Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia on May 7, 1840 to a mining engineer father and Russian mother of French heritage, the second of his father's three wives. Like so many other renowned composers, he displayed musical talent at an early age and was enrolled in piano lessons at five. Educated at the School of Jurisprudence, he worked as a civil servant before enrolling in the prestigious St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1862, the year the music school opened, to 1865. Considered one of the most skilled and talented musicians in his class, he was hired as professor of theory and harmony at the then brand new Moscow Conservatory in 1866, a post he maintained until 1878.

 

Tchaikovsky's personal life was wrought with struggle and passion that can be seen clearly in his music. From an early age, the composer was romantically linked to other boys and as he grew up, he continued to be involved with men. He pursued a soprano while at the Conservatory, but to his dismay she married someone else, at which point, distraught and confused, he made up his mind to marry "whoever" would have him. When a student at the Moscow Conservatory began to write him love letters, he hastily married her in 1877, but regretted the decision almost immediately and actually attempted suicide. When his attempt failed, he ran away to St. Petersburg and never saw his wife again. She died in a mental institution 24 years later, but they remained married legally until Tchaikovsky's death.

 

In his professional career, Tchaikovsky got involved with a wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck, and the two exchanged 1,200 letters during the period of 1877-1890. Although they decided never to meet formally, they met by chance on two occasions but did not speak to each other. She supported the composer's musical career financially, giving him 6,000 rubles per annum and admired the work he produced immensely. Despite her admiration for the struggling musician, von Meck ended their agreement 14 years after it began because she claimed to be bankrupt. Some scholars suspect that she actually ended their agreement because she discovered the composer's attachment to men and had begun to support him with the ulterior motive of marrying off one of her daughters, whom she had tried to marry off to composer Claude Debussy while he was teaching music to her family in Russia. Regardless, Tchaikovsky's greatest success in Europe, as well as in the United States was achieved thanks to the support he received from the widow. He was the chosen conductor on May 5, 1891 at Carnegie Hall's opening night in New York.

 

The importance of Tchaikovsky's musical work and its contribution to Romantic music is accepted by all, as are the many aspects of his personal life. His life, although somewhat creatively depicted was even the subject of then motion picture "The Music Lovers." During his life he wrote many ballets, operas, concerti and other works for orchestra and chamber groups, including some choral work. His music displays the dramatic and lyrical melodies that are characteristic of many pieces of Romantic music, but are distinctive because of their acknowledgement of folk melodies and familiar songs.

 

Just nine days after Tchaikovsky's first performance of his Sixth Symphony, "Pathetique" on April 25, 1893, Tchaikovsky died, most likely of cholera. His death is the subject of speculation, however because of his troubled personal life and history of suicide attempts. In an account published in the 1980's, taken from an oral history, renowned scholar Aleksandra Orlova suggests the composer committed suicide with small doses of arsenic after someone threatened to blackmail him and expose his sexual preference. Still, this theory does not quite square with experts, particularly since the reports of his death are consistent with cholera, and it is highly likely he could have been exposed to unboiled, tainted water. Similarly, homosexuality was tolerated among the upper classes of Russia.

 

Some musical historians believe that this Sixth Symphony, considered one of his darker and quieter works (a stark contrast to the more joyous Second Symphony), was in some way his own Requiem. The first movement displays a marked change in theme and tone from a dramatic melody to a quiet, harmonized chorale played by ominous trombones. This trombone theme is strangely placed in the piece because it is not directly relevant to any of the other themes in the piece that emerge before it or after it. But the tune is taken from the Russian Orthodox Mass for the Dead that is set to the words, "And may his soul rest with the souls of all the saints."