Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Пётр Ильич Чайковский
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Background information
Born 7 May [O.S. 25 April] 1840
Votkinsk, Russia Flag of Russia
Died 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1893
Saint Petersburg, Russia Flag of Russia
Genre(s) Romantic
Occupation(s) Composer
Conductor

Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайкoвский, Pëtr Il’ič Čajkovskij; listen (help·info))[1] (7 May [O.S. 25 April] 1840 – 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1893), was a Russian composer of the Romantic era.

Although not a member of the group of Russian 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 for 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.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Tchaikovsky as a legal student
Tchaikovsky as a legal student

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 (by the Gregorian calendar; this was April 25 by the Julian calendar) in Votkinsk, a small town in present-day Udmurtia (at the time the Vyatka Guberniya under Imperial Russia). He was the son of Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, a mining engineer in the government mines, and the second of his three wives, Alexandra Andreyevna Assier, a Russian woman of French ancestry. He was the older brother (by some ten years) of the dramatist, librettist, and translator Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Pyotr began piano lessons at the age of five, and in a few months he was already proficient at Friedrich Kalkbrenner's composition Le Fou. In 1850, his father was appointed director of the St Petersburg Technological Institute. There, the young 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 with 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 1858 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.

[edit] Musical career

Tchaikovsky as professor of composition
Tchaikovsky as professor of composition

After graduating, Tchaikovsky was approached by Anton Rubinstein's younger 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 was 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 Switzerland, but eventually took residence with his sister, who had an estate just outside Kiev.

Tchaikovsky took to orchestral conducting after filling in at a performance in Moscow of his opera The Enchantress (Russian: Чародейка) (1885-7). Overcoming a life-long stage fright, his confidence gradually increased to the extent that he regularly took to 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 Music Society's orchestra in a performance of Marche Solennelle 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. The U.S. tour also included performances of his First Piano Concerto and Serenade for Strings.

Just nine days after the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, Pathétique, in 1893, in St 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 a musical "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 St 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.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] A disastrous marriage

Tchaikovsky in 1874
Tchaikovsky in 1874

Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, as well as its importance to his life and music, has long been recognized, though any proof of it was suppressed during the Soviet era.[2] All serious historians know that he was homosexual : Rictor Norton and Alexander Poznansky — conclude that some of Tchaikovsky's closest relationships were homosexual (citing his servant Aleksei Sofronov and his nephew, Vladimir "Bob" Davydov). 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.

During his education at the School of Jurisprudence, he was infatuated with French soprano Désirée Artôt, but she married another man. One of his conservatory students, Antonina Miliukova, 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. Ironically, the composer had been studying Pushkin's poem Eugene Onegin and was considering making it into an opera. A crucial scene is when the heroine, Tatiana, receives a letter from Onegin, rebuffing her romantic advances. Now truth seemed to imitate fiction. Was he to play Onegin to this Tatiana? Would he, like Onegin, live a lifetime of regret if he followed a similar course?

Tchaikovsky could have tactfully attempted to dissuade Antonina. Instead, he replied that he could offer only gratitude and sympathy in reply to her love. He retained enough sense to have discreet inquiries made about Antonina from a friend. That friend returned with a highly unfavorable account of her. Even with this information in hand, Tchaikovsky allowed his feeling for drama and Fate to outweigh his common sense, and he hastily married her on July 18, 1877.

The composer at age 37 with his wife, Antonina Miliukova (1877)
The composer at age 37 with his wife, Antonina Miliukova (1877)

Within days, while still on their honeymoon, Tchaikovsky deeply regretted his decision. By the time the couple returned to Moscow on July 26, he was a state of near-collapse. The strain in his appearance became obvious to his friends as the days passed, but they may not have truly realized how far Tchaikovsky was sliding into disaster. Two weeks after the wedding the composer supposedly attempted suicide by wading waist-high into the freezing Moscow River. He stood there until he could bear the cold no longer, certain he would contract a fatal case of pneumonia. His robust physical constitution defeated that plan, and his mental state grew even worse. Tchaikovsky fled to St Petersburg, his mind verging on a nervous breakdown.

Tchaikovsky's brother Anatoly met him at the railroad station when he arrived, but did not initially recognize his brother's changed face. Anatoly rushed him to a hotel where, after a violent outburst, Tchaikovsky lapsed into a two-day coma. Anatoly never told the specifics of what happened during that time. However, he must have explained at least some, if not all, of the truth to the mental specialist who was the only other person apart from his brothers and father to see the composer. The specialist prescribed a complete life change. He recommended Tchaikovsky make no attempt to renew his marriage, nor try to see his wife again. The composer never returned to his wife but did send her a regular allowance through the years. They remained legally married until his death.

Tchaikovsky lived for years in the fear that Antonina would reveal publically the true reason for their separation. Anatoly tried talking her into accepting a divorce. She would not, however, consent to the necessary fiction, needed for grounds of divorce, that Tchaikovsky had committed adultery. Tchaikovsky's publisher, Pyotr I. Jürgenson, tried his best to intercede in the matter on the composer's behalf. Eventually in the summer of 1880 Jürgenson discovered that Antonina had taken a lover the previous winter and had a child by him. She continued to have children at regular intervals and to deposit them all in a foundlings' home. By 1896 she was herself in a home, certified insane. She died in 1917.

Tchaikovsky himself never laid any blame upon Antonina. He considered his falling in with her, at a time when he had grown to be married for the sake of being married, as something to simply attribute to Fate. Regardless of whether a more tactful and intelligent woman could have come to terms with his homosexuality and provided him with the affection and care for which he longed both to receive and to give, Tchaikovsky never lost his personal ideal of marriage. When Anatoly became engaged, the composer wrote him a warm letter of congratulations. There he confessed, "Sometimes I am overcome with an insane craving for the cares of a woman's touch. Sometimes I see a sympathetic woman in whose lap I could lay my head, whose hands I would gladly kiss...." Biographer John Warrack maintains that the terms of this letter reveal Tchaikovsky was actually far from the realization of a true relationship with a wife, and that what Tchaikovsky describes may be a vision of his lost mother[3].

[edit] A timely benefactress

Tchaikovsky's benefactress, Nadezhda von Meck
Tchaikovsky's benefactress, Nadezhda von Meck

A far more influential woman in Tchaikovsky's life was a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck, with whom he exchanged over 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 13 years she ended the relationship unexpectedly, claiming bankruptcy.

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. However, von Meck's second daughter Alexandra -- who had literally shocked her father to death by revealing to him that her sibling Milochka was actually not his child -- told her mother about Tchaikovsky's homosexuality at the outset of her relationship with him. Her news may not have come as much of a surprise to von Mech. She was not only highly intelligent but also extremely diligent in discovering all she could about her composer. If anything (at least according to von Meck family tradition), that knowledge might have reassured her that there could be no other woman in Tchaikovsky's emotional life.

Tchaikovsky reportedly never recovered from the shock of von Meck's abrupt rejection nor discovered what had actually caused the break. What he did not know, and has not been known widely outside the von Meck family, was that both Tchaikovsky and von Meck were victims of a series of misunderstandings. Von Meck was under more financial pressure than she was ready to admit. She was being blackmailed by her son-in-law Shirinsky over the illegitimacy of his wife Milochka. Her son Vladimir had become financially extravagant and demanded more of his mother's attention. Von Meck herself was increasingly ill. She suffered from tuberculosis, which by this time had reached her larynx. Within three months of Tchaikovsky's passing, she would die in a choking fit.

Another complication was that von Meck had developed an atrophy of the arm. This made the physical act of writing difficult. Continuing her relationship with Tchaikovsky as they both had, with all its extravagantly expressed terms, would have been extraordinarily awkward if she dictated her letters to a servant or relative. Tchaikovsky's biographer John Warrack maintains that von Meck knew her relationship with Tchaikovsky had to be altered, but she never intended to break it off totally. At von Meck's request, Vladimir Pakhulsky urged Tchaikovsky to write, assuring that von Meck's feelings had not really changed. Tchaikovsky, however, felt at a loss and was perhaps unwilling to make further attempts to maintain contact that might be met with more of what seemed to him silent rebuffs.

By the time his relationship with von Meck had ended, Tchaikovsky no longer really needed the annual allowance she had provided. Tchaikovsky had already achieved success throughout Europe and by 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. With fame came financial independence, so money was not hardly as much of a concern as it had been at the beginning of his correspondence with von Meck.

As Warrack phrased it, "Her faith in him as an artist worthy of support was more important to him than the actual money ... It was, indeed, the fact that her interest in him seemed to go with the money she gave him that upset him most deeply, the more enduringly when he found that neither his willingness to start repaying the subsidy nor simply to continue the friendship apparently affected her decision. He could not even let her know how distressed and hurt he was, for even now he did not wish to hurt in return someone who had done so much for him, and who had once represented an ideal relationship to him[4]."

Modest Tchaikovsky
Modest Tchaikovsky

One person who may have welcomed the break was Tchaikovsky's brother Modest. Like his brother, Modest was also homosexual, although he too married. When the two brothers discussed the break, Modest did not try to explain her behavior. He told the composer that, in his view, what had been to Tchaikovsky the unique and mutual relationship of two friends had been for von Meck the passing fancy of a wealthy woman.

This judgment on Modest's part might be accepted with a certain degree of doubt. For all his adulation for his brother, Modest's feelings were actually deeply ambivalent. Modest may have been intensely jealous of his brother's creative success and equally insecure about this secret friend being his closest rival for his brother's attention and affections. Just as Tchaikovsky's break with his wife Antonina might have brought joy to Nadezhda von Meck, so now the break with von Meck nay have brought joy to Modest.

Modest, who also became the composer's biographer, maintained that Tchaikovsky's bitterness at what he considered von Meck's betrayal remained unassuaged, and that on his deathbed, the composer constantly repeated von Meck's name, reproaching her. However, a very different story persisted within the von Meck family. Galina von Meck -- the daughter of von Meck's son Nikolay and Tchaikovsky's niece Anna Lvovna Davidova -- maintained that the rift was secretly healed. In September 1893, only weeks before his death, Tchaikovsky had approached Galina's mother, Anna. Anna was about to leave for Nice to help nurse her dying mother-in-law. Tchaikovsky asked her to beg his former friend for forgiveness for his own silence. This apology was reportedly accepted wholeheartedly by von Meck and reciprocated.

Another biographer, David Brown, maintains that Galina’s account “contains much hearsay and a good deal that is romantically heightened.” He concedes some plausibility in her account of this reconciliation, however, especially since Galina received the story directly from the intermediary, her mother[5].

When Brown interviewed Galina shortly before her death in 1985, she confirmed her grandmother had an "atrophied" arm which made writing nearly impossible in her last years. He also asked her about Modest's fundamental feeling toward his brother. Galina, who had known Modest well during the first 25 years of her life, answered in one word: "Jealousy[6]."

[edit] Tchaikovsky's death

Tchaikovsky's tomb at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery
Tchaikovsky's tomb at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery

Most biographers of Tchaikovsky's life have considered his death to have been caused by cholera, most probably contracted through drinking contaminated water. In recent decades, however, various theories have been advanced by some sources that his death was a suicide. According to one version of the theory, this represented a sentence imposed by a "court of honor" of Tchaikovsky's fellow-alumni of the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence, in censure of the composer's homosexuality.

In her never-published book Tchaikovsky Day by Day, the Russian musicologist Aleksandra Orlova argued for suicide based on oral evidence and various circumstantial events surrounding his death (such as discrepancies over death dates, and handling of Tchaikovsky's body), suggesting that Tchaikovsky poisoned himself with arsenic. Orlova cites no documentary reference for these claims, however. Other well-respected studies of the composer have challenged Orlova's claims in detail, and concluded that the composer's death was due to natural causes.[7] The cause of Tchaikovsky's death thus remains in dispute amongst researchers.[8]

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

[edit] Musical works

Main article: Compositions by Pyotr Tchaikovsky

[edit] 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.

Original cast of Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, St Petersburg, 1890
Original cast of Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, St Petersburg, 1890
  • The Nutcracker, Op. 71, (1891–1892): Tchaikovsky himself was less satisfied with this, his last ballet. Though he accepted the commission (again granted by Ivan Vsevolozhsky), 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: This was the only ballet from which Tchaikovsky himself derived a suite (the "suites" from the other ballets were devised by other hands). The Nutcracker Suite is often mistaken for the ballet itself, but it consists of only eight selections from the score intended for concert performance.

[edit] 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.

Full score destroyed by composer, but posthumously reconstructed from sketches and orchestral parts
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.
Premiere April 24 [OS April 12], 1874, St Petersburg
Revised later as Cherevichki, premiere December 6 [OS November 24], 1876, St Petersburg
Premiere March 29 [OS March 17] 1879 at the Moscow Conservatory
Premiere February 25 [OS February 13], 1881, St Petersburg
Premiere February 15 [OS February 3] 1884, Moscow
Premiere January 31 [OS January 19], 1887, Moscow)
Premiere November 1 [OS October 20] 1887, St Petersburg
Premiere December 19 [OS December 7] 1890, St Petersburg
First performance: Maryinsky Theatre, St 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).

[edit] 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 recognized as highly original examples of symphonic form and are frequently performed.

[edit] Orchestral suites

Tchaikovsky 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.

  • Suite No. 1 in D minor, Op. 43 (1878-1879)
  • Suite No. 2 in C major, Op. 53 (1883)
  • Suite No. 3 in G major, Op. 55 (1884)
  • Suite No. 4 in G major, "Mozartiana", Op. 61 (1887). This consists of four orchestrations of piano pieces by (or in one case, based on) Mozart:

In addition to the above suites, Tchaikovsky made a short sketch for a Suite in 1889 or 1890, which was not subsequently developed.

Tchaikovsky himself arranged the suite from the ballet The Nutcracker. He also considered making suites from his two other ballets, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. He ended up not doing so, but after his death, others compiled and published suites from these ballets.

[edit] Concerti and concert pieces

  • Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23(1874–1875): Of his three piano concerti, it 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 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.
  • Serenade Melancolique, Op.26, for Violin and Orchestra
  • Variations on a Rococo theme Op.33 for violoncello and orchestra, (1876), The piece was written between December 1876 and March 1877, for and with the help of the German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen (a professor at the Moscow Conservatory). The dedicatee revised and reordered it somewhat in 1878, but the composer allowed the changes to stand. It was well received at its first performances and Fitzenhagen himself took the piece with him on a tour of Europe. Though not really a concerto, it was the closest Tchaikovsky ever came to writing a full concerto for cello.
  • Valse-Scherzo, Op.34, for Violin and Orchestra
  • Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, (1878), 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.
  • Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 44, (1879), is an eloquent, less extroverted piece with a violin and cello added as soloists in the second movement.
  • Concert Fantasy in G, Op.56, for piano and orchestra
  • Pezzo capriccioso, Op.62, (1888), for Cello and Orchestra
  • Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 75 posth. (1892): Commenced after the Symphony No. 5, what became the Third Piano Concerto and Andante and Finale for piano and orchestra was intended initially to be the composer's next (i.e., sixth) symphony. (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.[9])
  • Andante and Finale, Op. 79 posth. (1895): After Tchaikovsky's death, the composer Sergei Taneyev completed and orchestrated the Andante and Finale from Tchaikovsky's piano arrangement of these two movements, publishing them as Op. 79.

[edit] Other works

[edit] For orchestra

The 1812 overture complete with cannon fire was performed at the 2005 Classical Spectacular
The 1812 overture complete with cannon fire was performed at the 2005 Classical Spectacular
  • Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, (1869 revised 1870, 1880). 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. It also had an appearance in The Sims games.
  • The Tempest, Symphonic Fantasia after Shakespeare, Op. 18, (1873)
  • Slavonic March/Marche Slave, Op. 31, (1876). 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. It 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.
  • Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32, (1876). This piece has been described as "pure melodrama" similar to stretches of Verdi operas; [2] some passages are similar to sword-fight clashes in Romeo and Juliet.
  • Capriccio Italien, Op. 45, (1880). 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.
  • Serenade in C for String Orchestra, Op. 48, (1880). 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."
  • 1812 Overture, Op. 49, (1880). This piece was reluctantly[citation needed] 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".
  • Coronation March, Op. 50, (1883). The mayor of Moscow commissioned this piece for performance in May 1883 at the coronation of Tsar Alexander III. Tchaikovsky's arrangement for solo piano and E. L. Langer's arrangement for piano duet were published in the same year.

[edit] For voices and orchestra

  • Hamlet (1891), incidental music for Shakespeare's play. The score uses music borrowed from Tchaikovsky's overture of the same name, as well as from his Symphony No. 3, and from The Snow Maiden, in addition to original music that he wrote specifically for a stage production of Hamlet. The two vocal selections are a song that Ophelia sings in the throes of her madness, and a song for the First Gravedigger to sing as he goes about his work.

[edit] Solo and chamber music

For a complete list of works by opus number, see [3]. For more detail on dates of composition, see [4].

[edit] Media

[edit] See also

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Note: His names are also transliterated Piotr, Petr, or Peter; Ilitsch, Ilich, Il'ich or Illyich; and Tschaikowski, Tschaikowsky, Chajjkovskijj and Chaikovsky (as well as many other versions)
  2. ^ http://www.glbtq.com/arts/tchaikovsky_pi.html
  3. ^ Warrick, Tchaikovsky, 119-120
  4. ^ Warrack, Tchaikovsky, 243-244
  5. ^ David Brown, Tchaikovsky: THe Final Years, 292-293
  6. ^ Brown, Tchaikovsky:The Final Years, 292, ftn. 25
  7. ^ See, e.g., Tchaikovsky's Last Days by Alexander Poznansky.
  8. ^ The Daily Telegraph: "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml;jsessionid=AAHCFNMHZ13QZQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/arts/2007/01/15/bmbbc15.xml&page=2 "How did Tchaikovsky die?" Retrieved March 25, 2007.
  9. ^ 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), <http://www.grovemusic.com> (subscription required). Brown, David. Tchaikovsky: the Final Years (1885-1893). New York: W.W. Norton, 1991, pp. 388-391, 497.
  10. ^ [1]

[edit] References and further reading

[edit] External links

Public Domain Sheet Music:

PDF sheet music: http://www.bh2000.net/score/orchtcha/

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