Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky
The Young Tchaikovsky
Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky was born in Russia in 1840. He loved and created great music all his life.
Peter once said, "I started to compose as soon as I knew what music was." That's true. Tchaikovsky was just four years old when he composed a song about his mother. His two-year-old sister, Alexandra, helped him.
When Peter was 10 his marks at school were terrific. To celebrate, his mother took him to see an opera. It was written by Glinka, a man known as "the father of Russian Music". Glinka became one of Tchaikovsky's heroes.
Music
was a big part of Peter Tchaikovsky's schoolwork. His class often went to plays and operas together. He sang in the school choir
and took piano lessons.
You won't believe this, but... Tchaikovsky's piano teacher didn't
think he was very talented.
Hmmm....
Peter entertained his friends on the piano by improvising the songs they were singing. He also had a trick where he played the piano with the keys covered by a cloth. (Maybe Tchaikovsky found practising boring sometimes too.)
When
Peter was only 14 years old, a very sad, difficult event happened.
His mother became ill with cholera and died.
Tchaikovsky was very lonely without his mother.
Russian
Music Grew Up With Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky was born in Russia where music was not considered a proper profession. It was only encouraged as a pastime for young ladies from wealthy families. The only Russian music that was really heard were the folk songs of the peasants and the choral singing in the church services. At first there weren't many schools that even offered training for Russian musicians. That all changed during Tchaikovsky's lifetime.
Peter Tchaikovsky became a full-time music student when he was 22 years old. He enrolled in the Russian Musical Society. It was like going to university. When he graduated, he moved to Moscow to become a professor at the Music Conservatory there. During that time Peter became great friends with Nikolay Rubinstein, another musician.
Even
Famous People Have Worries
There was a big problem with Tchaikovsky's job at the Music Conservatory. Peter dreaded conducting the orchestra. He had a deep, unexplainable fear that his head would fall off when he conducted! Peter would conduct with the baton in one hand and hold tightly to his chin with the other hand. Eventually he learned to control that fear.
Maybe his "head falling-off" worry had something to do with how troubled he was by what people thought of his work. Tchaikovsky loved composing. It was the best thing he had to give. His feelings were deeply hurt when people didn't like his work.
Peter worked as a music critic for a Moscow newspaper when his career was beginning. Do you think his worry about criticism affected what he wrote about other musicians and their work?
Tchaikovsky's Friends and Fans
When Alexandra, Peter's sister, married into the Davidov family, Tchaikovsky became a close friend of the Davidovs. He even dedicated his last and greatest work to them.
Peter Tchaikovsky composed operas, ballets, orchestral music, fantasy overtures, chamber music, piano music and vocal music as well. His brother, Modest, often gave Peter composition ideas. Tchaikovsky is famous for using Russian folk themes in many of his works.
Peter loved to read. Once the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy came to visit Tchaikovsky. Peter thought Tolstoy was a wonderful writer. From that visit, Peter was very proud to learn that Tolstoy was a great fan of his music.
Do you tell people when you like what they do? Do you have anyone who tells you when you've done good work? It's even a good idea to compliment yourself sometimes.
Another of Tchaikovsky's admirers was Madame von Meck. She was a very strange and wealthy widow. Madame von Meck liked Peter's work so much that she paid him to compose. They were pen-pals for 13 years and wrote over 1,100 letters to each other.
When
Tchaikovsky was 37 years old he married Antonia Milyukova. Antonia
had been one of his music students. She threatened to take her
life if Peter didn't marry her. Marrying Antonia did not fix
the problem. She made Tchaikovsky and his family as miserable
as she was. Eventually she died in an insane asylum.
Peter Tchaikovsky wrote interesting observations about other composers in his diaries. For instance...When Peter was 32 years old and Saint- Saëns was 40, they each lived out a secret ambition. They became ballet dancers. They created and later performed in their own two-man ballet. No audience was invited. They just had great fun!
Some of Tchaikovsky's Best Work
Here is a list of some of Tchaikovsky's compositions you may know or want to listen to:
Romeo
and Juliet
Francesca de Rimini
Swan Lake
The Maid of Orleans
Queen of Spades
Piano Concerto No.1
The Nutcracker Suite
Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra
The 1812 Overture
Tchaikovsky's
Great Career Comes to an End
When Tchaikovsky was 51, he left Russia to do a very successful music tour in North America. He even came to see the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
In 1893, two years after that North American tour, Peter died. His funeral was held in St. Petersburg. Huge numbers of people attended Tchaikovsky's funeral. Everyone wanted to show their respect for a great musician. Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky was buried in a little Russian village that he loved.
Watch a video sample of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 from the "Whole Notes" television series featuring Pinchas Zukerman and the NAC Orchestra.
