For Tchaikovsky, "Kamarinskaya" offered a viable example of the creative possibilities of folk songs in a symphonic structure, using a variety of harmonic and contrapuntal combinations. It also offered a blueprint on how such a structure could be made to work, barring the potential for inertia or over-repetition. Because of his compositional training, Tchaikovsky could build the finale of the "Little Russian" more solidly and over a greater time scale than either Glinka or Mussorgsky could have done. Without "Kamarinskaya", however, Tchaikovsky knew he did not have had a foundation upon which to build that finale.