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Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky
1840 - 1893
Peter
Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is one of the most loved of
Russian composers. He epitomized the ingenuous opening to the
emotions of the romantic era in music, but his product was made
durable through sound craftsmanship and rigorous work habits.
Tchaikovsky's name can be spelled in many ways, most of them not
used now. For example, Pyotr Ilyich Chaikovsky, Tschaikovky, or
Tschaikowski. Tchaikovsky was born on April 25, 1840 (May 7 in
the New Style Russian calendar) in Votkinsk. He died in St.
Petersburg on October 25 (November 6), 1893.
Tchaikovsky is perhaps the best-known composer of ballet music.
He wrote Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty. He also
wrote the 1812 Overture; six symphonies; several tone poems;
piano sonatas and concertos; the fantasy overture Romeo and
Juliet; the operas, The Queen of Spades, The Maid of Orleans,
and Eugene Onegin; the comic opera Vakula the Smith, a violin
concerto, the orchestral suite Capriccio Italien, the Manfred
Symphony, and the Serenade for Strings, among others
Tchaikovsky's father was a government bureaucrat, and his mother
was French. As was the custom, he had a French governess. He
related well with the governess, but she was dismissed when the
family moved first to Moscow, then to St. Petersburg.
Peter was considered a neurotically excitable child, so his
interest in music was not encouraged because his parents thought
it was not suitable for his temperament. Peter entered the
School of Jurisprudence in 1850, where he studied singing,
harmony, and piano.
When he was 14, Peter's mother died of cholera, and he missed
her greatly. His father was an easygoing man, and he did not
appear to grieve unduly for his wife. However, Peter gave vent
to his grief by writing a waltz for piano. After he finished
school, Peter had a job in the government's Ministry of Justice.
In 1862, Peter left his job to enroll in the St. Petersburg
Conservatory of Music. His teacher there was the great Russian
composer Anton Rubinstein. Peter eventually was given a post as
professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory by Rubinstein's
brother.
Desiree Artot, prima donna of a visiting Italian opera company,
fell madly in love with Peter, but their relationship lasted
only a short time. Not long after that, one of his students,
Antonina Milyukova, swore that she would commit suicide if he
did not marry her, so he did. However, they soon found out they
were not suited to each other, and the marriage failed. Even
after they separated, Desiree demanded money from Peter. This
put a severe strain not only on his finances but also on his
psychological health. The only other woman in Tchaikovsky's life
was Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow who admired his music.
They never met, but Mme. von Meck gave Peter enough money to
allow him to buy off his ex-wife, leave teaching, and spend his
time composing music. Peter eventually developed a liking for
conducting, and he led several orchestras in performances of his
music.
Peter spent most of his life alone, and he did not form
friendships or relationships easily. Many people believe that
much of his music reflects these feelings, especially his last
symphony, which he had labelled Pathetique., with pathos.
Tchaikovsky went on several conducting tours to foreign cities,
one to Leipzig, where he met composers Johannes Brahms and
Edvard Grieg. Other cities he visited were Berlin, Hamburg,
Paris, Prague, and London. He also toured the United States and
England.
Tchaikovsky bought a home near Moscow, where he spent all but
the last year of his life. He took two happy vacations in the
Caucasus Mountains, where he was honoured and feted at Tbilisi,
the capital of the Republic of Georgia.
The Pathetique Symphony received its premier in St. Petersburg
in August 1893 with Tchaikovsky himself conducting. However, the
audience was not receptive to the format of the music. Most
classical symphonies are written in four movements, the second
of which is usually slow. Peter, for reasons of his own, put the
slow movement at the end, and the people just did not understand
or appreciate it. He was extremely dejected, and he never
recovered his spirits.
Tchaikovsky died two months later, some say from drinking a
glass of unboiled water during a cholera epidemic, others say
from suicide by poisoning. In any event, the world of music lost
a major asset when Tchaikovsky was gone.
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Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is one of the most loved of
Russian composers. He epitomized the ingenuous opening to the
emotions of the romantic era in music, but his product was made
durable through sound craftsmanship and rigorous work habits.
Eschewing the intellectual, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was in no
sense a technical innovator; moreover, he attracted, and still
attracts, the barbed clevernesses of those less trustful of
emotional statement. But his work is always hotly defended as
each generation discovers him afresh - a process considerably
quickened by a massive and ever-growing body of literature about
his music and his interesting, often tragic life.
Born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk in the Vyatka district,
Tchaikovsky was the son of a well-to-do engineer. Peter and his
brothers and sister received a sound education from their French
governesses. He apparently showed no early signs of unusual
musical talent but was duly exposed to the music lessons
suffered by all young gentlemen. He later recalled growing up in
a place "saturated with the miraculous beauty of Russian folk
song" and the effect some music had on him as a child - that of
exquisite torture so beautiful that he begged the music be
stopped. He often referred to this in his letters as a mature
artist.
Tchaikovsky attended a school of jurisprudence in St.
Petersburg, and, while studying law and government, he also took
music lessons, including some composing, from Gabriel Lomakin.
Tchaikovsky graduated at the age of 19 and took a job as a
bureau clerk. This was to be the first step of an official
career, but he was already hopelessly enamoured of music. He
soon met the Rubinstein brothers, Anton and Nikolai; both were
composers, and Anton was a pianist second only to Franz Liszt in
technical brilliance and fame. In 1862 Anton opened Russia's
first conservatory, under the sponsorship of the Imperial
Russian Music Society (IRMS), in St. Petersburg, and Tchaikovsky
was its first composition student.
Early Works
Tchaikovsky's early works were technically sound but not
memorable. Anton Rubinstein was demanding and critical, often
unjustly so, and when Tchaikovsky graduated 2 years later he was
still somewhat cowed by Anton's harshness. In 1866 Nikolai
Rubinstein invited Tchaikovsky to Moscow to live with him and
serve as professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory,
which he had just established. Tchaikovsky's father was now in
financial trouble, and the composer had to support himself on
the meager earnings from the conservatory. The symphonic poems
Fatum and Romeo and Juliet that he wrote in 1869 were the first
works to show the style he was thereafter to cultivate. Romeo
and Juliet was redone with Mily Balakirev's help in 1870 and
again in 1879.
During the seventies and later, there was considerable
communication between Tchaikovsky and the Rubinsteins on the one
hand and the members of the Mighty Five, Balakirev, Aleksandr
Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and César
Cui, on the other. The traditional "enmity" between the two
groups seems a concoction of romantic biographers. Tchaikovsky
functioned as an all-around musician in the early seventies,
and, as expected of an IRMS licentiate, he taught, composed,
wrote critical essays, and conducted, the last not very well. In
1875 he composed what is perhaps his most universally known and
loved work, the Piano Concerto No. 1. Anton Rubinstein was
sarcastic in his dislike, although it became one of the most
popular items in his own repertoire as a concert pianist. Vying
in popularity with the concerto is Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan
Lake (1876). It is the most successful ballet ever written if
measured in terms of broad audience appeal.
A Disastrous Marriage
In 1877 Tchaikovsky married the 28-year-old Antonina Miliukova,
his student at the conservatory; it has been suggested that she
remained him of Tatiana, his heroine in his opera-in-process,
Eugene Onegin. His unfortunate wife, who died insane in 1917,
not only suffered violent rejection by her husband but also the
vicious libel of Modeste Tchaikovsky, his brother's biographer.
Modeste, like Peter a misogynist, vilified her in the biography
in an attempt to shield Peter and mask his weaknesses.
Subsequent biographers, uncritically and perhaps with relish,
repeated and embroidered upon Modeste's assertion that Antonina
was cheap, high-strung, and neurotic.
Tchaikovsky was scarcely to find out her character: within a few
weeks he had fled Moscow alone for an extended stay abroad. He
made arrangements through relatives never to see his wife again.
In his correspondence of this period - indeed through a large
part of his career - he was periodically morbid about all
aspects of his life: about his wife, money, his friends, even
his music and himself. He often spoke of suicide. This, too, is
a favourite theme of his many biographers. Even during his life
he was treated unkindly by critics who sharpened their sarcastic
vocabularies on his open, vulnerable, emotionally based music.
But he never sought to change his style, though he was
dissatisfied, at one time or another, with most of his works;
and he never stopped composing.
Arrangement with Madame von Meck
At about the same time as his abortive marriage, Tchaikovsky
entered into a liaison of quite another kind. Through third
parties an unusual but fruitful arrangement with the immensely
wealthy Nadezhda von Meck was made: she was attracted by his
music and the possibility of patronizing him, and he was frank
in his interest in her money and what it could provide him. For
13 years she supported him at a base rate of 6, 000 rubles a
year, with whatever "bonuses" he could manage to extract. He was
free to quit the conservatory, and he began a series of travels
and stays abroad.
Von Meck and Tchaikovsky purposely never met, save for one or
two accidental encounters. In their voluminous correspondence
the composer discusses his music thoughtfully; it is
disenchanting to note that in letters to his family he complains
cavalierly of her parsimony. He dedicated his Fourth Symphony
(1877) to her. Tchaikovsky finished Eugene Onegin in 1879; it is
his only opera generally performed outside the Soviet Union.
Other works of this period are the Violin Concerto (1881), the
Fifth Symphony (1888), and the ballet Sleeping Beauty (1889).
Tchaikovsky's fame and his activity now extended to all of
Europe and America. To rest from his public appearances he chose
a country retreat in Klin near Moscow. From this was derived the
"Hermit of Klin" nickname, though hermit he never was. In 1890
he finished the opera Queen of Spades, based on Aleksandr
Pushkin's story. As with many of his other works, Tchaikovsky
was highly involved emotionally, and he was gratified when,
despite the grousing "experts, " the opera was enthusiastically
received. In late 1890 Von Meck cut him off. He was
self-sustaining by then, but the rebuff rankled. Even Modeste
expressed surprise at his irritation. Tchaikovsky had an
immensely successful tour in the United States in 1891.
The Sixth Symphony was first heard in October 1893, with the
composer conducting. This work, named at Modeste's suggestion
Pathétique, was poorly received, very likely because of the
inadequate conducting. Tchaikovsky never knew of its eventual
astonishing success, for he contracted cholera and died,
muttering abuse of Von Meck, on November 6.
Tchaikovsky's gift was melody - sobbing, singing, exalting
melody. Yet, one of his favourite and recurring melodic patterns
was a simple five-or six-note minor scale, usually descending,
which he enveloped in orchestral colour or lush harmonies often
electrifying in their piquancy and effectiveness.
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Pyotr Il′yich Tchaikovsky. (b Kamsko-Votkinsk, 7 May 1840; d St
Petersburg, 6 Nov 1893). Russian composer. His father was a mine
inspector. He started piano studies at five and soon showed
remarkable gifts; his childhood was also affected by an abnormal
sensitivity. At ten he was sent to the School of Jurisprudence
at St Petersburg, where the family lived for some time. His
parting from his mother was painful; further, she died when he
was 14 - an event that may have stimulated him to compose. At 19
he took a post at the Ministry of Justice, where he remained for
four years despite a long journey to western Europe and
increasing involvement in music. In 1863 he entered the
Conservatory, also undertaking private teaching. Three years
later he moved to Moscow with a professorship of harmony at the
new conservatory. Little of his music so far had pleased the
conservative musical establishment or the more nationalist
group, but his First Symphony had a good public reception when
heard in Moscow in 1868.
Rather less successful was his first opera, The Voyevoda, given
at the Bol′shoy in Moscow in1869; Tchaikovsky later abandoned it
and re-used material from it in his next, The Oprichnik. A
severe critic was Balakirev, who suggested that he wrote a work
on Romeo and Juliet: this was the Fantasy-Overture, several
times rewritten to meet Balakirev's criticisms; Tchaikovsky's
tendency to juxtapose blocks of material rather than provide
organic transitions serves better in this programmatic piece
than in a symphony as each theme stands for a character in the
drama. Its expressive, well-defined themes and their vigorous
treatment produced the first of his works in the regular
repertory.
The Oprichnik won some success at St Petersburg in 1874, by when
Tchaikovsky had won acclaim with his Second Symphony (which
incorporates Ukrainian folktunes); he had also composed two
string quartets (the first the source of the famous Andante
cantabile), most of his next opera, Vakula the Smith, and of his
First Piano Concerto, where contrasts of the heroic and the
lyrical, between soloist and orchestra, clearly fired him.
Originally intended for Nikolay Rubinstein, the head of Moscow
Conservatory, who had much encouraged Tchaikovsky, it was
dedicated to Hans von Bülow (who gave its première, in Boston)
when Rubinstein rejected it as ill-composed and unplayable (he
later recanted and became a distinguished interpreter of it). In
1875 came the carefully written Third Symphony and Swan Lake,
commissioned by Moscow Opera. The next year a journey west took
in Carmen in Paris, a cure at Vichy and the first complete Ring
at Bayreuth; although deeply depressed when he reached home - he
could not accept his homosexuality - he wrote the fantasia
Francesca da Rimini and (an escape into the 18th century) the
Rococo Variations for cello and orchestra. Vakula, which had won
a competition, had its première that autumn. At the end of the
year he was contacted by a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, who
admired his music and was eager to give him financial security;
they corresponded intimately for 14 years but never met.
Tchaikovsky, however, saw marriage as a possible solution to his
sexual problems; and when contacted by a young woman who admired
his music he offered (after first rejecting her) immediate
marriage. It was a disaster: he escaped from her almost at once,
in a state of nervous collapse, attempted suicide and went
abroad. This was however the time of two of his greatest works,
the Fourth Symphony and Eugene Onegin. The symphony embodies a
‘fate’ motif that recurs at various points, clarifying the
structure; the first movement is one of Tchaikovsky's most
individual with its hesitant, melancholy waltz-like main theme
and its ingenious and appealing combination of this with the
secondary ideas; there is a lyrical, intermezzo-like second
movement and an ingenious third in which pizzicato strings play
a main role, while the finale is impassioned if loose and
melodramatic, with a folk theme pressed into service as second
subject. Eugene Onegin, after Pushkin, tells of a girl's
rejected approach to a man who fascinates her (the parallel with
Tchaikovsky's situation is obvious) and his later remorse: the
heroine Tatyana is warmly and appealingly drawn, and Onegin's
hauteur is deftly conveyed too, all against a rural Russian
setting which incorporates spectacular ball scenes, an ironic
background to the private tragedies. The brilliant Violin
Concerto also comes from the late 1870s.
The period 1878-84, however, represents a creative trough. He
resigned from the conservatory and, tortured by his sexuality,
could produce no music of real emotional force (the Piano Trio,
written on Rubinstein's death, is a single exception). He spent
some time abroad. But in 1884, stimulated by Balakirev, he
produced his Manfred symphony, after Byron. He continued to
travel widely, and conduct; and he was much honoured. In 1888
the Fifth Symphony, similar in plan to the Fourth (though the
motto theme is heard in each movement), was finished; a note of
hysteria in the finale was recognized by Tchaikovsky himself.
The next three years saw the composition of two ballets, the
finely characterized Sleeping Beauty and the more decorative
Nutcracker, and the opera The Queen of Spades, with its
ingenious atmospheric use of Rococo music (it is set in
Catherine the Great's Russia) within a work of high emotional
tension. Its theatrical qualities ensured its success when given
at St Petersburg in late 1890. The next year Tchaikovsky visited
the USA; in 1892 he heard Mahler conduct Eugene Onegin at
Hamburg. In 1893 he worked on his Sixth Symphony, to a plan -
the first movement was to be concerned with activity and
passion; the second, love; the third, disappointment; and the
finale, death. It is a profoundly pessimistic work, formally
unorthodox, with the finale haunted by descending melodic ideas
clothed in anguished harmonies. It was performed on 28 October.
He died nine days later: traditionally, and officially, of
cholera, but recently verbal evidence has been put forward that
he underwent a ‘trial’ from a court of honour from his old
school regarding his sexual behaviour and it was decreed that he
commit suicide. Which version is true must remain uncertain.
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This web page was last updated on:
16 December, 2008
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