Рассказ о композиторе чайковском

Петр Чайковский — биография

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Петр Ильич Чайковский – великий русский композитор, дирижер, педагог и критик. Его произведения известны всем соотечественникам, даже в том случае, если эти люди не являются приверженцами классической музыки.

Детство и юность

Петр Ильич Чайковский родился в поселке Воткинск (современная Удмуртия) 7 мая 1840 года. Отец будущего музыканта – представитель казачьего рода Чаек, хорошо известного на Украине. Илья Петрович служил инженером. Мама большого семейства тоже была образованной женщиной. В Училище женских сирот Александра Андреевна Ассиер изучила целый ряд предметов – литературу, географию, арифметику, иностранные языки, риторику.

В этом уральском поселке Чайковский-старший руководил Камско-Воткинским сталелитейным заводом. Это было крупнейшее предприятие Российской империи, руководитель которого получал прекрасное жалование и целый ряд преференций. Для жилья Чайковским предоставили огромный казенный дом, у директора завода было и собственное войско, которое состояло из сотни казаков. Семья жила на широкую ногу, часто принимала в своем доме гостей – местных дворян, иностранных инженеров, столичную молодежь.

Семейство Чайковских было большим, будущий композитор был вторым ребенком. Его старшего брата звали Николай, после Петра родился еще один мальчик – Ипполит, затем сестра Александра. Места в огромном доме хватало всем, вместе с Чайковскими жили и многочисленные родственники главы семейства. Родители очень заботились о воспитании и образовании своих детей, из Санкт-Петербурга они выписали гувернантку. Эта женщина, Фанни Дюрбах, была француженкой, она очень долго жила в семье Чайковских.

Родители будущего композитора очень любили музыку, они и сами были прекрасными музыкантами. Отец играл на флейте, мама – на арфе и фортепиано. У Александры Андреевны был сильный голос, она прекрасно исполняла романсы. Гувернантка музицировать не умела, но музыку тоже очень любила. Отец приобрел два музыкальных инструмента – рояль и оркестрион (так в те времена называли механический орган). Играть на рояле маленького Петрушу учила крепостная крестьянка Марья Пальчикова, владевшая музыкальной грамотой.

Юный Чайковский увлеченно изучал основы игры на рояле. В тот период им владела еще одна большая страсть – любовь к поэзии. Он не только с упоением читал стихи разных авторов, но и сам сочинял их на французском языке. Настоящим кумиром будущего композитора в то время был Людовик XVII. Молодой человек старательно изучал биографию французского короля, пытался отыскать в разных источниках как можно более фактов о жизни монарха. Эта историческая личность для Чайковского была и осталась примером для подражания.

Когда Петруше исполнилось восемь лет, их большое семейство переезжает в Москву. Илья Петрович в тот период вышел на пенсию, искал достойное место работы. Через два месяца Чайковские оказались в Санкт-Петербурге, где отец сразу же пристроил своих старших сыновей в пансион Шмеллинга. В северной столице Петруша продолжает обучаться музыке. Он знакомится с балетом, оперой, симфоническим оркестром. Мальчик долго привыкает к сырому климату Петербурга, часто болеет. В подростковом возрасте он перенес корь, тяжелый недуг не прошел бесследно. В течение всей жизни у композитора время от времени случались припадки.

Чайковские устроили старшего сына Николая в Институт Корпуса горных инженеров. Все остальное семейство отправилось в город Алапаевск. Здесь Илья Петрович занял должность руководителя завода наследников Яковлева. Гувернантку-француженку к тому времени сменила русская женщина, Анастасия Петрова, которая стала заниматься воспитанием и обучением юного Петра Ильича. В 1849 году семейство Чайковских увеличилось, родились два младших сына-близнеца Анатолий и Модест.

Образование и служба

Петруша с ранних лет увлекался музыкой, и родители прекрасно видели, что у него есть способности. Но они совсем не думали, что занятие музыкой может стать достойной профессией для их одаренного сына. Это выглядело как-то несерьезно. Самое интересное, что их мнение полностью разделял и сам будущий композитор. Он с удовольствием посещал оперу, балет, приходил в восторг от концертов выдающихся музыкантов, но не связывал свое будущее с музыкой.

Настало время определяться с местом учебы. Сначала у родителей была идея отправить Петрушу учиться на горного инженера, так же, как и старшего сына. Однако местом его учебы стало Императорское училище правоведения, находящееся в северной столице. С десятилетнего возраста Петруша обучается юриспруденции. Он учился здесь десять лет. Вначале мальчику было очень тяжело, он тосковал по родителям, привычной жизни. Его родители жили слишком далеко и не могли часто навещать ребенка.

В Петербурге у Чайковских был друг – Модест Вакар, он стал настоящим попечителем для малолетнего студента. Но для самого Вакара теплое отношение и участие к маленькому Чайковскому закончились настоящей трагедией. Малолетний студент совершенно случайно, непреднамеренно занес в дом Вакара скарлатину. Этой болезнью заразился маленький сынок Модеста, и спасти ребенка не удалось.

В 1852 году Илья Петрович оставил службу. Все большое семейство отправилось в Петербург. Петруше стало намного легче, теперь он не только виделся со своей семьей, но и часто посещал русский балет, оперу. У молодого Чайковского появился близкий друг, им стал одноклассник Алексей Апухтин, будущий поэт. Этот человек оказал большое влияние на формирование личности и взглядов Петра Ильича.

Молодому Чайковскому было только 14 лет, когда умерла его мама. Она скончалась от холеры, большое семейство осиротело. Всех старших детей Илья Петрович устроил в образовательные учреждения закрытого типа. С ним остались только близнецы, которым на тот момент не исполнилось и пяти лет. Втроем они временно поселились у брата Ильи Петровича.

В течение трех лет, с 1855 по 1858 год, Петр Ильич берет уроки игры на фортепиано у Рудольфа Кюндингера, известного немецкого пианиста. Отец будущего композитора нанял этого музыканта, но через три года занятия пришлось прекратить. Старший Чайковский вложил все свои средства в дело, которое принесло сплошные убытки. Музыканту было нечем заплатить за его работу. Но инженер Чайковский был на редкость удачлив, совсем скоро он стал главой Технологического института. Ему предложили хорошее жалование, огромную казенную квартиру.

Училище правоведения Петр окончил в 1859 году. Здесь его все любили – и педагоги, и сверстники. Чайковский всегда умел располагать людей к себе, привлекать их теплым отношением и добрым нравом.

Карьера юриста

Молодому человеку предложили место в Министерстве юстиции, он вел крестьянские дела. В часы досуга Петр Ильич посещает оперу, занимается музыкой. Когда молодому юристу исполнился 21 год, он впервые побывал за границей, посетил несколько европейских стран. Чайковский за границей выступал в качестве переводчика, он сопровождал инженера Писарева, приятеля своего отца. Будущий композитор к тому периоду прекрасно знал два языка – французский и итальянский.

Творчество

Молодой сотрудник Министерства Юстиции даже не помышляет о музыкальной карьере. Он не сознает силу своего дара, но отец будущего композитора к тому времени уже хорошо понимает, что у его сына – великий талант. Однажды Илья Петрович даже посетил Кюндингера, желая убедиться, что он не ошибается относительно большого дарования Петра.

Однако немецкий пианист не был в большом восторге от способностей молодого Чайковского, он отозвался о них весьма прохладно. Кроме того, его ученику уже исполнился 21 год, а в таком возрасте заниматься музыкой несколько поздно. Но Илья Петрович настаивал, чтобы сын совмещал работу с получением музыкального образования.

В этот период в Санкт-Петербурге открылась новая консерватория под руководством Антона Рубинштейна. Петр загорелся идеей учиться здесь, он стал одним из первых студентов этого учебного заведения по классу композиции. Юриспруденцию пришлось забросить, совмещать работу с учебой было невозможно.

Дипломной работой Чайковского стала кантата «К радости», созданная к русскоязычному переводу оды Шиллера с таким же названием. Петербургские музыканты не одобрили это музыкальное произведение. Самым резким был критик Цезарь Кюи, он назвал Чайковского слабым композитором, обвинил его в консерватизме. На самом деле это было совсем не так – для Чайковского музыка была и оставалась свободой, его кумирами были музыканты, не признававшие правил и авторитетов.

Молодой композитор выстоял под градом критики. Он окончил консерваторию с серебряной медалью, высшей наградой того времени, и сразу же принялся за работу. Николай Рубинштейн, брат знаменитого музыканта, предложил ему должность профессора в Московской консерватории.

Расцвет музыкальной карьеры

Молодой Чайковский стал замечательным педагогом. Он очень многое сделал для правильной организации учебного процесса. Учебников по профилю было очень мало, профессор сам пишет методические пособия, занимается переводами зарубежных учебников. В течение двух лет он успевает преподавать и занимается творчеством. Но это было очень нелегко, и Петр Ильич решил покинуть консерваторию.

В это время ему очень помогала богатая покровительница, вдова Надежда фон Мекк. Ежегодная сумма в шесть тысяч рублей позволяла молодому композитору не думать о хлебе насущном. Свое время он стал тратить только на творчество. В этот период он знакомится с композиторами из знаменитой «Могучей кучки». Главой содружества был Милий Балакирев, именно он посоветовал Чайковскому создать увертюру-фантазию по мотивам «Ромео и Джульетты» (1869).

После этого композитор пишет не менее знаменитое произведение — симфоническую фантазию «Буря» (1873), идея создания которой принадлежала музыкальному критику Владимиру Стасову. В этот период Петр Ильич много путешествует, набирается сил и вдохновения для творчества. 70-е годы можно с полным правом назвать периодом расцвета его музыкальной карьеры. Он создает балет «Лебединое озеро», оперу «Опричник», Вторую, Третью симфонию, Фантазию «Франческа да Римини», оперу «Евгений Онегин», фортепианный цикл «Времена года».

В следующее десятилетие он часто бывает за границей в рамках концертных поездок. Чайковский подружился со многими выдающимися музыкантами – Эдвардом Григом, Антонином Дворжаком, Густавом Малером. Во время концертов он выступает в качестве дирижера. Петр Ильич побывал и в Соединенных Штатах, где его ждал оглушительный успех. Теперь уже никто не сомневался в гениальности этого композитора.

В последние годы свой жизни он живет в подмосковном Клину, занимается благотворительностью, жертвует деньги на школу, помогает бороться с частыми пожарами. В этом городе он пишет балет «Щелкунчик», оперу «Пиковая дама», «Иоланту», Пятую симфонию, увертюру «Гамлет». Композитор получает международное признание, в 1892 году он избран членом-корреспондентом Академии изящных искусств в Париже, в 1893 году — почетным доктором Кембриджского университета.

Личная жизнь

Петр Ильич был очень дружелюбным человеком, у него сохранилось много фотографий с друзьями-мужчинами. И хотя это самые обычные фото, они вызывали жгучий интерес у определенных личностей, явно завидовавших композитору. Еще при жизни композитора общество часто обсуждало нетрадиционную ориентацию известного музыканта.

Ходили сплетни, что его мужчинами являются братья Сафроновы (Алексей и Михаил), Владимир Давыдов, Иосиф Котек. При этом в жизни знаменитого музыканта присутствовали и женщины. Об одной из них, Надежде фон Мекк, уже упоминалось выше. Француженку Арто Дезире все называли избранницей Петра. Но девушка вышла замуж за испанца Мариана Падилью. Официальной супругой композитора стала Антонина Милюкова. Она была младше своего гениального мужа на восемь лет. Этот союз был недолгим, через несколько недель супруги расстались, хотя развестись они так и не успели.

Злопыхатели говорили, что все связи с женщинами у Чайковского – обыкновенная фикция, которой он прикрывает свое влечение к мужчинам. Как было на самом деле – неизвестно, да это и не так важно, возможно, это просто выдумки завистников, пытающихся очернить личность великого музыканта. Маленький пример – тот же самый Рудольф Кюндингер, который по какой-то причине так яростно отрицал наличие таланта у Чайковского. Вряд ли опытный педагог мог так сильно ошибаться в степени одаренности своего подопечного. Скорее всего, здесь тоже взыграла обыкновенная зависть.

Что касается личной жизни музыканта, мы не имеем права судить его. Во главу угла здесь следует поставить другое – гениальность русского композитора, который оставил нам свои бессмертные творения.

Причина смерти

В ноябре 1893 года композитор умер от холеры. Его прах погребен в Некрополе мастеров искусств.

Слушать композиции

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Пётр Ильич Чайковский. Биография

Пётр Ильич Чайковский родился 7 мая 1840 года в поселке Воткинск. Сейчас территория поселка относится к Удмуртии. Отец Петра Ильича, Илья Петрович Чайковский не владел музыкальной профессией. Он происходил от казачьего рода Чаек, который хорошо известен Украине и работал простым инженером. Мать Петра Ильича Чайковского, Александра Андреевна Ассиер окончила училище для сирот, где занималась литературой, географией, арифметикой, риторикой и иностранными языками.

В свое время отец Петра Ильича Чайковского получил хорошую должность, из-за чего переехал на Урал. Он стал руководителем Камско-Воткинского сталелитейного завода, одного из крупнейших предприятий. Ему предоставили не только большой дом с прислугой, но и войско, в котором служило сто казаков. Среди гостей большого дома бывали дворяне, столичная молодежь, английские инженеры и другие представители высшего общества.

В семье Чайковских было шестеро детей: старший — Николай, второй сын — Пётр (Пётр Ильич Чайковский), Ипполит и младшая сестра Александра, позже родились близнецы Модест и Анатолий. Кроме того, в большом доме всегда жили родственники Ильи Петровича Чайковского, а позже и гувернантка детей, француженка Фанни Дюрбах из Монбельяра, которую встретили как члена семьи.

Из воспоминаний М. И. Чайковского: «Навстречу выбежала масса людей, начались объятия и поцелуи, среди которых трудно было различить родных от прислуги, так ласковы и теплы были проявления всеобщей радости. Мой отец подошёл к молодой девушке и расцеловал её как родную. Эта простота, патриархальность отношений сразу ободрили и согрели молодую иностранку и поставили в положение почти члена семьи».

Несмотря на то, что родители Петра Ильича Чайковского не были профессиональными музыкантами, музыка всегда жила в их доме. Илья Петрович умел играть на флейте, Александра Андреевна – на фортепиано и арфе, говорили также, что она чудесно исполняет романсы, а гувернантка просто очень любила музыку.

В доме Чайковских стоял оркестрион (механический орган) и рояль. Пётр Ильич брал уроки игры на рояле у крепостной Марьи Пальчиковой. Он не только был талантлив в музыке, но и сочинял стихи.

Старшие дети Чайковских получили хорошее образование: они учились в Санкт-Петербурге в пансионе Шмеллинга. Здесь Пётр Ильич познакомился с балетом, оперой и симфоническим оркестром. В юном возрасте случилась беда: Пётр Чайковский переболел корью, от последствий которой страдал всю жизнь.

В 1850 году Пётр Ильич Чайковский поступил в Императорское училище правоведения, где проучился вплоть до 1859 года. До разорения отца и кончины матери Пётр Ильич также брал уроки игры на фортепиано у знаменитого немецкого пианиста Рудольфа Кюндингера. Из-за бедственного положения семьи их позже пришлось прекратить.

После окончания учёбы Пётр Ильич Чайковский работал в Министерстве юстиции, где вёл дела крестьян. В свободное время он ходил в театр и музицировал. В 1861 году Чайковский впервые побывал за границей, где посетил Гамбург, Берлин, Антверпен, Брюссель, Париж, Остенде и Лондон.

Пётр Ильич Чайковский. Музыкальная карьера

В 21 год юный Пётр Чайковский еще не думал о музыкальной карьере, а музыку считал лишь своим увлечением. Всё перевернуло открытие в Санкт-Петербурге новой консерватории, руководителем которой стал сам Антон Рубинштейн. Пётр Ильич Чайковский твёрдо решил туда поступать. Это ему удалось, он стал одним из первых студентов по классу компощиции и окончательно бросил юриспруденцию.

Впоследствии Пётр Ильич преподавал в Московской консерватории и даже сам переводил обучающую литературу для своих студентов. В Москве же начался подъем его творческой карьеры. В 1873 году Чайковский написал другое свое знаменитое произведение – симфоническую фантазию «Буря», снова начал путешествовать, учиться и искать вдохновение.

В 1870-ые годы родились другие великие произведения классика:

• балет «Лебединое озеро»,
• опера «Опричник»,
• Концерт для фортепиано с оркестром,
• Вторая и Третья симфонии,
• фантазия «Франческа да Римини»,
• опера «Евгений Онегин»,
• фортепианный цикл «Времена года» и многие другие.

Пётр Ильич Чайковский путешествовал с концертными гастролями, дружил со знаменитыми музыкантами Европы, перенимая их опыт. Незадолго до своей кончины он переехал в Клин, где много занимался благотворительностью. В 1885 году он помогал бороться с пожаром, из-за которого в городе сгорело несколько десятков домов.

Даже на закате жизненного пути Чайковский продолжал заниматься музыкой. В этот период он написа:

• балет «Щелкунчик»,
• оперу «Пиковая дама»,
• увертюру «Гамлет»,
• оперу «Иоланта»,
• Пятую симфонию.

Пётр Ильич Чайковский получил международное признание. В 1892 году его избрали членом-корреспондентом Академии изящных искусств в Париже, а в 1893 году – почетным доктором университета в Кембридже.

Чайковский скончался 6 ноября 1893 года от холеры. Его отпевали в Казанском соборе, а похоронили в Некрополе мастеров искусств.

Творчество Петра Ильича Чайковского

Пётр Ильич Чайковский работал во всех известных музыкальных жанрах своего времени, но отдавал предпочтение масштабным: операм и симфониям. Его занимали глубокий внутренний мир человека, его душа и переживание драмы. Музыка Чайковского при этом очень тонкая, лирическая и певучая. Его произведения вызывают сильный эмоциональный отклик слушателя. Даже малые музыкальные жанры при этом Чайковский сопровождал симфонической масштабностью. Одной из главных тем творчества Петра Ильича Чайковского стали сострадание и любовь к людям.

Чайковский работал и в области хоровой духовной музыки. Продолжателями его музыкальных традиций считали С. Танеева, А. Глазунова, С. Рахманинова, А. Скрябина. Музыка Чайковского стала символом русской жизни и культуры XIX в. Благодаря наследию Чайковского мы смогли заново открыть для себя образы русской и мировой литературы — Пушкина и Гоголя, Шекспира и Данте, русской лирической поэзии второй половины XIX в. Чайковский заслуженно при жизни получил мировую известность и до сих пор считается одним из лучших отечественных композиторов.

Читайте также:

• За мелодией Чайковского я услышала: «Помилуй меня». И жизнь будто перевернулась
• Сэр Джон Тавенер — православный британский композитор

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz3XaozGKDM

­­Краткая биография Чайковского — 1 вариант

Чайковский Петр Ильич родился в 25 апреля 1840 году в поселке Воткинск. Жил он в семье, где было много детей. В его доме всегда играла музыка. Чайковские увлекались музыкой, поэтому он с ранних лет хорошо имел талант игры на фортепиано, а некоторое время спустя чудесно разбирался и играл по нотам.

Через 9 лет они переезжают в Алапаевск. Недолго пожив там, перебираются в Петербург.

Начальное образование Чайковский получил дома, последующее в пансионе, где проучился 2 года, а следом в школе правоведения.

С 1860 по 1865 обучался в консерватории, которую закончил с серебряной медалью (наивысшая награда тех времен). Позже уезжает в Москву, где ему предлагают место педагога по музыке. Пробыв в Москве 10 лет, он собирает вещи и перебирается за границу. Композитор очень тесно общается с Надеждой фон Мекк – его фанаткой, которая к тому же и очень богата.

За время путешествий он напишет много произведений. В основном, вальсы, увертюры, сюиты. Самые знаменитые постановки мы знаем и по сей день.

Ушел из жизни Петр Чайковский 25 октября 1893 в Петербурге от холеры. Похоронен там же.

Его именем названы улицы и консерватории в Киеве и Москве. Много памятников было установлено в его честь.

И сегодня Чайковского с удовольствием слушают во всем мире.

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Краткая биография Чайковского — 2 вариант

Петр Ильич Чайковский известен как один из величайших композиторов не только в России, но и во всем мире. За свои 53 года жизни он написал более 80 музыкальных произведений, в том числе 10 опер и 3 балета.

Петр Ильич Чайковский родился 7 мая 1840 года в Вятской губернии Российской империи (современный город Воткинск в Удмуртии). Его отец – Илья Петрович Чайковский, выдающийся русский инженер. Мать – Александра Андреевна Ассиер, дочка крупного таможенного чиновника, который был родом из Франции.

Родители Петра Ильича любили музыку. Его мать играла на фортепиано и пела, в доме стоял механический орган — оркестрина, в исполнении которого маленький Пётр впервые услышал «Дон Жуана» Моцарта. Пока семья жила в Воткинске, им часто доводилось слышать по вечерам мелодичные народные песни рабочих завода и крестьян.

Детство Чайковского

Чувствительность натуры Петра Ильича проявилась в раннем детстве. Француженка гувернантка Фанни Дюрбах, которую он обожал, сразу заметила в 7-летнем мальчике нежную душу, тягу ко всему прекрасному.  Она приоткрыла ему мир искусства, рассказывала о жизни композиторов.

В родительском доме в Воткинске был механический орган.

В него вставлялись валики с крючочками, заводилась пружина, и в комнате звучали отрывки из популярных опер Россини, Беллини, Моцарта.

Маленький Петя слушал оркестрино часами. Фанни не раз заставала мальчика в слезах. Втайне от взрослых он садился за фортепиано и повторял услышанное по памяти.

Учеба

В 1849 году семья переехала в город Алапаевск, а в 1850 году — в Санкт-Петербург. Там родители отправляют Чайковского в Императорское училище правоведения, находившееся вблизи от улицы, ныне носящей имя композитора.

Чайковский провёл 2 года за границей, в 1300 км от родного дома, так как возраст поступления в училище составлял 12 лет. Для Чайковского разлука с матерью была очень сильной душевной травмой. В 1852 году, поступив в училище, он начал серьёзно заниматься музыкой, которую преподавали факультативно.

Чайковский был известен как неплохой пианист и хорошо импровизировал. С 16 лет начал уделять большее внимание музыке, занимаясь у известного педагога Луиджи Пиччоли. Затем наставником будущего композитора стал Рудольф Кюндингер.

Окончив училище в 1859 году, Чайковский получил чин титулярного советника и начал работать в Министерстве юстиции. В свободное от службы время посещал оперный театр, где на него сильное впечатление оказывали постановки опер Моцарта и Глинки.

Музыкальная деятельность Петра Ильича

В 1862 году Петр Ильич оставил карьеру юриста и поступил в консерваторию в класс композиции Антона Рубинштейна. Курс он окончил с золотой медалью и вскоре переехал в Москву, став профессором вновь открытой консерватории.

После первого же исполнения сочиненной им кантаты на оду Фридриха Шиллера «К радости» к нему пришли известность и успех. Критики отмечали, что в России появился необыкновенно талантливый композитор. Следом Чайковский написал свою первую симфонию «Зимние грезы».

В 1868 году Чайковский неожиданно влюбился в итальянскую оперную певицу Дезире Арто, гастролировавшую в России. Он посвятил ей романс для фортепиано, сделал  предложение. Но брак не состоялся по разным причинам. Дезире уехала из России, а Чайковский остался в расстроенных чувствах.

Музыкальные произведения

От мук неразделенной любви композитора спасло написание музыки. Он создал увертюру-фантазию «Ромео и Джульетта», за ней последовали симфоническая фантазия «Буря» по Шекспиру, «Франческа да Римини» по «Божественной комедии» Данте.

В 1875 году Петр Ильич Чайковский начал работать над балетом «Лебединое озеро», премьера которого состоялась через 2 года в Большом театре с большим успехом. Он продолжал творить в мире сказки, причудливых фантазий, написал новые балеты — «Спящая красавица», «Щелкунчик».

70-е годы XIX века в творчестве Чайковского ― период творческих исканий. Его привлекают историческое прошлое России, русский народный быт, тема человеческой судьбы. В это время он пишет такие сочинения, как оперы «Опричник» и «Кузнец Вакула», музыка к драме Островского «Снегурочка».

Личная жизнь

Творчество Чайковского сопровождал успех, чего нельзя было сказать о его личной жизни. Он совершил безрассудный поступок и женился на девушке, совершенно чуждой ему по духу, далекой от его музыки. Он и сам не знал, зачем это сделал. Начались новые переживания. Спасаясь от жены, он уехал за границу, потом ушел из консерватории. Он искал путь к самому себе. И не находил.

В 1876 году у Чайковского началась переписка с еще одной странной женщиной — богатой меценаткой Надеждой Филаретовной фон Мекк, вдовой, матерью 18 детей, старше его на 10 лет. Она поощряла творчество композитора, материально поддерживала, но они ни разу не встретились, хотя оба жили в Москве.

Последние годы жизни

До конца жизни Петр Ильич Чайковский сочинял оперы, симфонии, разъезжал по другим странам с концертами. Его музыка звучала во всем цивилизованном мире. В последние месяцы жизни он создал 6-ю «Патетическую симфонию». Она оказалась его завещанием.

Умер Петр Ильич 6 ноября 1893 года в возрасте 53-х лет от холеры. Все расходы на погребение великого композитора на себя взял сам император – Александр III. Петр Ильич Чайковский был похоронен в Александро-Невской лавре в Некрополе мастеров искусств.

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Краткая биография Чайковского — 3 вариант

Петр Ильич Чайковский (1840–1893 гг.) – знаменитый русский композитор, дирижер. Один из величайших композиторов мира, автор более 80 музыкальных произведений, среди которых известнейшие балеты «Щелкунчик» и «Лебединое озеро». Один из самых исполняемых композиторов во всем мире.

Родился Петр Ильич Чайковский 25 апреля (7 мая) 1840 года в городе Воткинск в многодетной семье инженера. В доме Чайковских часто звучала музыка. Его родители увлекались игрой на фортепиано, органе.
В биографии Чайковского важно отметить, что в возрасте пяти лет он уже умел играть на фортепиано, еще через три года превосходно играл по нотам. В 1849 году семья Чайковских переехала в Алапаевск, а затем в Санкт-Петербург.

Обучение

Первоначальное образование Чайковским было получено дома. Затем Петр два года занимался в пансионе, после чего – в училище правоведения Петербурга. Творчество Чайковского в этот период проявлялось в факультативных занятиях музыкой. Смерть матери в 1862 году сильно повлияла на ранимого ребенка. После окончания училища в 1859 году Петр стал служить в Департаменте юстиции.

В свободное время часто посещал оперный театр, особенно сильное впечатление на него оказали постановки опер Моцарта и Глинки.
Проявив склонность к сочинению музыки, Чайковский становится студентом консерватории Петербурга. Дальнейшие занятия в жизни Петра Ильича у великолепных преподавателей Н. Зарембы, А. Рубинштейна во многом помогли формированию музыкальной личности. После окончания консерватории композитор Чайковский был приглашен Николаем Рубинштейном (братом преподавателя) в Московскую консерваторию на должность профессора.
Творческая и личная жизнь

Многие концерты Чайковского были написаны во время работы в консерватории. Опера «Ундина»(1869 г.) не была поставлена, автор уничтожил ее. Лишь небольшая часть ее позже была представлена как балет Чайковского «Лебединое озеро».

Стоит кратко отметить, что в 1877 году, чтобы избавиться от сплетен о своей нетрадиционной ориентации, Чайковский решил жениться на студентке консерватории Антонине Милюковой. Не испытывая к жене чувств, спустя несколько недель он навсегда уехал от нее. С тех пор супруги жили раздельно, они так и не смогли развестись в силу различных обстоятельств.

В 1878 году он покидает консерваторию и уезжает за границу. В то же время Чайковский близко общается с Надеждой фон Мекк – богатой поклонницей его музыки. Она ведет с ним переписку, поддерживает его материально и морально.
За двухлетнее время проживания в Италии, Швейцарии появляются новые великолепные произведения Чайковского: опера «Евгений Онегин», Четвертая симфония.
В мае 1878 года Чайковский делает вклад в детскую музыкальную литературу: пишет сборник пьес для детей под названием «Детский альбом».

После материальной помощи Надежды фон Мекк композитор много путешествует. С 1881 по 1888 год им было написано множество произведений. В частности, вальсы, симфонии, увертюры, сюиты.
Наконец в биографии Петра Чайковского установился спокойный творческий период, тогда же автор сам смог дирижировать на концертах.

Смерть и наследие

Умер Чайковский в Петербурге 25 октября (6 ноября) 1893 от холеры. Его похоронили в Александро-Невской лавре в Санкт-Петербурге.
Именем великого композитора названы улицы, консерватории в Москве и Киеве, а также прочие музыкальные учреждения (институты, колледжи, училища, школы) во многих городах бывшего СССР. В его честь установлены памятники, его именем назван театр и концертный зал, симфонический оркестр и международный музыкальный конкурс.

Она ведет с ним переписку, поддерживает его материально и морально.
За двухлетнее время проживания в Италии, Швейцарии появляются новые великолепные произведения Чайковского: опера «Евгений Онегин», Четвертая симфония.
В мае 1878 года Чайковский делает вклад в детскую музыкальную литературу: пишет сборник пьес для детей под названием «Детский альбом».

После материальной помощи Надежды фон Мекк композитор много путешествует. С 1881 по 1888 год им было написано множество произведений. В частности, вальсы, симфонии, увертюры, сюиты.
Наконец в биографии Петра Чайковского установился спокойный творческий период, тогда же автор сам смог дирижировать на концертах.

Смерть и наследие

Умер Чайковский в Петербурге 25 октября (6 ноября) 1893 от холеры. Его похоронили в Александро-Невской лавре в Санкт-Петербурге.
Именем великого композитора названы улицы, консерватории в Москве и Киеве, а также прочие музыкальные учреждения (институты, колледжи, училища, школы) во многих городах бывшего СССР. В его честь установлены памятники, его именем назван театр и концертный зал, симфонический оркестр и международный музыкальный конкурс.

Петр Ильич Чайковский

Один из самых лиричных композиторов, овеянный всемирной славой. Его именем в России названа главная вотчина, воспитывающая российских музыкантов – Московская государственная консерватория. А также престижный международный конкурс академических исполнителей, крупнейшее событие мирового масштаба. Пётр Ильич Чайковский – выдающий русский композитор, целиком отдававший себя миру вдохновения и создавший такие гениальные творения, что они во всём мире в нынешнее время являются самыми исполняемыми произведениями. Очаровывающий мелодизм, блестящее владение композиторской техникой, а также умение видеть в любом трагизме светлое и гармоничное делает Петра Ильича величайшей творческой личностью не только в отечественной, но и во всей мировой музыкальной культуре.

Краткую биографию Петра Ильича Чайковского и множество интересных фактов о композиторе читайте на нашей странице.

Краткая биография Чайковского

Петр Ильич родился в российской глубинке – селении Воткинск близ небольшого завода 7 мая 1840 года в семье горного инженера. С рождения мальчик впитал в себя исконный дух русской интеллигенции. Детство его прошло в родном имении под сенью деревенской природы, среди живописных видов и звуков народных песен. Все эти впечатления ранних лет позднее оформились в необыкновенную любовь к Родине, ее истории и культуре, ее такому творческому народу.

Образование детям в этой большой и дружной семье стремились дать лучшее. С ними всегда была гувернантка Фанни Дюрбах, которая, кстати, сохранила очень много воспоминаний о маленьком Петруше. С детства это был самый впечатлительный, тонко чувствующий, ранимый, талантливый ребенок с тончайшей нервной организацией. Няня называла его «фарфоровый мальчик». Такая хрупкая, неврастеничная психическая структура, такое острое восприятие жизни и чувствительность сохранились у него на всю жизнь.

Дом был наполнен музыкой, родители будущего композитора сами любили музицировать, они устраивали музыкальные вечера, в гостиной стоял механический орган (оркестрина). Любовь к занятиям на фортепиано ему привила горячо любимая матушка, и уже с 5 лет он довольно регулярно упражняется. Занятия музыкой захватывали его целиком, но, испугавшись за неустойчивую психику Пети, родители отправили его учиться в Императорское училище правоведения в Санкт-Петербурге, считая, что музыка ему во вред.

 

Биография Чайковского гласит, что по окончании учебы, в 1859 году Петр Ильич немного поработал в чине титулярного советника в Министерстве юстиции, продолжая факультативно заниматься музыкой, посещая музыкальные вечера и оперные спектакли. К тому моменту он уже считался хорошим пианистом и импровизатором. Благодаря службе он впервые попал за границу, поехав в трехмесячное турне с инженером Писаревым в качестве переводчика. Позднее поездки в Европу с гастрольными выступлениями или для отдыха станут для него важнейшей частью творческой деятельности. Сама возможность побывать в Европе, приобщиться к ее культурным памятникам будоражила его.

В 1862 году он окончательно решает связать свою жизнь с музыкой. Точнее, для себя он определил это как служение Музыке. Он поступает в только что открывшуюся Санкт-Петербургскую консерваторию, где обучается по классу композиции. Там он знакомится с Антоном Рубинштейном, который оказал значительное влияние на его жизнь. Так вскоре после окончания консерватории Чайковским (с большой серебряной медалью, высшей наградой), Рубинштейн приглашает его в Москву – теперь уже преподавать основы сочинения, гармонии, теории музыки и оркестровки.

Педагогическая деятельность Чайковского

Стоит отметить, что московская консерватория на тот момент (в 1866 году) тоже только начала существовать. По сути, на тот момент не было отечественной школы, обучающей исполнительскому или композиторскому мастерству. Были разрозненные переводы западных учебников, отдельные классы учителей, которые не стали концертирующими музыкантами, а передавали свои навыки ученикам по принципу «делай как я».

Чайковский не только читал лекции, многие учебные программы и пособия он написал непосредственно сам, что-то переводил из зарубежных источников. Остались записи лекций его ученика, выдающегося русского композитора Сергея Танеева, из которых можно судить о глубине познаний, способности вдумчиво анализировать музыку с точки зрения ее строения, формы, элементов. Это титанический методический труд, переоценить который невозможно.

Благодаря стараниям Петра Ильича обучение российских музыкантов и особенно композиторов приобрело систему, метод, цельность. Долгое время эта часть его биографии опускалась, ее считали незначительным эпизодом. Виной тому собственные высказывания Чайковского о том, что педагогическая работа его тяготит, ученики глупы и невежественны. Но все эти слова совершенно не отражают истину – явление Чайковского как педагога в тогдашней национальной музыкальной культуре предопределило на столетия (!) появление русской композиторской школы и уникальных, самобытных, гениальных композиторов. Это целая веха в отечественной музыкальной педагогике.

Примечательно, что такой серьезный вклад в преподавание и критику Чайковский внес, почти не уменьшая времени на собственные сочинения. Это характеризует его как человека чудовищной работоспособности, трудоголика, который бросил каждую минуту своего земного пребывания на алтарь Музыки.

 

Становление как композитора

Его творческий путь не был усыпан розами. В самом начале его часто резко критиковали за желание угодить слушателю. Затем, когда он уже часто бывал в Европе и пытался соединить лучшее от западной культуры с традиционными русскими чертами, ему трудно было встретить единодушие аудитории. По-настоящему его гений оценили лишь в конце.

Ранние сочинения Чайковского датируются 1854 годом. Это были небольшие пьесы — «Анастасия-вальс» и романс «Мой гений, мой ангел, мой друг…». Ученические его работы консерваторского периода уже выдают в нем мастера. Одна из работ – программное произведение к драме Н.А. Островского «Гроза». Со знаменитым драматургом впоследствии Петра Ильича связывала не только нежная дружба, но и творческие проекты. Так в 1873 году была написана музыка к сказке «Снегурочка», позднее на эту же тему написал оперу Николай Римский-Корсаков.

Это время (конец 60-х и начало 70-х) было для него творческим поиском, наиболее обращенным к народному искусству. Тогда же примерно был издан его сборник «50 русских народных песен для фортепиано в 4 руки». Сказочно-мифический сюжет, присущий фольклору, был воплощен в опере «Ундина». Первая постановка ее прошла с определенным успехом, но уже к концу сезона ее сняли из театрального репертуара. Рукопись композитор уничтожил. Лишь некоторые музыкальные фрагменты перешли позднее в «Снегурочку». По ним можно судить, что к тому моменту Петр Ильич владел техникой колористического письма.

За годы работы в консерватории он написал много произведений, из знаковых можно перечислить 4 симфонии, 5 опер, принесший ему мировую славу балет «Лебединое озеро», концерт для фортепиано с оркестром, 3 струнных квартета.

Постепенно он пришел к пониманию, что должен больше времени посвящать сочинению музыки. Изнуряющая работа в консерватории требовала очень много времени и сил. И в 1878 году Чайковский проводит последние свои занятия, но до конца жизни сохраняет переписку со многими учениками, ставшими потом маститыми исполнителями. В письмах он всегда оставался их педагогом и цензором, давал рекомендации.

В 1877 году композитор начинает работу над «Евгением Онегиным». Поглощенный сочинением, он как-то слишком поспешно женится на Антонине Милюковой. Брак развалился буквально через несколько недель. Все в молодой жене Чайковского раздражало. А совместная жизнь с ней стала серьезным испытанием для него. Душевные терзания этого периода привели к нервному срыву и сказались на музыке. Так совпало, что написанные в этот момент «Евгений Онегин» и 4-я симфония стали вершинами его творчества.

В 1878 году он уезжает оправиться от происшедших событий за границу. Тогда помощь ему стала оказывать Надежда Филаретовна фон Мекк, меценат и поклонница творчества Петра Ильича. В течение долгих 14 лет они переписывались, но так ни разу и не встретились. Тем не менее, ее моральная и материальная помощь позволяли Петру Ильичу заниматься творчеством относительно свободно, он мог не оглядываться на издателей или дирекцию театров.

С 1880-х годов он много гастролирует по миру. Он сводит личное знакомство с такими столпами европейской и русской культуры как Лев Толстой, Эдвард Григ, Антонин Дворжак и многими другими. Вся его такая сильная впечатлительность как губка впитывала богатство и разнообразие мира. Он один из немногих счастливчиков, кому удалось завоевать признание публики, критиков, коллег еще при жизни.

Согласно биографии Чайковского в последние годы его неизъяснимо потянуло на родину, композитору хотелось жить вдали от шумных городов, где на улице его мог узнать любой. Он признавался, что бесконечно устал от окружающей его суеты. Поэтому он выбирал небольшие дачные поселки под Москвой, где арендовал усадьбу. Последний дом, в котором он жил в подмосковном Клину, стал домом-музеем мемориальным заповедником имени композитора.

Умер он в 1893 году неожиданно. Врачи диагностировали холеру, которая развилась буквально за несколько дней. Незадолго до этого ему подали в одном из ресторанов стакан некипяченой воды. Хотя и существовали другие версии по поводу смерти Чайковского, доказательств их предоставлено не было.

Интересные факты о Чайковском

• Долгое время жизнеописание этого величайшего композитора, внесшего значительный вклад в мировую культуру, было окружено мифами и легендами. Галантный XIX век не допускал упоминания фактов, даже в малейшей степени компрометирующих столь выдающегося человека. Далее эту традицию подхватила советская идеология, привнесшая в образ композитора новые черты, отвечающие задачам построения нового общества. Начало XXI века принесло моду на обсуждение самого личного и интимного, и превратило внутренний мир Художника в большую проходную площадь.
• В ранней молодости Петр Ильич был влюблен в бельгийскую певицу Дезире Арто, он даже собирался сделать ей предложение. Но она внезапно уехала и вышла замуж за другого. Чайковский невероятно страдал, посвятил ей романс «Забыть так скоро». В фильме Игоря Таланкина 1970 года «Чайковский» этот эпизод показан выразительно. В главной роли блистательный Иннокентий Смоктуновский, а в роли Дезире – Майя Плисецкая в необычном для себя амплуа.
• Из биографии Чайковского мы знаем, что в 1893 году композитор был награжден почетной ученой степенью от Кембриджского Университета.
• В настоящее время ведутся судебные слушания по делу о праве на название. Балет «Спящая красавица» невольно стал предметом горячего спора с компанией «Уолт Дисней» за эмблему. Также ожидает вердикта заявка кинокомпании на патент имени «Принцесса Аврора», которая также является главной героиней произведения Чайковского. Примечательно, что Дисней воспользовался музыкой Петра Ильича при создании одноименного мультфильма 1959 года.
• Большую часть жизни Чайковский был подвержен депрессиям. С 14-ти лет по поводу рано ушедшей матери, чью потерю он долго оплакивал. Он также был ипохондриком. Больше всего он боялся оглохнуть как Бетховен.

• «Вдохновение — гость, который охотно не посещает ленивое». Этим принципом он руководствовался всю свою жизнь.
• В 1877 богатая предпринимательница Надежда фон Мек поддержала скрипача Иосифа Котека, который был бывшим студентом и другом Чайковского и был рекомендован ей пианистом Николаем Рубинштейном. Она была впечатлена композитором Чайковским, и расспрашивала Рубинштейна подробно о нем. Именно Котек, однако, убедил ее написать ему, после чего она представилась как “пылкий поклонник”. Таким образом, их отношения закрепились как эпистолярная дружба: между 1877 и 1890, они обменялись более чем 1200 письмами, и она была той, кто поддержал его после того, как критики разорвали его Пятую Симфонию. Она поощряла его упорно продолжать заниматься сочинениями. Они просто встретились лично однажды, случайно, в августе 1879.

Характерные особенности музыки Чайковского

Среди музыковедов нередко мнение, что Чайковский – великий оперный, симфонический, балетный композитор, но камерная или инструментальная музыка у него слабоваты, не столь интересны. Отмечают также его «нефортепианное мышление», мешающее создать малыми выразительными средствами нечто по-настоящему грандиозное. Это ошибочное мнение. Чего только стоят «6 пьес для фортепиано», это целый спектакль для исполнителя – спектакль одного актера, где он может показать все свое прекрасное чувствование и музыкальность.

Его мелодике свойственна невероятная интонационная тонкость. У него как у Баха в музыке закодированы интонации. Их тончайшие переливы и игра являются его индивидуальной композиторской чертой.

Критика Чайковского

Мимолетной считают писательскую деятельность композитора. Однако, несмотря на недолгий период, который Петр Ильич посвятил литературному опыту, его статьи в журналах «Русские ведомости» и газете «Современная летопись» имели важнейшее значение в культурной жизни России, так как помогали формировать мнение и видение музыки широким массам.

Его собственные высокие нравственные и эстетические идеалы, к которым он стремился осознанно всю свою жизнь, заставляли его размышлять о роли искусства в жизни общества и человека. Он испытывал острую потребность делиться подобными мыслями с соотечественниками. Во многом его взгляды тогда в отношении музыки определяли воззрения современников.

Последними публикациями, написанными Петром Ильичом в командировке в Баварии, стали отчеты о вагнеровских концертах в 1876 году. К концу его Чайковский уже стал символом русской истории, русской интеллигенции, русского духа.

Не Чайковский Чайковский

У Петра Ильича, как ни у какого более композитора, есть произведения, которые официально имеют 2 редакции – одна авторская, другая – с чужими правками. Причем, внесенные изменения значительны. Известно, что сегодня, в силу сложившейся исполнительской традиции, в некоторых произведениях чаще всего звучит не совсем Чайковский. Например, «Вариации на тему рококо» для оркестра и соло виолончели.

Концертных произведений для традиционно «оркестровых» инструментов не так много, любой музыкант-инструменталист мечтает показать красоту звучания своего инструмента отдельно от оркестра. В 1876-77 году появились на свет «Вариации». Это был давно ожидаемый подарок для московского виолончелиста Вильгельма Фитцегагена, близкого друга композитора, по совместительству – первой виолончели Русского Музыкального Общества. Он участвовал во всех премьерах музыки Чайковского как солист, исполнитель первой партии. Главный доверенный музыкант Петра Ильича.

Премьера «Вариаций» состоялась в ноябре 1877 года, она прошла без Чайковского, который в тот момент находился за границей на репетициях и исполнениях других своих сочинений. После премьеры Фитценгаген отнес ноты издателю Чайковского Петру Юргенсону со своими правками. Так он полностью убрал 1 из 8 вариаций, некоторые из них поменял местами и изменил коду. В таком виде ноты пошли в печать.

Изменения, на взгляд «редактора» Фитценгагена, позволили самую виртуозную часть произведения поставить в финал, где он мог блеснуть исполнительским мастерством. Петр Ильич тогда много гастролировал, на письма «редактора» не отвечал. Но не потому, что был согласен с редакцией. А в скором времени даже возражать некому стало – Николай Васильевич умер. Спустя еще несколько лет – и сам Петр Чайковский.

Долгие годы путаница с редакциями оставалась в неизвестности. Артисты за это время привыкли исполнять редактированный вариант. Именно в этой версии, начиная с 1962 года, «Вариации на тему рококо» становятся обязательным произведением на 3 туре конкурса им. Чайковского. Последние 3 десятка тактов для всех исполнителей технически очень трудны, чисто их сыграть практически не возможно. Но долгая практика исполнения именно этого нотного варианта создала произведению своеобразный ореол виртуозности, особой сложности, доступной не каждому исполнителю. Теперь, если кто-то пожелает исполнить его в авторской версии, немедленно будет признан струсившим или мало техничным.

Интерпретации и современные обработки произведений Чайковского

В современном исполнительском искусстве лучшим исполнителем музыки Чайковского считают Михаила Плетнева. В 20-м веке одной из ярчайших и точнейших интерпретаций считали технически совершенную и стилистически безупречную игру Святослава Рихтера. Среди симфонических исполнений выделяют трактовки дирижеров Леонарда Бернстайна, Евгения Мравинского, Евгения Светланова.

Романсная лирика Чайковского чрезвычайно привлекательна для артистов оперы и камерного жанра. Такие разноплановые вокалисты как Сергей Лемешев, Дмитрий Хворостовский, Галина Вишневская, каждый со своей уникальной певческой манерой, с блеском исполняли тонкие, полные невероятной эмоциональной насыщенности романсы Чайковского.

Есть и огромное количество обработок знаменитейших тем Чайковского на электронных инструментах и со спецэффектами:

• Фаустаса Латенаса;
• Клинта Мэнселла;
• Сергея Жилина;
• в джазовой обработке;
• рок-обработке;
• электропоп-обработке.

В 1945 Вере Мухиной торжественно поручили изготовить памятник Петру Ильичу Чайковскому. Задумка скульптуры не сразу была воплощена в жизнь, несколько раз ее приходилось полностью переделывать. В итоге автор не дожила до дня открытия памятника, это была ее последняя работа. Но в окончательной версии он являет собой символ творческого вдохновения. Символично и его расположение – во дворе Московской консерватории, где ежедневно проходят толпы спешащих студентов музыкальных факультетов и туристов, желающих приобщиться к источнику русской музыки.

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Фильм о Чайковском

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Пётр Ильич Чайковский
Portrait c. 1888 by Émile Reutlinger
Born	7 May 1840 Votkinsk, Russian Empire
Died	6 November 1893 (aged 53) Saint Petersburg
Works	List of compositions
Signature

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky^{[n 2]} ( chy-KOF-skee;^[2] 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893)^{[n 3]} was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant as there was little opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching that he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his professional relationship was mixed.

Tchaikovsky’s training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From that reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music, which seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky’s self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. That resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the country’s national identity, an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky’s career.

Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky’s life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother’s early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein, his failed marriage with Antonina Miliukova, and the collapse of his 13-year association with the wealthy patroness Nadezhda von Meck. His homosexuality, which he kept private,^[3][4] has traditionally also been considered a major factor though some scholars have downplayed its importance.^[5][6] Tchaikovsky’s sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, but there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause and whether the death was accidental or intentional.

While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky’s music as «lacking in elevated thought»^[7] and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles.

Life[edit]

Childhood[edit]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on 7 May 1840 in Votkinsk,^[8] a small town in Vyatka Governorate (present-day Udmurtia) in the Russian Empire, into a family with a long history of military service. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines,^[9] and would manage the Kamsko-Votkinsk Ironworks. His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in the village of Nikolaevka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Mykolaivka, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine),^[10] and served first as a physician’s assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather,^[11][12] a Zaporozhian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709.^[13][14]

Tchaikovsky’s mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d’Assier), was the second of Ilya’s three wives, 18 years her husband’s junior and French and German on her father’s side.^[15] Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to a remote area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment, whether in private or at social gatherings.^[16] Of his six siblings,^{[n 4]} Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Alexandra’s marriage to Lev Davydov^[17] would produce seven children^[18] and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult,^[19] especially during his years of wandering.^[19] One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, who went by the nickname ‘Bob’, would become very close to him.^[20]

In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess.^[21] Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise.^[22] By the age of six, he had become fluent in French and German.^[16] Tchaikovsky also became attached to the young woman; her affection for him was reportedly a counter to his mother’s coldness and emotional distance from him,^[23] though others assert that the mother doted on her son.^[24] Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky’s work from this period, including his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes.^[25]

Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five. Precocious, within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. His parents, initially supportive, hired a tutor, bought an orchestrion (a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects), and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons.

However, they decided in 1850 to send Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served the lesser nobility, and thought that this education would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant.^[26] Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time—except for the affluent aristocracy—were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants.^[27]

His father’s income was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible.^[28] As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence’s preparatory school, 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from his family.^[29] Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies.^[30]

Tchaikovsky’s early separation from his mother caused an emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854, when he was fourteen.^{[31][n 5]} The loss of his mother also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition, a waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky’s father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered fully, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy’s mind.^[32] Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard.^[33]

Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged the gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera^[34] and Tchaikovsky would improvise at the school’s harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. «We were amused,» Vladimir Gerard later remembered, «but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory».^[35] Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies through Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to the school; however, the results, according to musicologist David Brown, were «negligible».^[36]

In 1855, Tchaikovsky’s father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy’s talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer.^[37] He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own negative experiences as a musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise.^[38] Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice.^[39]

Civil service; pursuing music[edit]

On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained a senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career.^[40]

Meanwhile, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II) and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent.^[41] The aim of the RMS was to fulfil Alexander II’s wish to foster native talent.^[42] It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed)^[43] and provided basic professional training in music.^[44] In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the Russian Museum).^[45] These classes were a precursor to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein.^[46] He was awarded a silver medal for his thesis, a cantata on Schiller’s «Ode to Joy».^[8]

The Conservatory benefited Tchaikovsky in two ways. It transformed him into a musical professional, with tools to help him thrive as a composer, and the in-depth exposure to European principles and musical forms gave him a sense that his art was not exclusively Russian or Western.^[47] This mindset became important in Tchaikovsky’s reconciliation of Russian and European influences in his compositional style. He believed and attempted to show that both these aspects were «intertwined and mutually dependent».^[48] His efforts became both an inspiration and a starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles.^[49]

Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky’s musical talent on the whole and cited him as «a composer of genius» in his autobiography.^[50] He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky’s student work.^[51] Nor did he change his opinion as Tchaikovsky’s reputation grew.^{[n 6][n 7]} He and Zaremba clashed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his First Symphony for performance by the Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony.^[52] Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony. It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February 1868.^[53]

Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein’s brother Nikolai offered him the post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory. While the salary for his professorship was only 50 rubles a month, the offer itself boosted Tchaikovsky’s morale and he accepted the post eagerly. He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his Characteristic Dances, conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865 (Tchaikovsky later included this work, re-titled Dances of the Hay Maidens, in his opera The Voyevoda).^[54]

From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with music criticism while continuing to compose.^[55] This activity exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad.^[56] In his reviews, he praised Beethoven, considered Brahms overrated and, despite his admiration, took Schumann to task for poor orchestration.^{[57][n 8]} He appreciated the staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at its inaugural performance in Bayreuth (Germany), but not the music, calling Das Rheingold «unlikely nonsense, through which, from time to time, sparkle unusually beautiful and astonishing details».^[58] A recurring theme he addressed was the poor state of Russian opera.^[59]

Relationship with The Five[edit]

In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form the Russian Musical Society, critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev, met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that would take the operas of Mikhail Glinka as a model and incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western practices and use non-Western harmonic devices such as the whole tone and octatonic scales.^[60] They saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent.^[61]

Eventually, Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin became known as the moguchaya kuchka, translated into English as the «Mighty Handful» or «The Five».^[62] Rubinstein criticized their emphasis on amateur efforts in musical composition; Balakirev and later Mussorgsky attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training.^[63] Tchaikovsky and his fellow conservatory students were caught in the middle.^[64]

While ambivalent about much of The Five’s music, Tchaikovsky remained on friendly terms with most of its members.^[65] In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on what became Tchaikovsky’s first recognized masterpiece, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced.^[66] The group also welcomed his Second Symphony, subtitled the Little Russian.^[67] Despite their support, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.^[68]

Growing fame; budding opera composer[edit]

The infrequency of Tchaikovsky’s musical successes, won with tremendous effort, exacerbated his lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein’s private fits of rage critiquing his music, such as attacking the First Piano Concerto, did not help matters.^[69] His popularity grew, however, as several first-rate artists became willing to perform his compositions. Hans von Bülow premiered the First Piano Concerto and championed other Tchaikovsky works both as pianist and conductor.^[70] Other artists included Adele aus der Ohe, Max Erdmannsdörfer, Eduard Nápravník and Sergei Taneyev.

Another factor that helped Tchaikovsky’s music become popular was a shift in attitude among Russian audiences. Whereas they had previously been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight works, they gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the composition itself. Tchaikovsky’s works were performed frequently, with few delays between their composition and first performances; the publication from 1867 onward of his songs and great piano music for the home market also helped boost the composer’s popularity.^[71]

During the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first, The Voyevoda, based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, premiered in 1869. The composer became dissatisfied with it, however, and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript. Undina followed in 1870. Only excerpts were performed and it, too, was destroyed.^[72] Between these projects, Tchaikovsky started to compose an opera called Mandragora, to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects.^[73]

The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact, The Oprichnik, premiered in 1874. During its composition, he lost Ostrovsky’s part-finished libretto. Tchaikovsky, too embarrassed to ask for another copy, decided to write the libretto himself, modelling his dramatic technique on that of Eugène Scribe. Cui wrote a «characteristically savage press attack» on the opera. Mussorgsky, writing to Vladimir Stasov, disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless, The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia.^[72]

The last of the early operas, Vakula the Smith (Op. 14), was composed in the second half of 1874. The libretto, based on Gogol’s Christmas Eve, was to have been set to music by Alexander Serov. With Serov’s death, the libretto was opened to a competition with a guarantee that the winning entry would be premiered by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Tchaikovsky was declared the winner, but at the 1876 premiere, the opera enjoyed only a lukewarm reception.^[74] After Tchaikovsky’s death, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the opera Christmas Eve, based on the same story.^[75]

Other works of this period include the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the Third and Fourth Symphonies, the ballet Swan Lake, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Personal life[edit]

Discussion of Tchaikovsky’s personal life, especially his sexuality, has perhaps been the most extensive of any composer in the 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time.^[76] It has also at times caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to homosexuality and portray him as a heterosexual, to efforts at analysis by Western biographers.^[77]

Biographers have generally agreed that Tchaikovsky was homosexual.^[78] He sought the company of other men in his circle for extended periods, «associating openly and establishing professional connections with them.»^[69] His first love was reportedly Sergey Kireyev, a younger fellow student at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. According to Modest Tchaikovsky, this was Pyotr Ilyich’s «strongest, longest and purest love». The degree to which the composer might have felt comfortable with his sexual desires has, however, remained open to debate. It is still unknown whether Tchaikovsky, according to musicologist and biographer David Brown, «felt tainted within himself, defiled by something from which he finally realized he could never escape»^[79] or whether, according to Alexander Poznansky, he experienced «no unbearable guilt» over his sexual desires^[69] and «eventually came to see his sexual peculiarities as an insurmountable and even natural part of his personality … without experiencing any serious psychological damage».^[80]

Relevant portions of his brother Modest’s autobiography, where he tells of the composer’s same-sex attraction, have been published, as have letters previously suppressed by Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky openly writes of it.^[81] Such censorship has persisted in the Russian government, resulting in many officials, including the former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, denying his homosexuality outright.^[82] Passages in Tchaikovsky’s letters which reveal his homosexual desires have been censored in Russia. In one such passage he said of a homosexual acquaintance: «Petashenka used to drop by with the criminal intention of observing the Cadet Corps, which is right opposite our windows, but I’ve been trying to discourage these compromising visits—and with some success.» In another one he wrote: «After our walk, I offered him some money, which was refused. He does it for the love of art and adores men with beards.»^[83]

Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor for most of his life. In 1868, he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt with whom he considered marriage,^[84] but, owing to various circumstances, the relationship ended.^[85] Tchaikovsky later claimed she was the only woman he ever loved.^[86] In 1877, at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova.^[87] The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually,^[88] the couple lived together for only two and a half months before Tchaikovsky left, overwrought emotionally and suffering from acute writer’s block.^[89] Tchaikovsky’s family remained supportive of him during this crisis and throughout his life.^[90] Tchaikovsky’s marital debacle may have forced him to face the full truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage.^[91]

He was also aided by Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a railway magnate, who had begun contact with him not long before the marriage. As well as an important friend and emotional support,^[92] she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition.^[93] Although Tchaikovsky called her his «best friend», they agreed to never meet under any circumstances.

Years of wandering[edit]

Tchaikovsky remained abroad for a year after the disintegration of his marriage. During this time, he completed Eugene Onegin, orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed the Violin Concerto.^[94] He returned briefly to the Moscow Conservatory in the autumn of 1879.^{[95][n 9]} For the next few years, assured of a regular income from von Meck, he traveled incessantly throughout Europe and rural Russia, mainly alone, and avoided social contact whenever possible.^[96]

During this time, Tchaikovsky’s foreign reputation grew and a positive reassessment of his music also took place in Russia, thanks in part to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s call for «universal unity» with the West at the unveiling of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow in 1880. Before Dostoevsky’s speech, Tchaikovsky’s music had been considered «overly dependent on the West». As Dostoevsky’s message spread throughout Russia, this stigma toward Tchaikovsky’s music evaporated.^[97] The unprecedented acclaim for him even drew a cult following among the young intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg, including Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst and Sergei Diaghilev.^[98]

Two musical works from this period stand out. With the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour nearing completion in Moscow in 1880, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II in 1881,^{[n 10]} and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition in the planning stage, Nikolai Rubinstein suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a grand commemorative piece. Tchaikovsky agreed and finished it within six weeks. He wrote to Nadezhda von Meck that this piece, the 1812 Overture, would be «very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it».^[99] He also warned conductor Eduard Nápravník that «I shan’t be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts».^[99] Nevertheless, the overture became, for many, «the piece by Tchaikovsky they know best»,^[100] particularly well-known for the use of cannon in the scores.^[101]

On 23 March 1881, Nikolai Rubinstein died in Paris. That December, Tchaikovsky started work on his Piano Trio in A minor, «dedicated to the memory of a great artist».^[102] First performed privately at the Moscow Conservatory on the first anniversary of Rubinstein’s death, the piece became extremely popular during the composer’s lifetime; in November 1893, it would become Tchaikovsky’s own elegy at memorial concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.^{[103][n 11]}

Return to Russia[edit]

In 1884, Tchaikovsky began to shed his unsociability and restlessness. That March, Emperor Alexander III conferred upon him the Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth class), which included a title of hereditary nobility^[104] and a personal audience with the Tsar.^[105] This was seen as a seal of official approval which advanced Tchaikovsky’s social standing^[104] and might have been cemented in the composer’s mind by the success of his Orchestral Suite No. 3 at its January 1885 premiere in Saint Petersburg.^[106]

In 1885, Alexander III requested a new production of Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg.^{[n 12]} By having the opera staged there and not at the Mariinsky Theatre, he served notice that Tchaikovsky’s music was replacing Italian opera as the official imperial art. In addition, at the instigation of Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theaters and a patron of the composer, Tchaikovsky was awarded a lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles from the Tsar. This made him the premier court composer, in practice if not in actual title.^[107]

Despite Tchaikovsky’s disdain for public life, he now participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. He helped support his former pupil Sergei Taneyev, who was now director of Moscow Conservatory, by attending student examinations and negotiating the sometimes sensitive relations among various members of the staff. He served as director of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society during the 1889–1890 season. In this post, he invited many international celebrities to conduct, including Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák and Jules Massenet.^[105]

During this period, Tchaikovsky also began promoting Russian music as a conductor,^[105] In January 1887, he substituted, on short notice, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for performances of his opera Cherevichki.^[108] Within a year, he was in considerable demand throughout Europe and Russia. These appearances helped him overcome life-long stage fright and boosted his self-assurance.^[109] In 1888, Tchaikovsky led the premiere of his Fifth Symphony in Saint Petersburg, repeating the work a week later with the first performance of his tone poem Hamlet. Although critics proved hostile, with César Cui calling the symphony «routine» and «meretricious», both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by audiences and Tchaikovsky, undeterred, continued to conduct the symphony in Russia and Europe.^[110] Conducting brought him to the United States in 1891, where he led the New York Music Society’s orchestra in his Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall.^[111]

Belyayev circle and growing reputation[edit]

In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived at Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the Russian Symphony Concerts, devoted exclusively to the music of Russian composers. One included the first complete performance of his revised First Symphony; another featured the final version of Third Symphony of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, with whose circle Tchaikovsky was already in touch.^[112]

Rimsky-Korsakov, with Alexander Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov and several other nationalistically-minded composers and musicians, had formed a group known as the Belyayev circle, named after a merchant and amateur musician who became an influential music patron and publisher.^[113] Tchaikovsky spent much time in this circle, becoming far more at ease with them than he had been with the ‘Five’ and increasingly confident in showcasing his music alongside theirs.^[114] This relationship lasted until Tchaikovsky’s death.^[115][116]

In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, only the second Russian subject to be so honored (the first was sculptor Mark Antokolsky).^[117] The following year, the University of Cambridge in England awarded Tchaikovsky an honorary Doctor of Music degree.^[118]

Death[edit]

On 16/28 October 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony,^[119] the Pathétique, in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the graves of fellow-composers Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky; later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Mily Balakirev were also buried nearby.^[120]

Tchaikovsky’s death is attributed to cholera, caused by drinking unboiled water at a local restaurant.^[121] In the 1980s in Britain, however, there was academic speculation that he killed himself, either with poison or by contracting cholera intentionally;^[122] in the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Roland John Wiley wrote: «the polemics over Tchaikovsky’s death have reached an impasse … . As for illness, problems of evidence offer little hope of satisfactory resolution: the state of diagnosis; the confusion of witnesses; disregard of long-term effects of smoking and alcohol. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out.»^[123]

Music[edit]

Antecedents and influences[edit]

Of Tchaikovsky’s Western predecessors, Robert Schumann stands out as an influence in formal structure, harmonic practices and piano writing, according to Brown and musicologist Roland John Wiley.^[124] Boris Asafyev comments that Schumann left his mark on Tchaikovsky not just as a formal influence but also as an example of musical dramaturgy and self-expression.^[125] Leon Botstein claims the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner also left their imprints on Tchaikovsky’s orchestral style.^{[126][n 13]} The late-Romantic trend for writing orchestral suites, begun by Franz Lachner, Jules Massenet, and Joachim Raff after the rediscovery of Bach’s works in that genre, may have influenced Tchaikovsky to try his own hand at them.^[127]

His teacher Anton Rubinstein’s opera The Demon became a model for the final tableau of Eugene Onegin.^[128] So did Léo Delibes’ ballets Coppélia and Sylvia for The Sleeping Beauty^{[n 14]} and Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (a work Tchaikovsky admired tremendously) for The Queen of Spades.^[129] Otherwise, it was to composers of the past that Tchaikovsky turned—Beethoven, whose music he respected;^[130] Mozart, whose music he loved;^[130] Glinka, whose opera A Life for the Tsar made an indelible impression on him as a child and whose scoring he studied assiduously;^[131] and Adolphe Adam, whose ballet Giselle was a favorite of his from his student days and whose score he consulted while working on The Sleeping Beauty.^[132] Beethoven’s string quartets may have influenced Tchaikovsky’s attempts in that medium.^[133] Other composers whose work interested Tchaikovsky included Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Gioachino Rossini,^[134] Giuseppe Verdi,^[135] Vincenzo Bellini,^[136] Carl Maria von Weber^[137] and Henry Litolff.^[138]

Creative range[edit]

Tchaikovsky displayed a wide stylistic and emotional range, from light salon works to grand symphonies. Some of his works, such as the Variations on a Rococo Theme, employ a «Classical» form reminiscent of 18th-century composers such as Mozart (his favorite composer). Other compositions, such as his Little Russian symphony and his opera Vakula the Smith, flirt with musical practices more akin to those of the ‘Five’, especially in their use of folk song.^[139] Other works, such as Tchaikovsky’s last three symphonies, employ a personal musical idiom that facilitated intense emotional expression.^[140]

Compositional style[edit]

Melody[edit]

American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Tchaikovsky’s «sweet, inexhaustible, supersensuous fund of melody», a feature that has ensured his music’s continued success with audiences.^[141] Tchaikovsky’s complete range of melodic styles was as wide as that of his compositions. Sometimes he used Western-style melodies, sometimes original melodies written in the style of Russian folk song; sometimes he used actual folk songs.^[139] According to The New Grove, Tchaikovsky’s melodic gift could also become his worst enemy in two ways.

The first challenge arose from his ethnic heritage. Unlike Western themes, the melodies that Russian composers wrote tended to be self-contained: they functioned with a mindset of stasis and repetition rather than one of progress and ongoing development. On a technical level, it made modulating to a new key to introduce a contrasting second theme exceedingly difficult, as this was literally a foreign concept that did not exist in Russian music.^[142]

The second way melody worked against Tchaikovsky was a challenge that he shared with the majority of Romantic-age composers. They did not write in the regular, symmetrical melodic shapes that worked well with sonata form, such as those favored by Classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven; rather, the themes favored by Romantics were complete and independent in themselves.^[143] This completeness hindered their use as structural elements in combination with one another. This challenge was why the Romantics «were never natural symphonists».^[144] All a composer like Tchaikovsky could do with them was to essentially repeat them, even when he modified them to generate tension, maintain interest and satisfy listeners.^[145]

Harmony[edit]

Harmony could be a potential trap for Tchaikovsky, according to Brown, since Russian creativity tended to focus on inertia and self-enclosed tableaux, while Western harmony worked against this to propel the music onward and, on a larger scale, shape it.^[146] Modulation, the shifting from one key to another, was a driving principle in both harmony and sonata form, the primary Western large-scale musical structure since the middle of the 18th century. Modulation maintained harmonic interest over an extended time-scale, provided a clear contrast between musical themes and showed how those themes were related to each other.^[147]

One point in Tchaikovsky’s favor was «a flair for harmony» that «astonished» Rudolph Kündinger, Tchaikovsky’s music tutor during his time at the School of Jurisprudence.^[148] Added to what he learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory studies, this talent allowed Tchaikovsky to employ a varied range of harmony in his music, from the Western harmonic and textural practices of his first two string quartets to the use of the whole-tone scale in the center of the finale of the Second Symphony, a practice more typically used by The Five.^[139]

Rhythm[edit]

Rhythmically, Tchaikovsky sometimes experimented with unusual meters. More often, he used a firm, regular meter, a practice that served him well in dance music. At times, his rhythms became pronounced enough to become the main expressive agent of the music. They also became a means, found typically in Russian folk music, of simulating movement or progression in large-scale symphonic movements—a «synthetic propulsion», as Brown phrases it, which substituted for the momentum that would be created in strict sonata form by the interaction of melodic or motivic elements. This interaction generally does not take place in Russian music.^[149] (For more on this, please see Repetition below.)

Structure[edit]

Tchaikovsky struggled with sonata form. Its principle of organic growth through the interplay of musical themes was alien to Russian practice.^[142] The traditional argument that Tchaikovsky seemed unable to develop themes in this manner fails to consider this point; it also discounts the possibility that Tchaikovsky might have intended the development passages in his large-scale works to act as «enforced hiatuses» to build tension, rather than grow organically as smoothly progressive musical arguments.^[150]

According to Brown and musicologists Hans Keller and Daniel Zhitomirsky, Tchaikovsky found his solution to large-scale structure while composing the Fourth Symphony. He essentially sidestepped thematic interaction and kept sonata form only as an «outline», as Zhitomirsky phrases it.^[151] Within this outline, the focus centered on periodic alternation and juxtaposition. Tchaikovsky placed blocks of dissimilar tonal and thematic material alongside one another, with what Keller calls «new and violent contrasts» between musical themes, keys, and harmonies.^[152] This process, according to Brown and Keller, builds momentum^[153] and adds intense drama.^[154] While the result, Warrack charges, is still «an ingenious episodic treatment of two tunes rather than a symphonic development of them» in the Germanic sense,^[155] Brown counters that it took the listener of the period «through a succession of often highly charged sections which added up to a radically new kind of symphonic experience» (italics Brown), one that functioned not on the basis of summation, as Austro-German symphonies did, but on one of accumulation.^[153]

Partly owing to the melodic and structural intricacies involved in this accumulation and partly due to the composer’s nature, Tchaikovsky’s music became intensely expressive.^[156] This intensity was entirely new to Russian music and prompted some Russians to place Tchaikovsky’s name alongside that of Dostoevsky.^[157] German musicologist Hermann Kretzschmar credits Tchaikovsky in his later symphonies with offering «full images of life, developed freely, sometimes even dramatically, around psychological contrasts … This music has the mark of the truly lived and felt experience».^[158] Leon Botstein, in elaborating on this comment, suggests that listening to Tchaikovsky’s music «became a psychological mirror connected to everyday experience, one that reflected on the dynamic nature of the listener’s own emotional self». This active engagement with the music «opened for the listener a vista of emotional and psychological tension and an extremity of feeling that possessed relevance because it seemed reminiscent of one’s own ‘truly lived and felt experience’ or one’s search for intensity in a deeply personal sense».^[159]

Repetition[edit]

As mentioned above, repetition was a natural part of Tchaikovsky’s music, just as it is an integral part of Russian music.^[160] His use of sequences within melodies (repeating a tune at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice)^[161] could go on for extreme length.^[139] The problem with repetition is that, over a period of time, the melody being repeated remains static, even when there is a surface level of rhythmic activity added to it.^[162] Tchaikovsky kept the musical conversation flowing by treating melody, tonality, rhythm and sound color as one integrated unit, rather than as separate elements.^[163]

By making subtle but noticeable changes in the rhythm or phrasing of a tune, modulating to another key, changing the melody itself or varying the instruments playing it, Tchaikovsky could keep a listener’s interest from flagging. By extending the number of repetitions, he could increase the musical and dramatic tension of a passage, building «into an emotional experience of almost unbearable intensity», as Brown phrases it, controlling when the peak and release of that tension would take place.^[164] Musicologist Martin Cooper calls this practice a subtle form of unifying a piece of music and adds that Tchaikovsky brought it to a high point of refinement.^[165] (For more on this practice, see the next section.)

Orchestration[edit]

Like other late Romantic composers, Tchaikovsky relied heavily on orchestration for musical effects.^[166] Tchaikovsky, however, became noted for the «sensual opulence» and «voluptuous timbrel virtuosity» of his orchestration.^[167] Like Glinka, Tchaikovsky tended toward bright primary colors and sharply delineated contrasts of texture.^[168] However, beginning with the Third Symphony, Tchaikovsky experimented with an increased range of timbres^[169] Tchaikovsky’s scoring was noted and admired by some of his peers. Rimsky-Korsakov regularly referred his students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to it and called it «devoid of all striving after effect, [to] give a healthy, beautiful sonority».^[170] This sonority, musicologist Richard Taruskin pointed out, is essentially Germanic in effect. Tchaikovsky’s expert use of having two or more instruments play a melody simultaneously (a practice called doubling) and his ear for uncanny combinations of instruments resulted in «a generalized orchestral sonority in which the individual timbres of the instruments, being thoroughly mixed, would vanish».^[171]

Pastiche (Passé-ism)[edit]

In works like the «Serenade for Strings» and the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Tchaikovsky showed he was highly gifted at writing in a style of 18th-century European pastiche. In the ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the opera The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky graduated from imitation to full-scale evocation. This practice, which Alexandre Benois calls «passé-ism», lends an air of timelessness and immediacy, making the past seem as though it were the present.^[172] On a practical level, Tchaikovsky was drawn to past styles because he felt he might find the solution to certain structural problems within them. His Rococo pastiches also may have offered escape into a musical world purer than his own, into which he felt himself irresistibly drawn. (In this sense, Tchaikovsky operated in the opposite manner to Igor Stravinsky, who turned to Neoclassicism partly as a form of compositional self-discovery.) Tchaikovsky’s attraction to ballet might have allowed a similar refuge into a fairy-tale world, where he could freely write dance music within a tradition of French elegance.^[173]

Aesthetic impact[edit]

Maes maintains that, regardless of what he was writing, Tchaikovsky’s main concern was how his music impacted his listeners on an aesthetic level, at specific moments in the piece and on a cumulative level once the music had finished. What his listeners experienced on an emotional or visceral level became an end in itself.^[174] Tchaikovsky’s focus on pleasing his audience might be considered closer to that of Mendelssohn or Mozart. Considering that he lived and worked in what was probably the last 19th-century feudal nation, the statement is not actually that surprising.^[175]

And yet, even when writing so-called ‘programme’ music, for example his Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, he cast it in sonata form. His use of stylized 18th-century melodies and patriotic themes was geared toward the values of Russian aristocracy.^[176] He was aided in this by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who commissioned The Sleeping Beauty from Tchaikovsky and the libretto for The Queen of Spades from Modest with their use of 18th century settings stipulated firmly.^{[177][n 15]} Tchaikovsky also used the polonaise frequently, the dance being a musical code for the Romanov dynasty and a symbol of Russian patriotism. Using it in the finale of a work could assure its success with Russian listeners.^[178]

Reception[edit]

Dedicatees and collaborators[edit]

Tchaikovsky’s relationship with collaborators was mixed. Like Nikolai Rubinstein with the First Piano Concerto, virtuoso and pedagogue Leopold Auer rejected the Violin Concerto initially but changed his mind; he played it to great public success and taught it to his students, who included Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein.^[179] Wilhelm Fitzenhagen «intervened considerably in shaping what he considered ‘his’ piece», the Variations on a Rococo Theme, according to music critic Michael Steinberg. Tchaikovsky was angered by Fitzenhagen’s license but did nothing; the Rococo Variations were published with the cellist’s amendments.^{[180][n 16]}

His collaboration on the three ballets went better and in Marius Petipa, who worked with him on the last two, he might have found an advocate.^{[n 17]} When The Sleeping Beauty was seen by its dancers as needlessly complicated, Petipa convinced them to put in the extra effort. Tchaikovsky compromised to make his music as practical as possible for the dancers and was accorded more creative freedom than ballet composers were usually accorded at the time. He responded with scores that minimized the rhythmic subtleties normally present in his work but were inventive and rich in melody, with more refined and imaginative orchestration than in the average ballet score.^[181]

Critics[edit]

Critical reception to Tchaikovsky’s music was varied but also improved over time. Even after 1880, some inside Russia held it suspect for not being nationalistic enough and thought Western European critics lauded it for exactly that reason.^[182] There might have been a grain of truth in the latter, according to musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein, as German critics especially wrote of the «indeterminacy of [Tchaikovsky’s] artistic character … being truly at home in the non-Russian».^[183] Of the foreign critics who did not care for his music, Eduard Hanslick lambasted the Violin Concerto as a musical composition «whose stink one can hear»^[184] and William Forster Abtrop wrote of the Fifth Symphony, «The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, delirium tremens, raving, and above all, noise worse confounded!»^[185]

The division between Russian and Western critics remained through much of the 20th century but for a different reason. According to Brown and Wiley, the prevailing view of Western critics was that the same qualities in Tchaikovsky’s music that appealed to audiences—its strong emotions, directness and eloquence and colorful orchestration—added up to compositional shallowness.^[186] The music’s use in popular and film music, Brown says, lowered its esteem in their eyes still further.^[139] There was also the fact, pointed out earlier, that Tchaikovsky’s music demanded active engagement from the listener and, as Botstein phrases it, «spoke to the listener’s imaginative interior life, regardless of nationality». Conservative critics, he adds, may have felt threatened by the «violence and ‘hysteria'» they detected and felt such emotive displays «attacked the boundaries of conventional aesthetic appreciation—the cultured reception of art as an act of formalist discernment—and the polite engagement of art as an act of amusement».^[159]

There has also been the fact that the composer did not follow sonata form strictly, relying instead on juxtaposing blocks of tonalities and thematic groups. Maes states this point has been seen at times as a weakness rather than a sign of originality.^[163] Even with what Schonberg termed «a professional reevaluation» of Tchaikovsky’s work,^[187] the practice of faulting Tchaikovsky for not following in the steps of the Viennese masters has not gone away entirely, while his intent of writing music that would please his audiences is also sometimes taken to task. In a 1992 article, New York Times critic Allan Kozinn writes, «It is Tchaikovsky’s flexibility, after all, that has given us a sense of his variability…. Tchaikovsky was capable of turning out music—entertaining and widely beloved though it is—that seems superficial, manipulative and trivial when regarded in the context of the whole literature. The First Piano Concerto is a case in point. It makes a joyful noise, it swims in pretty tunes and its dramatic rhetoric allows (or even requires) a soloist to make a grand, swashbuckling impression. But it is entirely hollow».^[188]

In the 21st century, however, critics are reacting more positively to Tchaikovsky’s tunefulness, originality, and craftsmanship.^[187] «Tchaikovsky is being viewed again as a composer of the first rank, writing music of depth, innovation and influence,» according to cultural historian and author Joseph Horowitz.^[189] Important in this reevaluation is a shift in attitude away from the disdain for overt emotionalism that marked half of the 20th century.^[190] «We have acquired a different view of Romantic ‘excess,'» Horowitz says. «Tchaikovsky is today more admired than deplored for his emotional frankness; if his music seems harried and insecure, so are we all».^[189]

Public[edit]

Horowitz maintains that, while the standing of Tchaikovsky’s music has fluctuated among critics, for the public, «it never went out of style, and his most popular works have yielded iconic sound-bytes [sic], such as the love theme from Romeo and Juliet«.^[189] Along with those tunes, Botstein adds, «Tchaikovsky appealed to audiences outside of Russia with an immediacy and directness that were startling even for music, an art form often associated with emotion».^[191] Tchaikovsky’s melodies, stated with eloquence and matched by his inventive use of harmony and orchestration, have always ensured audience appeal.^[192] His popularity is considered secure, with his following in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, second only to that of Beethoven.^[123] His music has also been used frequently in popular music and film.^[193]

Legacy[edit]

According to Wiley, Tchaikovsky was a pioneer in several ways. «Thanks in large part to Nadezhda von Meck», Wiley writes, «he became the first full-time professional Russian composer». This, Wiley adds, allowed him the time and freedom to consolidate the Western compositional practices he had learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Russian folk song and other native musical elements to fulfill his own expressive goals and forge an original, deeply personal style. He made an impact in not only absolute works such as the symphony but also program music and, as Wiley phrases it, «transformed Liszt’s and Berlioz’s achievements … into matters of Shakespearean elevation and psychological import».^[194] Wiley and Holden both note that Tchaikovsky did all this without a native school of composition upon which to fall back. They point out that only Glinka had preceded him in combining Russian and Western practices and his teachers in Saint Petersburg had been thoroughly Germanic in their musical outlook. He was, they write, for all intents and purposes alone in his artistic quest.^[195]

Maes and Taruskin write that Tchaikovsky believed that his professionalism in combining skill and high standards in his musical works separated him from his contemporaries in The Five.^[196] Maes adds that, like them, he wanted to produce music that reflected Russian national character but which did so to the highest European standards of quality.^[197] Tchaikovsky, according to Maes, came along at a time when the nation itself was deeply divided as to what that character truly was. Like his country, Maes writes, it took him time to discover how to express his Russianness in a way that was true to himself and what he had learned. Because of his professionalism, Maes says, he worked hard at this goal and succeeded. The composer’s friend, music critic Herman Laroche, wrote of The Sleeping Beauty that the score contained «an element deeper and more general than color, in the internal structure of the music, above all in the foundation of the element of melody. This basic element is undoubtedly Russian».^[198]

Tchaikovsky was inspired to reach beyond Russia with his music, according to Maes and Taruskin.^[199] His exposure to Western music, they write, encouraged him to think it belonged to not just Russia but also the world at large.^[47] Volkov adds that this mindset made him think seriously about Russia’s place in European musical culture—the first Russian composer to do so.^[97] It steeled him to become the first Russian composer to acquaint foreign audiences personally with his own works, Warrack writes, as well as those of other Russian composers.^[200] In his biography of Tchaikovsky, Anthony Holden recalls the dearth of Russian classical music before Tchaikovsky’s birth, then places the composer’s achievements into historical perspective: «Twenty years after Tchaikovsky’s death, in 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring erupted onto the musical scene, signaling Russia’s arrival into 20th-century music. Between these two very different worlds, Tchaikovsky’s music became the sole bridge».^[201]

Voice recording[edit]

A recording was made in Moscow in January 1890, by Julius Block [ru] on behalf of Thomas Edison.^[202] A transcript of the recording follows:

Anton Rubinstein:	What a wonderful thing.	Какая прекрасная вещь ….хорошо… (in Russian)
Julius Block:	At last.	Наконец-то.
Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya:	You’re disgusting. How dare you call me crafty?	Пративный *** да как вы смеете называть меня коварной?
Vasily Safonov:	(sings)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky:	This trill could be better.	Эта трель могла бы быть и лучше.
Lavrovskaya:	(sings)
Tchaikovsky:	Blok is a good fellow, but Edison is even better.	Блок молодец, но у Эдисона ещё лучше!
Lavrovskaya:	(sings) A-o, a-o.	А-о, а-о.
Safonov:	Peter Jurgenson in Moscow.	Peter Jurgenson in Moskau. (in German)
Tchaikovsky:	Who’s speaking now? It seems like Safonov’s voice.	Кто сейчас говорит? Кажется голос Сафонова.
Safonov:	(whistles)

According to musicologist Leonid Sabaneyev, Tchaikovsky was not comfortable with being recorded for posterity and tried to shy away from it. On an apparently separate visit from the one related above, Block asked the composer to play something on a piano or at least say something. Tchaikovsky refused. He told Block, «I am a bad pianist and my voice is raspy. Why should one eternalize it?»^[203]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Tchaikovsky Research
• «Discovering Tchaikovsky». BBC Radio 3.
• Works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Internet Archive

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Пётр Ильич Чайковский
Portrait c. 1888 by Émile Reutlinger
Born	7 May 1840 Votkinsk, Russian Empire
Died	6 November 1893 (aged 53) Saint Petersburg
Works	List of compositions
Signature

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky^{[n 2]} ( chy-KOF-skee;^[2] 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893)^{[n 3]} was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant as there was little opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching that he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his professional relationship was mixed.

Tchaikovsky’s training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From that reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music, which seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky’s self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. That resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the country’s national identity, an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky’s career.

Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky’s life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother’s early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein, his failed marriage with Antonina Miliukova, and the collapse of his 13-year association with the wealthy patroness Nadezhda von Meck. His homosexuality, which he kept private,^[3][4] has traditionally also been considered a major factor though some scholars have downplayed its importance.^[5][6] Tchaikovsky’s sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, but there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause and whether the death was accidental or intentional.

While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky’s music as «lacking in elevated thought»^[7] and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles.

Life[edit]

Childhood[edit]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on 7 May 1840 in Votkinsk,^[8] a small town in Vyatka Governorate (present-day Udmurtia) in the Russian Empire, into a family with a long history of military service. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines,^[9] and would manage the Kamsko-Votkinsk Ironworks. His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in the village of Nikolaevka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Mykolaivka, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine),^[10] and served first as a physician’s assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather,^[11][12] a Zaporozhian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709.^[13][14]

Tchaikovsky’s mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d’Assier), was the second of Ilya’s three wives, 18 years her husband’s junior and French and German on her father’s side.^[15] Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to a remote area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment, whether in private or at social gatherings.^[16] Of his six siblings,^{[n 4]} Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Alexandra’s marriage to Lev Davydov^[17] would produce seven children^[18] and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult,^[19] especially during his years of wandering.^[19] One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, who went by the nickname ‘Bob’, would become very close to him.^[20]

In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess.^[21] Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise.^[22] By the age of six, he had become fluent in French and German.^[16] Tchaikovsky also became attached to the young woman; her affection for him was reportedly a counter to his mother’s coldness and emotional distance from him,^[23] though others assert that the mother doted on her son.^[24] Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky’s work from this period, including his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes.^[25]

Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five. Precocious, within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. His parents, initially supportive, hired a tutor, bought an orchestrion (a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects), and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons.

However, they decided in 1850 to send Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served the lesser nobility, and thought that this education would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant.^[26] Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time—except for the affluent aristocracy—were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants.^[27]

His father’s income was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible.^[28] As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence’s preparatory school, 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from his family.^[29] Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies.^[30]

Tchaikovsky’s early separation from his mother caused an emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854, when he was fourteen.^{[31][n 5]} The loss of his mother also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition, a waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky’s father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered fully, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy’s mind.^[32] Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard.^[33]

Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged the gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera^[34] and Tchaikovsky would improvise at the school’s harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. «We were amused,» Vladimir Gerard later remembered, «but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory».^[35] Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies through Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to the school; however, the results, according to musicologist David Brown, were «negligible».^[36]

In 1855, Tchaikovsky’s father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy’s talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer.^[37] He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own negative experiences as a musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise.^[38] Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice.^[39]

Civil service; pursuing music[edit]

On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained a senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career.^[40]

Meanwhile, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II) and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent.^[41] The aim of the RMS was to fulfil Alexander II’s wish to foster native talent.^[42] It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed)^[43] and provided basic professional training in music.^[44] In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the Russian Museum).^[45] These classes were a precursor to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein.^[46] He was awarded a silver medal for his thesis, a cantata on Schiller’s «Ode to Joy».^[8]

The Conservatory benefited Tchaikovsky in two ways. It transformed him into a musical professional, with tools to help him thrive as a composer, and the in-depth exposure to European principles and musical forms gave him a sense that his art was not exclusively Russian or Western.^[47] This mindset became important in Tchaikovsky’s reconciliation of Russian and European influences in his compositional style. He believed and attempted to show that both these aspects were «intertwined and mutually dependent».^[48] His efforts became both an inspiration and a starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles.^[49]

Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky’s musical talent on the whole and cited him as «a composer of genius» in his autobiography.^[50] He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky’s student work.^[51] Nor did he change his opinion as Tchaikovsky’s reputation grew.^{[n 6][n 7]} He and Zaremba clashed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his First Symphony for performance by the Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony.^[52] Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony. It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February 1868.^[53]

Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein’s brother Nikolai offered him the post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory. While the salary for his professorship was only 50 rubles a month, the offer itself boosted Tchaikovsky’s morale and he accepted the post eagerly. He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his Characteristic Dances, conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865 (Tchaikovsky later included this work, re-titled Dances of the Hay Maidens, in his opera The Voyevoda).^[54]

From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with music criticism while continuing to compose.^[55] This activity exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad.^[56] In his reviews, he praised Beethoven, considered Brahms overrated and, despite his admiration, took Schumann to task for poor orchestration.^{[57][n 8]} He appreciated the staging of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at its inaugural performance in Bayreuth (Germany), but not the music, calling Das Rheingold «unlikely nonsense, through which, from time to time, sparkle unusually beautiful and astonishing details».^[58] A recurring theme he addressed was the poor state of Russian opera.^[59]

Relationship with The Five[edit]

In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form the Russian Musical Society, critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev, met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that would take the operas of Mikhail Glinka as a model and incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western practices and use non-Western harmonic devices such as the whole tone and octatonic scales.^[60] They saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent.^[61]

Eventually, Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin became known as the moguchaya kuchka, translated into English as the «Mighty Handful» or «The Five».^[62] Rubinstein criticized their emphasis on amateur efforts in musical composition; Balakirev and later Mussorgsky attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training.^[63] Tchaikovsky and his fellow conservatory students were caught in the middle.^[64]

While ambivalent about much of The Five’s music, Tchaikovsky remained on friendly terms with most of its members.^[65] In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on what became Tchaikovsky’s first recognized masterpiece, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced.^[66] The group also welcomed his Second Symphony, subtitled the Little Russian.^[67] Despite their support, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.^[68]

Growing fame; budding opera composer[edit]

The infrequency of Tchaikovsky’s musical successes, won with tremendous effort, exacerbated his lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein’s private fits of rage critiquing his music, such as attacking the First Piano Concerto, did not help matters.^[69] His popularity grew, however, as several first-rate artists became willing to perform his compositions. Hans von Bülow premiered the First Piano Concerto and championed other Tchaikovsky works both as pianist and conductor.^[70] Other artists included Adele aus der Ohe, Max Erdmannsdörfer, Eduard Nápravník and Sergei Taneyev.

Another factor that helped Tchaikovsky’s music become popular was a shift in attitude among Russian audiences. Whereas they had previously been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight works, they gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the composition itself. Tchaikovsky’s works were performed frequently, with few delays between their composition and first performances; the publication from 1867 onward of his songs and great piano music for the home market also helped boost the composer’s popularity.^[71]

During the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first, The Voyevoda, based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, premiered in 1869. The composer became dissatisfied with it, however, and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript. Undina followed in 1870. Only excerpts were performed and it, too, was destroyed.^[72] Between these projects, Tchaikovsky started to compose an opera called Mandragora, to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects.^[73]

The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact, The Oprichnik, premiered in 1874. During its composition, he lost Ostrovsky’s part-finished libretto. Tchaikovsky, too embarrassed to ask for another copy, decided to write the libretto himself, modelling his dramatic technique on that of Eugène Scribe. Cui wrote a «characteristically savage press attack» on the opera. Mussorgsky, writing to Vladimir Stasov, disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless, The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia.^[72]

The last of the early operas, Vakula the Smith (Op. 14), was composed in the second half of 1874. The libretto, based on Gogol’s Christmas Eve, was to have been set to music by Alexander Serov. With Serov’s death, the libretto was opened to a competition with a guarantee that the winning entry would be premiered by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Tchaikovsky was declared the winner, but at the 1876 premiere, the opera enjoyed only a lukewarm reception.^[74] After Tchaikovsky’s death, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the opera Christmas Eve, based on the same story.^[75]

Other works of this period include the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the Third and Fourth Symphonies, the ballet Swan Lake, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Personal life[edit]

Discussion of Tchaikovsky’s personal life, especially his sexuality, has perhaps been the most extensive of any composer in the 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time.^[76] It has also at times caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to homosexuality and portray him as a heterosexual, to efforts at analysis by Western biographers.^[77]

Biographers have generally agreed that Tchaikovsky was homosexual.^[78] He sought the company of other men in his circle for extended periods, «associating openly and establishing professional connections with them.»^[69] His first love was reportedly Sergey Kireyev, a younger fellow student at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. According to Modest Tchaikovsky, this was Pyotr Ilyich’s «strongest, longest and purest love». The degree to which the composer might have felt comfortable with his sexual desires has, however, remained open to debate. It is still unknown whether Tchaikovsky, according to musicologist and biographer David Brown, «felt tainted within himself, defiled by something from which he finally realized he could never escape»^[79] or whether, according to Alexander Poznansky, he experienced «no unbearable guilt» over his sexual desires^[69] and «eventually came to see his sexual peculiarities as an insurmountable and even natural part of his personality … without experiencing any serious psychological damage».^[80]

Relevant portions of his brother Modest’s autobiography, where he tells of the composer’s same-sex attraction, have been published, as have letters previously suppressed by Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky openly writes of it.^[81] Such censorship has persisted in the Russian government, resulting in many officials, including the former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, denying his homosexuality outright.^[82] Passages in Tchaikovsky’s letters which reveal his homosexual desires have been censored in Russia. In one such passage he said of a homosexual acquaintance: «Petashenka used to drop by with the criminal intention of observing the Cadet Corps, which is right opposite our windows, but I’ve been trying to discourage these compromising visits—and with some success.» In another one he wrote: «After our walk, I offered him some money, which was refused. He does it for the love of art and adores men with beards.»^[83]

Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor for most of his life. In 1868, he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt with whom he considered marriage,^[84] but, owing to various circumstances, the relationship ended.^[85] Tchaikovsky later claimed she was the only woman he ever loved.^[86] In 1877, at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova.^[87] The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually,^[88] the couple lived together for only two and a half months before Tchaikovsky left, overwrought emotionally and suffering from acute writer’s block.^[89] Tchaikovsky’s family remained supportive of him during this crisis and throughout his life.^[90] Tchaikovsky’s marital debacle may have forced him to face the full truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage.^[91]

He was also aided by Nadezhda von Meck, the widow of a railway magnate, who had begun contact with him not long before the marriage. As well as an important friend and emotional support,^[92] she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition.^[93] Although Tchaikovsky called her his «best friend», they agreed to never meet under any circumstances.

Years of wandering[edit]

Tchaikovsky remained abroad for a year after the disintegration of his marriage. During this time, he completed Eugene Onegin, orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed the Violin Concerto.^[94] He returned briefly to the Moscow Conservatory in the autumn of 1879.^{[95][n 9]} For the next few years, assured of a regular income from von Meck, he traveled incessantly throughout Europe and rural Russia, mainly alone, and avoided social contact whenever possible.^[96]

During this time, Tchaikovsky’s foreign reputation grew and a positive reassessment of his music also took place in Russia, thanks in part to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s call for «universal unity» with the West at the unveiling of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow in 1880. Before Dostoevsky’s speech, Tchaikovsky’s music had been considered «overly dependent on the West». As Dostoevsky’s message spread throughout Russia, this stigma toward Tchaikovsky’s music evaporated.^[97] The unprecedented acclaim for him even drew a cult following among the young intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg, including Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst and Sergei Diaghilev.^[98]

Two musical works from this period stand out. With the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour nearing completion in Moscow in 1880, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II in 1881,^{[n 10]} and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition in the planning stage, Nikolai Rubinstein suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a grand commemorative piece. Tchaikovsky agreed and finished it within six weeks. He wrote to Nadezhda von Meck that this piece, the 1812 Overture, would be «very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it».^[99] He also warned conductor Eduard Nápravník that «I shan’t be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts».^[99] Nevertheless, the overture became, for many, «the piece by Tchaikovsky they know best»,^[100] particularly well-known for the use of cannon in the scores.^[101]

On 23 March 1881, Nikolai Rubinstein died in Paris. That December, Tchaikovsky started work on his Piano Trio in A minor, «dedicated to the memory of a great artist».^[102] First performed privately at the Moscow Conservatory on the first anniversary of Rubinstein’s death, the piece became extremely popular during the composer’s lifetime; in November 1893, it would become Tchaikovsky’s own elegy at memorial concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.^{[103][n 11]}

Return to Russia[edit]

In 1884, Tchaikovsky began to shed his unsociability and restlessness. That March, Emperor Alexander III conferred upon him the Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth class), which included a title of hereditary nobility^[104] and a personal audience with the Tsar.^[105] This was seen as a seal of official approval which advanced Tchaikovsky’s social standing^[104] and might have been cemented in the composer’s mind by the success of his Orchestral Suite No. 3 at its January 1885 premiere in Saint Petersburg.^[106]

In 1885, Alexander III requested a new production of Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg.^{[n 12]} By having the opera staged there and not at the Mariinsky Theatre, he served notice that Tchaikovsky’s music was replacing Italian opera as the official imperial art. In addition, at the instigation of Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theaters and a patron of the composer, Tchaikovsky was awarded a lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles from the Tsar. This made him the premier court composer, in practice if not in actual title.^[107]

Despite Tchaikovsky’s disdain for public life, he now participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. He helped support his former pupil Sergei Taneyev, who was now director of Moscow Conservatory, by attending student examinations and negotiating the sometimes sensitive relations among various members of the staff. He served as director of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society during the 1889–1890 season. In this post, he invited many international celebrities to conduct, including Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák and Jules Massenet.^[105]

During this period, Tchaikovsky also began promoting Russian music as a conductor,^[105] In January 1887, he substituted, on short notice, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for performances of his opera Cherevichki.^[108] Within a year, he was in considerable demand throughout Europe and Russia. These appearances helped him overcome life-long stage fright and boosted his self-assurance.^[109] In 1888, Tchaikovsky led the premiere of his Fifth Symphony in Saint Petersburg, repeating the work a week later with the first performance of his tone poem Hamlet. Although critics proved hostile, with César Cui calling the symphony «routine» and «meretricious», both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by audiences and Tchaikovsky, undeterred, continued to conduct the symphony in Russia and Europe.^[110] Conducting brought him to the United States in 1891, where he led the New York Music Society’s orchestra in his Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall.^[111]

Belyayev circle and growing reputation[edit]

In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived at Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the Russian Symphony Concerts, devoted exclusively to the music of Russian composers. One included the first complete performance of his revised First Symphony; another featured the final version of Third Symphony of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, with whose circle Tchaikovsky was already in touch.^[112]

Rimsky-Korsakov, with Alexander Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov and several other nationalistically-minded composers and musicians, had formed a group known as the Belyayev circle, named after a merchant and amateur musician who became an influential music patron and publisher.^[113] Tchaikovsky spent much time in this circle, becoming far more at ease with them than he had been with the ‘Five’ and increasingly confident in showcasing his music alongside theirs.^[114] This relationship lasted until Tchaikovsky’s death.^[115][116]

In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, only the second Russian subject to be so honored (the first was sculptor Mark Antokolsky).^[117] The following year, the University of Cambridge in England awarded Tchaikovsky an honorary Doctor of Music degree.^[118]

Death[edit]

On 16/28 October 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his Sixth Symphony,^[119] the Pathétique, in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, near the graves of fellow-composers Alexander Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, and Modest Mussorgsky; later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Mily Balakirev were also buried nearby.^[120]

Tchaikovsky’s death is attributed to cholera, caused by drinking unboiled water at a local restaurant.^[121] In the 1980s in Britain, however, there was academic speculation that he killed himself, either with poison or by contracting cholera intentionally;^[122] in the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Roland John Wiley wrote: «the polemics over Tchaikovsky’s death have reached an impasse … . As for illness, problems of evidence offer little hope of satisfactory resolution: the state of diagnosis; the confusion of witnesses; disregard of long-term effects of smoking and alcohol. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out.»^[123]

Music[edit]

Antecedents and influences[edit]

Of Tchaikovsky’s Western predecessors, Robert Schumann stands out as an influence in formal structure, harmonic practices and piano writing, according to Brown and musicologist Roland John Wiley.^[124] Boris Asafyev comments that Schumann left his mark on Tchaikovsky not just as a formal influence but also as an example of musical dramaturgy and self-expression.^[125] Leon Botstein claims the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner also left their imprints on Tchaikovsky’s orchestral style.^{[126][n 13]} The late-Romantic trend for writing orchestral suites, begun by Franz Lachner, Jules Massenet, and Joachim Raff after the rediscovery of Bach’s works in that genre, may have influenced Tchaikovsky to try his own hand at them.^[127]

His teacher Anton Rubinstein’s opera The Demon became a model for the final tableau of Eugene Onegin.^[128] So did Léo Delibes’ ballets Coppélia and Sylvia for The Sleeping Beauty^{[n 14]} and Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen (a work Tchaikovsky admired tremendously) for The Queen of Spades.^[129] Otherwise, it was to composers of the past that Tchaikovsky turned—Beethoven, whose music he respected;^[130] Mozart, whose music he loved;^[130] Glinka, whose opera A Life for the Tsar made an indelible impression on him as a child and whose scoring he studied assiduously;^[131] and Adolphe Adam, whose ballet Giselle was a favorite of his from his student days and whose score he consulted while working on The Sleeping Beauty.^[132] Beethoven’s string quartets may have influenced Tchaikovsky’s attempts in that medium.^[133] Other composers whose work interested Tchaikovsky included Hector Berlioz, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Gioachino Rossini,^[134] Giuseppe Verdi,^[135] Vincenzo Bellini,^[136] Carl Maria von Weber^[137] and Henry Litolff.^[138]

Creative range[edit]

Tchaikovsky displayed a wide stylistic and emotional range, from light salon works to grand symphonies. Some of his works, such as the Variations on a Rococo Theme, employ a «Classical» form reminiscent of 18th-century composers such as Mozart (his favorite composer). Other compositions, such as his Little Russian symphony and his opera Vakula the Smith, flirt with musical practices more akin to those of the ‘Five’, especially in their use of folk song.^[139] Other works, such as Tchaikovsky’s last three symphonies, employ a personal musical idiom that facilitated intense emotional expression.^[140]

Compositional style[edit]

Melody[edit]

American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Tchaikovsky’s «sweet, inexhaustible, supersensuous fund of melody», a feature that has ensured his music’s continued success with audiences.^[141] Tchaikovsky’s complete range of melodic styles was as wide as that of his compositions. Sometimes he used Western-style melodies, sometimes original melodies written in the style of Russian folk song; sometimes he used actual folk songs.^[139] According to The New Grove, Tchaikovsky’s melodic gift could also become his worst enemy in two ways.

The first challenge arose from his ethnic heritage. Unlike Western themes, the melodies that Russian composers wrote tended to be self-contained: they functioned with a mindset of stasis and repetition rather than one of progress and ongoing development. On a technical level, it made modulating to a new key to introduce a contrasting second theme exceedingly difficult, as this was literally a foreign concept that did not exist in Russian music.^[142]

The second way melody worked against Tchaikovsky was a challenge that he shared with the majority of Romantic-age composers. They did not write in the regular, symmetrical melodic shapes that worked well with sonata form, such as those favored by Classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven; rather, the themes favored by Romantics were complete and independent in themselves.^[143] This completeness hindered their use as structural elements in combination with one another. This challenge was why the Romantics «were never natural symphonists».^[144] All a composer like Tchaikovsky could do with them was to essentially repeat them, even when he modified them to generate tension, maintain interest and satisfy listeners.^[145]

Harmony[edit]

Harmony could be a potential trap for Tchaikovsky, according to Brown, since Russian creativity tended to focus on inertia and self-enclosed tableaux, while Western harmony worked against this to propel the music onward and, on a larger scale, shape it.^[146] Modulation, the shifting from one key to another, was a driving principle in both harmony and sonata form, the primary Western large-scale musical structure since the middle of the 18th century. Modulation maintained harmonic interest over an extended time-scale, provided a clear contrast between musical themes and showed how those themes were related to each other.^[147]

One point in Tchaikovsky’s favor was «a flair for harmony» that «astonished» Rudolph Kündinger, Tchaikovsky’s music tutor during his time at the School of Jurisprudence.^[148] Added to what he learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory studies, this talent allowed Tchaikovsky to employ a varied range of harmony in his music, from the Western harmonic and textural practices of his first two string quartets to the use of the whole-tone scale in the center of the finale of the Second Symphony, a practice more typically used by The Five.^[139]

Rhythm[edit]

Rhythmically, Tchaikovsky sometimes experimented with unusual meters. More often, he used a firm, regular meter, a practice that served him well in dance music. At times, his rhythms became pronounced enough to become the main expressive agent of the music. They also became a means, found typically in Russian folk music, of simulating movement or progression in large-scale symphonic movements—a «synthetic propulsion», as Brown phrases it, which substituted for the momentum that would be created in strict sonata form by the interaction of melodic or motivic elements. This interaction generally does not take place in Russian music.^[149] (For more on this, please see Repetition below.)

Structure[edit]

Tchaikovsky struggled with sonata form. Its principle of organic growth through the interplay of musical themes was alien to Russian practice.^[142] The traditional argument that Tchaikovsky seemed unable to develop themes in this manner fails to consider this point; it also discounts the possibility that Tchaikovsky might have intended the development passages in his large-scale works to act as «enforced hiatuses» to build tension, rather than grow organically as smoothly progressive musical arguments.^[150]

According to Brown and musicologists Hans Keller and Daniel Zhitomirsky, Tchaikovsky found his solution to large-scale structure while composing the Fourth Symphony. He essentially sidestepped thematic interaction and kept sonata form only as an «outline», as Zhitomirsky phrases it.^[151] Within this outline, the focus centered on periodic alternation and juxtaposition. Tchaikovsky placed blocks of dissimilar tonal and thematic material alongside one another, with what Keller calls «new and violent contrasts» between musical themes, keys, and harmonies.^[152] This process, according to Brown and Keller, builds momentum^[153] and adds intense drama.^[154] While the result, Warrack charges, is still «an ingenious episodic treatment of two tunes rather than a symphonic development of them» in the Germanic sense,^[155] Brown counters that it took the listener of the period «through a succession of often highly charged sections which added up to a radically new kind of symphonic experience» (italics Brown), one that functioned not on the basis of summation, as Austro-German symphonies did, but on one of accumulation.^[153]

Partly owing to the melodic and structural intricacies involved in this accumulation and partly due to the composer’s nature, Tchaikovsky’s music became intensely expressive.^[156] This intensity was entirely new to Russian music and prompted some Russians to place Tchaikovsky’s name alongside that of Dostoevsky.^[157] German musicologist Hermann Kretzschmar credits Tchaikovsky in his later symphonies with offering «full images of life, developed freely, sometimes even dramatically, around psychological contrasts … This music has the mark of the truly lived and felt experience».^[158] Leon Botstein, in elaborating on this comment, suggests that listening to Tchaikovsky’s music «became a psychological mirror connected to everyday experience, one that reflected on the dynamic nature of the listener’s own emotional self». This active engagement with the music «opened for the listener a vista of emotional and psychological tension and an extremity of feeling that possessed relevance because it seemed reminiscent of one’s own ‘truly lived and felt experience’ or one’s search for intensity in a deeply personal sense».^[159]

Repetition[edit]

As mentioned above, repetition was a natural part of Tchaikovsky’s music, just as it is an integral part of Russian music.^[160] His use of sequences within melodies (repeating a tune at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice)^[161] could go on for extreme length.^[139] The problem with repetition is that, over a period of time, the melody being repeated remains static, even when there is a surface level of rhythmic activity added to it.^[162] Tchaikovsky kept the musical conversation flowing by treating melody, tonality, rhythm and sound color as one integrated unit, rather than as separate elements.^[163]

By making subtle but noticeable changes in the rhythm or phrasing of a tune, modulating to another key, changing the melody itself or varying the instruments playing it, Tchaikovsky could keep a listener’s interest from flagging. By extending the number of repetitions, he could increase the musical and dramatic tension of a passage, building «into an emotional experience of almost unbearable intensity», as Brown phrases it, controlling when the peak and release of that tension would take place.^[164] Musicologist Martin Cooper calls this practice a subtle form of unifying a piece of music and adds that Tchaikovsky brought it to a high point of refinement.^[165] (For more on this practice, see the next section.)

Orchestration[edit]

Like other late Romantic composers, Tchaikovsky relied heavily on orchestration for musical effects.^[166] Tchaikovsky, however, became noted for the «sensual opulence» and «voluptuous timbrel virtuosity» of his orchestration.^[167] Like Glinka, Tchaikovsky tended toward bright primary colors and sharply delineated contrasts of texture.^[168] However, beginning with the Third Symphony, Tchaikovsky experimented with an increased range of timbres^[169] Tchaikovsky’s scoring was noted and admired by some of his peers. Rimsky-Korsakov regularly referred his students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to it and called it «devoid of all striving after effect, [to] give a healthy, beautiful sonority».^[170] This sonority, musicologist Richard Taruskin pointed out, is essentially Germanic in effect. Tchaikovsky’s expert use of having two or more instruments play a melody simultaneously (a practice called doubling) and his ear for uncanny combinations of instruments resulted in «a generalized orchestral sonority in which the individual timbres of the instruments, being thoroughly mixed, would vanish».^[171]

Pastiche (Passé-ism)[edit]

In works like the «Serenade for Strings» and the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Tchaikovsky showed he was highly gifted at writing in a style of 18th-century European pastiche. In the ballet The Sleeping Beauty and the opera The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky graduated from imitation to full-scale evocation. This practice, which Alexandre Benois calls «passé-ism», lends an air of timelessness and immediacy, making the past seem as though it were the present.^[172] On a practical level, Tchaikovsky was drawn to past styles because he felt he might find the solution to certain structural problems within them. His Rococo pastiches also may have offered escape into a musical world purer than his own, into which he felt himself irresistibly drawn. (In this sense, Tchaikovsky operated in the opposite manner to Igor Stravinsky, who turned to Neoclassicism partly as a form of compositional self-discovery.) Tchaikovsky’s attraction to ballet might have allowed a similar refuge into a fairy-tale world, where he could freely write dance music within a tradition of French elegance.^[173]

Aesthetic impact[edit]

Maes maintains that, regardless of what he was writing, Tchaikovsky’s main concern was how his music impacted his listeners on an aesthetic level, at specific moments in the piece and on a cumulative level once the music had finished. What his listeners experienced on an emotional or visceral level became an end in itself.^[174] Tchaikovsky’s focus on pleasing his audience might be considered closer to that of Mendelssohn or Mozart. Considering that he lived and worked in what was probably the last 19th-century feudal nation, the statement is not actually that surprising.^[175]

And yet, even when writing so-called ‘programme’ music, for example his Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, he cast it in sonata form. His use of stylized 18th-century melodies and patriotic themes was geared toward the values of Russian aristocracy.^[176] He was aided in this by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who commissioned The Sleeping Beauty from Tchaikovsky and the libretto for The Queen of Spades from Modest with their use of 18th century settings stipulated firmly.^{[177][n 15]} Tchaikovsky also used the polonaise frequently, the dance being a musical code for the Romanov dynasty and a symbol of Russian patriotism. Using it in the finale of a work could assure its success with Russian listeners.^[178]

Reception[edit]

Dedicatees and collaborators[edit]

Tchaikovsky’s relationship with collaborators was mixed. Like Nikolai Rubinstein with the First Piano Concerto, virtuoso and pedagogue Leopold Auer rejected the Violin Concerto initially but changed his mind; he played it to great public success and taught it to his students, who included Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein.^[179] Wilhelm Fitzenhagen «intervened considerably in shaping what he considered ‘his’ piece», the Variations on a Rococo Theme, according to music critic Michael Steinberg. Tchaikovsky was angered by Fitzenhagen’s license but did nothing; the Rococo Variations were published with the cellist’s amendments.^{[180][n 16]}

His collaboration on the three ballets went better and in Marius Petipa, who worked with him on the last two, he might have found an advocate.^{[n 17]} When The Sleeping Beauty was seen by its dancers as needlessly complicated, Petipa convinced them to put in the extra effort. Tchaikovsky compromised to make his music as practical as possible for the dancers and was accorded more creative freedom than ballet composers were usually accorded at the time. He responded with scores that minimized the rhythmic subtleties normally present in his work but were inventive and rich in melody, with more refined and imaginative orchestration than in the average ballet score.^[181]

Critics[edit]

Critical reception to Tchaikovsky’s music was varied but also improved over time. Even after 1880, some inside Russia held it suspect for not being nationalistic enough and thought Western European critics lauded it for exactly that reason.^[182] There might have been a grain of truth in the latter, according to musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein, as German critics especially wrote of the «indeterminacy of [Tchaikovsky’s] artistic character … being truly at home in the non-Russian».^[183] Of the foreign critics who did not care for his music, Eduard Hanslick lambasted the Violin Concerto as a musical composition «whose stink one can hear»^[184] and William Forster Abtrop wrote of the Fifth Symphony, «The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, delirium tremens, raving, and above all, noise worse confounded!»^[185]

The division between Russian and Western critics remained through much of the 20th century but for a different reason. According to Brown and Wiley, the prevailing view of Western critics was that the same qualities in Tchaikovsky’s music that appealed to audiences—its strong emotions, directness and eloquence and colorful orchestration—added up to compositional shallowness.^[186] The music’s use in popular and film music, Brown says, lowered its esteem in their eyes still further.^[139] There was also the fact, pointed out earlier, that Tchaikovsky’s music demanded active engagement from the listener and, as Botstein phrases it, «spoke to the listener’s imaginative interior life, regardless of nationality». Conservative critics, he adds, may have felt threatened by the «violence and ‘hysteria'» they detected and felt such emotive displays «attacked the boundaries of conventional aesthetic appreciation—the cultured reception of art as an act of formalist discernment—and the polite engagement of art as an act of amusement».^[159]

There has also been the fact that the composer did not follow sonata form strictly, relying instead on juxtaposing blocks of tonalities and thematic groups. Maes states this point has been seen at times as a weakness rather than a sign of originality.^[163] Even with what Schonberg termed «a professional reevaluation» of Tchaikovsky’s work,^[187] the practice of faulting Tchaikovsky for not following in the steps of the Viennese masters has not gone away entirely, while his intent of writing music that would please his audiences is also sometimes taken to task. In a 1992 article, New York Times critic Allan Kozinn writes, «It is Tchaikovsky’s flexibility, after all, that has given us a sense of his variability…. Tchaikovsky was capable of turning out music—entertaining and widely beloved though it is—that seems superficial, manipulative and trivial when regarded in the context of the whole literature. The First Piano Concerto is a case in point. It makes a joyful noise, it swims in pretty tunes and its dramatic rhetoric allows (or even requires) a soloist to make a grand, swashbuckling impression. But it is entirely hollow».^[188]

In the 21st century, however, critics are reacting more positively to Tchaikovsky’s tunefulness, originality, and craftsmanship.^[187] «Tchaikovsky is being viewed again as a composer of the first rank, writing music of depth, innovation and influence,» according to cultural historian and author Joseph Horowitz.^[189] Important in this reevaluation is a shift in attitude away from the disdain for overt emotionalism that marked half of the 20th century.^[190] «We have acquired a different view of Romantic ‘excess,'» Horowitz says. «Tchaikovsky is today more admired than deplored for his emotional frankness; if his music seems harried and insecure, so are we all».^[189]

Public[edit]

Horowitz maintains that, while the standing of Tchaikovsky’s music has fluctuated among critics, for the public, «it never went out of style, and his most popular works have yielded iconic sound-bytes [sic], such as the love theme from Romeo and Juliet«.^[189] Along with those tunes, Botstein adds, «Tchaikovsky appealed to audiences outside of Russia with an immediacy and directness that were startling even for music, an art form often associated with emotion».^[191] Tchaikovsky’s melodies, stated with eloquence and matched by his inventive use of harmony and orchestration, have always ensured audience appeal.^[192] His popularity is considered secure, with his following in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, second only to that of Beethoven.^[123] His music has also been used frequently in popular music and film.^[193]

Legacy[edit]

According to Wiley, Tchaikovsky was a pioneer in several ways. «Thanks in large part to Nadezhda von Meck», Wiley writes, «he became the first full-time professional Russian composer». This, Wiley adds, allowed him the time and freedom to consolidate the Western compositional practices he had learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Russian folk song and other native musical elements to fulfill his own expressive goals and forge an original, deeply personal style. He made an impact in not only absolute works such as the symphony but also program music and, as Wiley phrases it, «transformed Liszt’s and Berlioz’s achievements … into matters of Shakespearean elevation and psychological import».^[194] Wiley and Holden both note that Tchaikovsky did all this without a native school of composition upon which to fall back. They point out that only Glinka had preceded him in combining Russian and Western practices and his teachers in Saint Petersburg had been thoroughly Germanic in their musical outlook. He was, they write, for all intents and purposes alone in his artistic quest.^[195]

Maes and Taruskin write that Tchaikovsky believed that his professionalism in combining skill and high standards in his musical works separated him from his contemporaries in The Five.^[196] Maes adds that, like them, he wanted to produce music that reflected Russian national character but which did so to the highest European standards of quality.^[197] Tchaikovsky, according to Maes, came along at a time when the nation itself was deeply divided as to what that character truly was. Like his country, Maes writes, it took him time to discover how to express his Russianness in a way that was true to himself and what he had learned. Because of his professionalism, Maes says, he worked hard at this goal and succeeded. The composer’s friend, music critic Herman Laroche, wrote of The Sleeping Beauty that the score contained «an element deeper and more general than color, in the internal structure of the music, above all in the foundation of the element of melody. This basic element is undoubtedly Russian».^[198]

Tchaikovsky was inspired to reach beyond Russia with his music, according to Maes and Taruskin.^[199] His exposure to Western music, they write, encouraged him to think it belonged to not just Russia but also the world at large.^[47] Volkov adds that this mindset made him think seriously about Russia’s place in European musical culture—the first Russian composer to do so.^[97] It steeled him to become the first Russian composer to acquaint foreign audiences personally with his own works, Warrack writes, as well as those of other Russian composers.^[200] In his biography of Tchaikovsky, Anthony Holden recalls the dearth of Russian classical music before Tchaikovsky’s birth, then places the composer’s achievements into historical perspective: «Twenty years after Tchaikovsky’s death, in 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring erupted onto the musical scene, signaling Russia’s arrival into 20th-century music. Between these two very different worlds, Tchaikovsky’s music became the sole bridge».^[201]

Voice recording[edit]

A recording was made in Moscow in January 1890, by Julius Block [ru] on behalf of Thomas Edison.^[202] A transcript of the recording follows:

Anton Rubinstein:	What a wonderful thing.	Какая прекрасная вещь ….хорошо… (in Russian)
Julius Block:	At last.	Наконец-то.
Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya:	You’re disgusting. How dare you call me crafty?	Пративный *** да как вы смеете называть меня коварной?
Vasily Safonov:	(sings)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky:	This trill could be better.	Эта трель могла бы быть и лучше.
Lavrovskaya:	(sings)
Tchaikovsky:	Blok is a good fellow, but Edison is even better.	Блок молодец, но у Эдисона ещё лучше!
Lavrovskaya:	(sings) A-o, a-o.	А-о, а-о.
Safonov:	Peter Jurgenson in Moscow.	Peter Jurgenson in Moskau. (in German)
Tchaikovsky:	Who’s speaking now? It seems like Safonov’s voice.	Кто сейчас говорит? Кажется голос Сафонова.
Safonov:	(whistles)

According to musicologist Leonid Sabaneyev, Tchaikovsky was not comfortable with being recorded for posterity and tried to shy away from it. On an apparently separate visit from the one related above, Block asked the composer to play something on a piano or at least say something. Tchaikovsky refused. He told Block, «I am a bad pianist and my voice is raspy. Why should one eternalize it?»^[203]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• Free scores by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Tchaikovsky Research
• «Discovering Tchaikovsky». BBC Radio 3.
• Works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky at Internet Archive