TCHAIKOVSKY

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), was the first Russian composer to gain international fame. He was a master of orchestration with a superb talent for blending instrumental sounds and for achieving rousing orchestral effects. He also had a remarkable gift for writing melody.

Tchaikovsky is often described as a composer of music that is basically melancholy. Some of his music is melancholy, especially the last movement of his Symphony No. 6. But he also wrote spirited music as in «1812» overture; lyrical music, as in the symphonic poem «Romeo and Juliet»; lively ballet music, as in the «Nutcracker Suite», and powerful sym phonies.

Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk. He entered a law school in St. Petersburg in 1850. From 1862 to 1866, he studied music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under Anton Rubinstein, a pianist and composer. Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to receive systematic training in music fundamentals.

From 1866 to 1877, Tchaikovsky taught at the Moscow Conservatory of Music. He began composing seriously about 1866. At this time, his early emotional sensitivity developed into long periods of depression. Curiously, he wrote some of his most cheerful music during these periods. He was married in 1877, but he and his wife separated within a few weeks. This experience brought him close to a nervous breakdown.

In 1876, Nadezhda von Meek, a wealthy window, commissioned some works from Tchaikovsky. She admired his music and agreed to support him so he could compose at leisure. She insisted that they never meet, but they exchanged letters for years. Assured of an income, Tchaikovsky left the Moscow Concervatory and concentrated on composing. He traveled widely, and in 1891 took part in the opening of Carnegie Hall in New York City. He died on November 6,1893 .

Tchaikovsky's six symphonies stand out as landmarks in his artistic development. His first three symphonies are seldom performed today. His fourth, written in 1877, is his first masterpiece in the symphonic form. Tchaikovsky's Symphony - No. 5 (1888) is his finest from the standpoint of formal construction. Symphony No. 6 (1893) is called the «Pathetigue» («Pathetic»). It departed from the traditional symphonic form by expressing a deeply emotional feeling of tragedy in the final movement. Tchaikovsky's other orchestral works include his Italian Capriccio, his famous Nutcracker Suite, and four other suites.

Tchaikovsky's «Concert for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in " flat minor" and his «Violin Concerts in D major» are classics of their types. Tchaikovsky also wrote an important work for violoncello - «Variations on a Rococo Theme for Violoncello and Orchestra». He composed vocal pieces and works for solo piano.

Tchaikovsky's three ballets have become classics. They are «Swan Lake», «Sleeping Beauty», and «The Nutcracker». Tchaikovsky wrote 11 operas, of which «Eugene Onegin» and «Queen of Spades» are the most famous. Both have librettos based on works by the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. «Queen of Spades» is a powerful psychological music drama dominated by the idea that fate rules human beings.

Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to win wide­spread popularity outside Russia. Some critics tend to see the melancholy strain in Tchaikovsky's music as almost the only trace of his Russian origin. But Tchaikovsky always claimed to be fully Russian in his feelings, and his works contain quotations from Russian folk melodies. He cited Mozart and Mikhail Glinka as the composers who influenced him the most. Much of Tchaikovsky's work represents a blend of the spirits of these two widely different composers.

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