Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia. He was the son of a mine inspector and a half-French mother. He started piano studies at five and soon showed to have a remarkable gift. By the age of six, he could read not only Russian, but also French and German. After hearing a piece by Mozart played on a music box, he asked his parents for piano lessons. The piano upset his nerves, though. The music going through his mind kept him awake at night. When Tchaikovsky was ten, his mother took him to St. Petersburg, to a school that would prepare him to study law. He was very attached to his mother and had a hard time saying good-bye to her. She died when he was 14, an event that may have stimulated him to compose. Tchaikovsky began writing music while in school. One of his first pieces is called "Anastasya Waltz" and was named after a favorite governess from his childhood. While attending law school, Tchaikovsky also took singing and piano lessons. Tchaikovsky graduated from law school in 1859 and got a job with the government. He was evidently a good worker but had much more fun after work going to the opera, ballet, and theater. In 1860, the Russian Musical Society started offering music classes to the public
This was however the time of two of his greatest works, the Fourth Symphony and Eugene Onegin. The brilliant Violin Concerto also comes from the late 1870s. Back in Russia, Tchaikovsky wrote the beloved Nutcracker Suite (1.Miniature Overture, 2. March, 3. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, 4Trepak, 5. Arab Dance, 6. Danse Chinoise, 8. Waltz of the flowers), completed in 1892, and began work on his programmatic Sixth Symphony, ultimately called the "Pathétique", into which he put his soul. A very rich widow, Nadezhda von Meck, loved Tchaikovsky's music and decided to send him a regular allowance. One condition for the allowance was that Tchaikovsky and von Meck would never meet each other. Instead, they wrote letters back and forth for fourteen years. They accidentally saw each other a few times but always turned and went the other way. For some reason, in 1890, they ended this relationship. This unusual relationship along with increasing commissions allowed Tchaikovsky to resign from teaching and to live a comfortable life, replete with various country homes. His elegant lifestyle did not relieve him of his emotional problems however, and he continued to suffer from headaches, was often overcome with weeping, and drank too much. Money may have been one of the reasons why he married his friend Antonina Milyukova in 1877. Tc
Some topics in this essay:
Antonina Milyukova,
St Petersburg,
Sixth Symphony,
Anastasya Waltz,
Petersburg Conservatory,
French German,
Nutcracker Tchaikovsky's,
Musical Society,
Ring Bayreuth,
Votkinsk Russia,
st petersburg,
allowed tchaikovsky,
piano lessons,
music theory,
von meck,
law school,
music school,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 900
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
CUSTOMER SERVICES
| |
|
Example Essays Home
