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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky[a 1](English: /tʃaɪˈkɒfski/ chy-KOF-skee;[1]Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский[a 2], tr. Pjotr Il’íč Čajkóvskij, IPA: [pʲɵtr ɪlʲˈjitɕ tɕɪjˈkofskʲɪj] (
listen)
listen)listen); 7 May [O.S. 25 April] 1840 – 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1893[a 3]) was a Russiancomposer of the romantic period, whose works are among the most popular music in the classicalrepertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. He was honored in 1884 by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension.
Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at that time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalistmovement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five, with whom his professional relationship was mixed. Tchaikovsky’s training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music; this seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky’s self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of Peter the Great. This resulted in uncertainty among the intelligentsia about the country’s national identity—an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky’s career.
Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky’s life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by his mother’s early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein, and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, which was his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck who was his patron even though they never actually met each other. His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor, though some musicologists now downplay its importance. Tchaikovsky’s sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera; there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of death, and whether his death was accidental or self-inflicted.
While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than base exoticism and said he transcended stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky’s music as “lacking in elevated thought”, according to longtime New York Times music critic Harold C. Schonberg, and derided its formal workings as deficient because they did not stringently follow Western principles.
Life
Childhood
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, a small town in Vyatka Governorate (present-day Udmurtia) in the Russian Empire, into a family with a long line of military service. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, had served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines,[2] and would manage the Kamsko-Votkinsk Ironworks. His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky (né Petro Fedorovych Chaika), was born in the village of Mikolayivka, Poltava Gubernia, Russian Empire (present day Ukraine),[3] and served first as a physician’s assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather, a Ukrainian[4][5][6] Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, distinguished himself under Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava in 1709.[7][8] Tchaikovsky’s mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (néed’Assier), was the second of Ilya’s three wives, 18 years her husband’s junior and French and German on her father’s side.[9] Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music—a necessity as a posting to a remote area of Russia also meant a need for entertainment, whether in private or at social gatherings.[10] Of his six siblings,[a 4]Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Alexandra’s marriage to Lev Davydov[11] would produce seven children[12] and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult,[13] especially during his years of wandering.[13] One of those children, Vladimir Davydov, whom the composer would nickname ‘Bob’, would become very close to him.[14]
In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess.[15] Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise.[16] By the age of six, he had become fluent in French and German.[10] Tchaikovsky also became attached to the young woman; her affection for him was reportedly a counter to his mother’s coldness and emotional distance from him,[17] though others assert that the mother doted on her son.[18] Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky’s work from this period, including his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes.[19]
Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five. Precocious, within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. His parents, initially supportive, hired a tutor, bought an orchestrion (a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects), and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons. However, they decided in 1850 to send Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served the lesser nobility, and thought that this education would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant.[20] Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time—except for the affluent aristocracy—were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants.[21] His father’s income was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible.[22] As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence’s preparatory school, 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from his family.[23] Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies.[24]
Tchaikovsky’s early separation from his mother caused an emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854, when he was fourteen.[25][a 5] The loss of his mother also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition, a waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky’s father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered fully, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy’s mind.[26] Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard.[27] Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged the gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera[28]and Tchaikovsky would improvise at the school’s harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. “We were amused,” Vladimir Gerard later remembered, “but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory”.[29] Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies through Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to the school; however, the results, according to musicologist David Brown, were “negligible”.[30]
In 1855, Tchaikovsky’s father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy’s talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer.[31] He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own negative experiences as a musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise.[32] Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice.[33]
Civil service; pursuing music
On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained a senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career.[34]
Meanwhile, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II) and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent.[35] The aim of the RMS was to fulfill Alexander II’s wish to foster native talent.[36] It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed)[37] and provided basic professional training in music.[38] In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in music theorytaught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the Russian Museum).[39] These classes were a precursor to the Saint Pet
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