves exist. Both in the pre-Elegy Turandot Suite and in the post-Elegy Turandot (the opera), the melody appears as a fairly short number (in the opera, the tune is sung "la-la-la" by a chorus and solo voice). The Elegy setting, which came in between these two, is more substantial. It follows the Suite rather closely in that the basic harmonic scheme is to establish C major-then to play Greensleeves in e minor-and finally to close in C major. This ambiguity is partly negated in the opera, which also advocates a slower tempo. In the Elegy, at the very end, an E major chord abruptly ends the piece. Dynamics are restrained, and the melody is constantly surrounded with light, staccato decorations, which also serve to blur the tonality with notes distant from the expected harmony. [Sitsky, 63]
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