Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайкoвский, Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij; [listen] ([Media helphelp]·[info]) (7 May [O.S. 25 April] 1840 – 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1893), also transliterated Piotr Ilitsch Tschaikowski or Peter Ilich Tschaikowsky, was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. Although not a member of the group of nationalistic composers usually known in English-speaking countries as 'The Five', his music has come to be known and loved for its distinctly Russian character as well as its rich harmonies and stirring melodies. His works, however, were much more western than those of his Russian contemporaries as he effectively used international elements in addition to national folk melodies.

Early life

Pyotr Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk, a small town in present-day Udmurtia (at the time the Vyatka Guberniya under Imperial Russia), the son of a mining engineer in the government mines and the second of his three wives, Alexandra, a Russian woman of French ancestry. Musically precocious, he began piano lessons at the age of five, and in a few months was already proficient at Friedrich Kalkbrenner's composition Le Fou. In 1850, his father was appointed director of the Saint Petersburg Technological Institute. There, the younger Tchaikovsky obtained an excellent general education at the School of Jurisprudence, and furthered his instruction on the piano with the director of the music library. Also during this time, he made the acquaintance of the Italian master Luigi Piccioli, who influenced the young man away from German music, and encouraged the love of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. His father indulged Tchaikovsky's interest in music by funding studies with Rudolph Kündinger, a well-known piano teacher from Nuremberg. Under Kündinger, Tchaikovsky's aversion to German music was overcome, and a lifelong affinity to the music of Mozart was seeded. When his mother died of cholera in 1854, the 14-year-old composed a waltz in her memory.

Tchaikovsky left school in 1859 and received employment as an under-secretary in the Ministry of Justice, where he soon joined the Ministry's choral group. In 1861, he befriended a fellow civil servant who had studied with Nikolai Zaremba, who urged him to resign his position and pursue his studies further. Not ready to give up employment, Tchaikovsky agreed to begin lessons in musical theory with Zaremba. The following year, when Zaremba joined the faculty of the new St. Petersburg Conservatory, Tchaikovsky followed his teacher and enrolled, but still did not give up his post at the ministry, until his father consented to support him. From 1862 to 1865, Tchaikovsky studied harmony, counterpoint and the fugue with Zaremba, and instrumentation and composition under the director and founder of the Conservatory, Anton Rubinstein, who was both impressed by and envious of Tchaikovsky's talent.

Musical Career

After graduating, Tchaikovsky was approached by Rubinstein's brother Nikolai to become professor of harmony, composition, and the history of music. Tchaikovsky gladly accepted the position, as his father had retired and lost his property. The next ten years were spent teaching and composing. Teaching proved taxing, and in 1877 he suffered a breakdown. After a year off, he attempted to return to teaching, but retired his post soon after. He spent some time in Italy and Switzerland, but eventually took residence with his sister, who had an estate just outside of Kiev.

Tchaikovsky took to orchestral conducting after filling in at a performance in Moscow of his opera Tcharodyeika (Чародейка: the Enchantress/Sorceress) (1885-7). Overcoming a life-long stage fright, his confidence gradually increased to the extent that he took to regularly conducting his pieces.

Tchaikovsky visited America in 1891 in a triumphant tour to conduct performances of his works. On May 5, he conducted the New York Symphony Society's orchestra in a performance of Marche Solenelle on the opening night of New York's Carnegie Hall. That evening was followed by subsequent performances of his Third Suite on May 7, and the a cappella choruses Pater Noster and Legend on May 8.

Just nine days after the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, Pathétique, in 1893, in Saint Petersburg, Tchaikovsky died (see section below).

Some musicologists (e.g., Milton Cross, David Ewen) believe that he consciously wrote his Sixth Symphony as his own Requiem. In the development section of the first movement, the rapidly progressing evolution of the transformed first theme suddenly "shifts into neutral" in the strings, and a rather quiet, harmonized chorale emerges in the trombones. The trombone theme bears absolutely no relation to the music that preceded it, and none to the music which follows it. It appears to be musically a "non sequitur", an anomaly — but it is from the Russian Orthodox Mass for the Dead, in which it is sung to the words: "And may his soul rest with the souls of all the saints." Tchaikovsky was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg.

His music included some of the most renowned pieces of the romantic period. Many of his works were inspired by events in his life.

Personal Life

During his education at the School of Jurisprudence, he was infatuated with a soprano, but she married another man. One of his conservatory students, Antonina Milyukova, began writing him passionate letters around the time that he had made up his mind to "marry whoever will have me." He did not even remember her from his classes, but her letters were very persistent, and he hastily married her on July 18, 1877. Within days, while still on their honeymoon, he deeply regretted his decision. Two weeks after the wedding the composer attempted suicide by wading in a cold river. He later fled to Saint Petersburg a nervous wreck, and was separated from his wife after only six weeks. The couple never saw each other again. Antonina Milyukova died in a mental institution in 1917. They remained legally married until his death.

The composer's homosexuality, as well as its importance to his life and music, has long been recognized, though knowledge about it was especially suppressed during the Soviet era.http://www.glbtq.com/arts/tchaikovsky_pi.html Although some historians continue to view him as heterosexual, many others - such as Rictor Norton and Alexander Poznansky - accept that some of Tchaikovsky's relationships were homosexual, such as the ones with his servant Alyosha and his nephew, Vladimir Davidov. Evidence that Tchaikovsky was homosexual is drawn from his letters and diaries, as well as the letters of his brother, Modest, who was also homosexual.

A far more influential woman in Tchaikovsky's life was a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, with whom he exchanged 1,200 letters between 1877 and 1890. At her insistence they never met; they did encounter each other on two occasions, purely by chance, but did not converse. As well as financial support in the amount of 6,000 rubles a year, she expressed interest in his musical career and admiration for his music. However, after 14 years she ended the relationship unexpectedly, claiming bankruptcy. It was during this period that Tchaikovsky achieved success throughout Europe and (by his own account), in 1891, even greater accolades in the United States. In fact, he was the conductor, on May 5th, 1891, at the official opening night of Carnegie Hall.

Meck's claim of financial ruin is disregarded by some who believe that she ended her patronage of Tchaikovsky because she supposedly discovered the composer's homosexuality. It is possible she was planning to marry off one of her daughters to Tchaikovsky, as she also supposedly tried to marry one of them to Claude Debussy, who had lived in Russia for a time as music teacher to her family. Also, one of her sons, Nikolay, was married to Tchaikovsky's niece Anna Davydova.

Tchaikovsky's life is the subject of Ken Russell's motion picture The Music Lovers. Two other motion pictures were based on his life - the low-budgeted, sanitized and highly fictionalized Song of My Heart, released in 1948, and the 1969 Russian-language "Tchaikovsky" , which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His last name derives from the word chaika (чайка), meaning seagull in a number of Slavic languages. His family origins may not have been entirely Russian. In an early letter to Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky wrote that his name was Polish and his ancestors were "probably Polish."

Tchaikovsky's death

Until recent years it had been generally assumed that Tchaikovsky died of cholera after drinking infected water. However, a controversial theory published in 1980 by Aleksandra Orlova and based only on oral history (i.e., without documentary evidence), explains Tchaikovsky's death as a suicide.

In this account, Tchaikovsky committed suicide by consuming small doses of arsenic following an attempt to blackmail him over his homosexuality. His alleged death by cholera (whose symptoms have some similarity with arsenic poisoning) is supposed to have been a cover for this suicide. According to the theory, Tchaikovsky's own brother Modest Tchaikovsky, also homosexual, helped conspire to keep the secret. There are many circumstantial events that some say lend credence to the theory, such as wrong dates on the death certificate, conflicting testimony from Modest and the doctor about the timeline of his death, the fact that Tchaikovsky's funeral was open casket, and that the sheets from his deathbed were merely laundered instead of being burned. There are also passages in Rimsky-Korsakov's autobiography years later about how people at the funeral kissed Tchaikovsky on the face, even though he had died from cholera. These passages were deleted by Russian authorities from later editions of Rimsky-Korsakov's book.

The suicide theory is hotly disputed by others, including Alexander Poznansky, who argues that Tchaikovsky could easily have drunk tainted water because his class regarded cholera as a disease that afflicted only poor people, or because restaurants would mix cool boiled water with unboiled; that the circumstances of his death are entirely consistent with cholera; and that homosexuality ("gentlemanly games") was widely tolerated among the upper classes of Tsarist Russia. To this day, no one knows how Tchaikovsky truly died.

The English composer Michael Finnissy has composed a short opera, Shameful Vice, about Tchaikovsky's last days and death.

Musical Works

See also

Ballets

Tchaikovsky is well known for his ballets, although it was only in his last years, with his last two ballets, that his contemporaries came to really appreciate his finer qualities as ballet music composer.

• (1875–1876): Swan Lake, Op. 20. Tchaikovsky's first ballet, it was first performed (with some omissions) at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1877. It was not until 1895, in a revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov that the ballet was presented in the definitive version it is still danced in today (the music for this revival was much revised by the composer Riccardo Drigo in a version still used by most ballet companies today).
• (1888–1889): Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66. This work Tchaikovsky considered to be one of his best. Its first performance was in 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg.
• (1891–1892): The Nutcracker, Op. 71. Tchaikovsky himself was less satisfied with this, his last ballet. Though he accepted the commission, he did not particularly want to write it (though he did write to a friend while composing the ballet: "I am daily becoming more and more attuned to my task.") This ballet premiered on a double-bill with his last opera, Iolanta. Among other things, the score of Nutcracker is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic poem The Voyevoda (premiered 1891).↑  Although well-known in Nutcracker as the featured solo instrument in the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Act II, it is employed elsewhere in the same act.
• *Note: For only this ballet did Tchaikovsky derive a suite (the "suites" from the other ballets were devised by other hands). The Nutcracker Suite is often mistaken by novice listeners as the ballet itself, but it consists of only seven selections from the score intended for concert performance.

Operas

Tchaikovsky completed ten operas, although one of these is mostly lost and another exists in two significantly different versions. In the West his most famous are Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.

• Voyevoda (Воевода – The Voivode, Op. 3, 1867 – 1868)

:Full score destroyed by composer, but posthumously reconstructed from sketches and orchestral parts;

• Undina (Ундина or Undine, 1869)

:Was not completed. Only a march sequence from this opera saw the light of day, as the second movement of his Symphony #2 in C Minor and a few other segments are occasionally heard as concert pieces. Interestingly, while Tchaikovsky revised the Second symphony twice in his lifetime, he did not alter the second movement (taken from the Undina material) during either revision. The rest of the score of Undina was destroyed by the composer.

• The Oprichnik (Опричник), 1870–1872

:Premiere April 24 [OS April 12], 1874, St Petersburg

• Vakula the Smith (Кузнец Вакула – Kuznets Vakula), Op. 14, 1874;

: Revised later as Cherevichki, premiere December 6 [OS November 24], 1876, St Petersburg

• Eugene Onegin' (Евгений Онегин – Yevgeny Onegin), Op. 24, 1877–1878

:Premiere March 29 [OS March 17] 1879 at the Moscow Conservatory

• The Maid of Orleans (Орлеанская дева – Orleanskaya deva), 1878–1879

:Premiere February 25 [OS February 13], 1881, St Petersburg

• Mazepa (Мазепа), 1881–1883

:Premiere February 15 [OS February 3] 1884, Moscow

• Cherevichki (Черевички; revision of Vakula the Smith) 1885

:Premiere January 31 [OS January 19], 1887, Moscow)

• The Enchantress (or The Sorceress, Чародейка – Charodeyka), 1885–1887

:Premiere November 1 [OS October 20] 1887, St Petersburg

• The Queen of Spades (Пиковая дама - Pikovaya dama), Op. 68, 1890

:Premiere December 19 [OS December 7] 1890, St Petersburg

• Iolanta (Иоланта – Iolanthe), Op. 69, 1891

: First performance: Maryinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg, 1892. Originally performed on a double-bill with The Nutcracker

(Note: A "Chorus of Insects" was composed for the projected opera Mandragora [Мандрагора] of 1870).

Symphonies

Tchaikovsky's earlier symphonies are generally optimistic works of nationalistic character, while the later symphonies are more intensely dramatic, particularly in the Sixth, a clear declaration of despair. The last three of his numbered symphonies (the fourth, fifth and sixth) are recognised as highly original examples of symphonic form and are frequently performed.

• (1866): No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13, Winter Daydreams
• (1872): No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17, Little Russian
• (1875): No. 3 in D major, Op. 29, Polish
• (1877–1878): No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
• (1885): Manfred Symphony, B minor, Op. 58. Inspired by Byron's poem Manfred.
• (1888): No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
• (Symphony No. 7: see below, Piano Concerto No. 3)
• (1893): No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique

He also wrote four orchestral suites in the ten years between the 4th and 5th symphonies. He originally intended to designate one or more of these as a "symphony" but was persuaded to alter the title. The four suites are nonetheless symphonic in character, and, compared to the last three symphonies, are undeservedly neglected.

Concerti

• (1874–1875): Of his three piano concertos, it is No.1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, which is best known and most highly regarded, and one of the most popular piano concertos ever written. It was initially rejected by its dedicatee, the pianist Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein, as poorly composed and unplayable, and subsequently premiered by Hans von Bülow (who was delighted to find such a piece to play) in Boston, Massachusetts on 25 October, 1875. Rubinstein later admitted his error of judgement, and included the work in his own repertoire.
• (1878): His Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, was composed in less than a month during March and April 1878, but its first performance was delayed until 1881 because Leopold Auer, the violinist to whom Tchaikovsky had intended to dedicate the work, refused to perform it: he stated that it was unplayable. Instead it was first performed by the relatively unknown Austrian violinist Adolf Brodsky, who received the work by chance. This violin concerto is one of the most popular concertos for the instrument and is frequently performed today.
• (1879): Tchaikovsky's second piano concerto, Op. 44, is an eloquent, less extroverted piece with a violin and cello added as soloists in the second movement.
• (1892): The so-called "Third Piano Concerto in E-flat major," has a curious and complicated history. Commenced after the Symphony No. 5, it was intended initially to be the composer's next (i.e., sixth) symphony. However, after nearly finishing the sketches and some orchestration of the first movement, Tchaikovsky abandoned work on this score as a symphony. However, in 1893, after beginning work on what is now known as Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique), he reworked the sketches of the first movement and completed the instrumentation to create a piece for piano and orchestra known as Allegro de concert or Konzertstück (published posthumously as Op. 75). Tchaikovsky also produced a piano arrangement of the slow movement (Andante) and last movement (Finale) of the symphony. He turned the scherzo into another piano piece, the "Scherzo-fantasie" in E-flat minor, Op. 72, No. 10. After Tchaikovsky's death, the composer Sergei Taneyev completed and orchestrated the Andante and Finale, published as Op. 79. A reconstruction of the original symphony from the sketches and various reworkings was accomplished during 1951–1955 by the Soviet composer Semyon Bogatyrev, who brought the symphony into finished, fully orchestrated form and issued the score as Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 7 in E-flat major.Wiley, Roland. 'Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il′yich, §6(ii): Years of valediction, 1889–93: The last symphony'; Works: solo instrument and orchestra; Works: orchestral, Grove Music Online (Accessed 07 February 2006), (subscription required). Brown, David. Tchaikovsky: the Final Years (1885-1893). New York: W.W. Norton, 1991, pp. 388-391, 497.

Other works

For orchestra

• (1869 revised 1870, 1880): Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture This piece contains one of the world's most famous melodies. The tremendously famous love theme in the middle of this long symphonic poem has been used countless times in commercials and movies, frequently as a spoof to traditional love scenes.
• (1873); The Tempest Symphonic Fantasia After Shakespeare, Op. 18
• (1876): Marche Slave, Op. 31. This piece is another well-known Tchaikovsky piece and is often played in conjunction with the 1812 Overture. This work uses the Tsarist National Anthem (as does the 1812). This piece is mostly in a minor key and is yet another very recognisable piece, commonly referenced in cartoons, commercials and the media. The piece is much in the style of a capriccio. Band Accept Played the introduction of this piece for their song, Metal Heart.
• (1876): Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32. This piece has been described as "pure melodrama" similar to stretches of Verdi operas [ [S-Express]; some passages are similar to sword-fight clashes in Romeo and Juliet. When Francesca da Rimini was conducted by Leonard Bernstein in 1989, slowed from 40 minutes to 50, it was reviewed as a "masterpiece" [ [NYTimes-1989].
• (1880): Capriccio Italien, Op. 45. This piece is a traditional caprice or capriccio (in Italian) in an Italian style. Tchaikovsky stayed in Italy in the late 1870s to early 1880s and throughout the various festivals he heard many themes, some of which were played by trumpets, samples of which can be heard in this caprice. It has a lighter character than many of his works, even "bouncy" in places, and is often performed today in addition to the 1812 Overture.
• *The title used in English-speaking countries is a linguistic hybrid: it contains an Italian word ("Capriccio") and a French word ("Italien"). A fully Italian version would be Capriccio Italiano; a fully French version would be Caprice Italien.
• (1880): Serenade in C for String Orchestra, Op. 48. The first movement, In the form of a sonatina, was an homage to Mozart. The second movement is a Waltz, followed by an Elegy and a spirited Russian finale, Tema Russo. In his score, Tchaikovsky supposedly wrote, "The larger the string orchestra, the better will the composer's desires be fulfilled."
• (1880): 1812 Overture, Op. 49. This piece was reluctantly written by Tchaikovsky to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars. It is known for its traditional Russian themes (such as the old Tsarist National Anthem) as well as its famously triumphant and bombastic coda at the end which uses 16 cannon shots and a chorus of church bells. Despite its popularity, Tchaikovsky wrote that he "did not have his heart in it".

For

• (1871) String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11
• (1876) Variations on a Rococo theme for cello and orchestra, Op. 33.
• (1876) Piano suite The Seasons, Op. 37a
• Three pieces: Meditation, Scherzo and Melody op. 42, for violin and piano
• (1882) Piano trio in A minor, Op. 50
• (1886) Dumka, Russian rustic scene in C minor for piano, Op. 59
• (1890) String sextet Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70

For a complete list of works by opus number, see [link]. For more detail on dates of composition, see [link].

Media

• [Tchaikovsky documentary]25 min TV documentary on Tchaikovsky.

See also

• Nadezhda von Meck
• Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein
• Tchaikovsky International Competition
• Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio
• Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Citations

References

• Greenberg, Robert "[Great Masters: Tchaikovsky -- His Life and Music]"
• Holden, Anthony Tchaikovsky: : A Biography Random House; 1st U.S. ed edition (February 27, 1996) ISBN 0679420061
• Kamien, Roger. Music : An Appreciation. Mcgraw-Hill College; 3rd edition (August 1, 1997) ISBN 0070365210
• ed. John Knowles Paine, Theodore Thomas, and Karl Klauser (1891). Famous Composers and Their Works, J.B. Millet Company.
• Meck Galina Von, Tchaikovsky Ilyich Piotr, Young Percy M. Tchaikovsky Cooper Square Publishers; 1st Cooper Square Press ed edition (October, 2000) ISBN 0815410875
• Meck, Nadezhda Von Tchaikovsky Peter Ilyich, To My Best Friend: Correspondence Between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda Von Meck 1876-1878 Oxford University Press (January 1, 1993) ISBN 0198161581
• Poznansky, Alexander, Tchaikovsky's Last Days, Oxford University Press (1996), ISBN 019816596X
• Poznansky, Alexander Tchaikovsky: the Quest for the Inner Man Lime Tree (1993) ISBN 0413457214 (hb), ISBN 0413457311 (pb)
• Tchaikovsky, Modest The Life And Letters Of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky University Press of the Pacific (2004) ISBN 1410216128
• [Tchaikovsky's sacred works by Polyansky]
• [Biography of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky] at the [John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts]

External links

• [Tchaikovsky research] (active site)
• [Tchaikovsky] (inactive site)
• [Tchaikovsky page] (inactive site)
• [PBS Great Performances biography of Tchaikovsky]
• [Piano Society - Tchaikovsky] - Biography and various free recordings in MP3 format.
• [Tchaikovsky cylinder recordings], from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.

Public Domain Sheet Music:

• [IMSLP] - International Music Score Library Project's Tchaikovsky page.
• [Mutopia Project] Tchaikovsky Sheet Music at Mutopia
• [WIMA] Tchaikovsky Sheet Music at Werner Icking Music Archive

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