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Kazakh great-grandfather
- The family name came from his Kazakh great-grandfather, who could imitate the call of a seagull (a “tchaika” - hence the name Tchaikovsky).
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Who was Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky?
How did Peter Tschaikowsky get his name?
Where did the name Tchaikovsky come from?
Who was Pyotr Tchaikovsky?
The formal Western-oriented teaching that Tchaikovsky received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his professional relationship was mixed.
- Overview
- Early years
- Middle years
Tchaikovsky was one of the most famous Russian composers. His music had great appeal for the general public by virtue of its tuneful open-hearted melodies, impressive harmonies, and colourful, picturesque orchestration, all of which evoke a profound emotional response.
What is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky known for?
Tchaikovsky’s most popular compositions include music for the ballets Swan Lake (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1889), and The Nutcracker (1892). He is also famous for the Romeo and Juliet overture (1870) and celebrated for Symphony No. 6 in B Minor (Pathétique) (1893).
What was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s family like?
Tchaikovsky was the second of six surviving children of Ilya Tchaikovsky, a manager of the Kamsko-Votkinsk metal works, and Alexandra Assier, who died when Tchaikovsky was in his teens. Despite being gay, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova, a young music student, in 1877. He left her after a few weeks.
Where was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky educated?
Tchaikovsky was the second of six surviving children of Ilya Tchaikovsky, a manager of the Kamsko-Votkinsk metal works, and Alexandra Assier, a descendant of French émigrés. He manifested a clear interest in music from childhood, and his earliest musical impressions came from an orchestrina in the family home. At age four he made his first recorded attempt at composition, a song written with his younger sister Alexandra. In 1845 he began taking piano lessons with a local tutor, through which he became familiar with Frédéric Chopin’s mazurkas and the piano pieces of Friedrich Kalkbrenner. Since music education was not available in Russian institutions at that time, Tchaikovsky’s parents had not considered that their son might pursue a musical career. Instead, they chose to prepare the high-strung and sensitive boy for a career in the civil service.
In 1850 Tchaikovsky entered the prestigious Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg, a boarding institution for young boys, where he spent nine years. He proved a diligent and successful student who was popular among his peers. At the same time Tchaikovsky formed in this all-male environment intense emotional ties with several of his schoolmates.
In 1854 his mother fell victim to cholera and died. During the boy’s last years at the school, Tchaikovsky’s father finally came to realize his son’s vocation and invited the professional teacher Rudolph Kündinger to give him piano lessons. At age 17 Tchaikovsky came under the influence of the Italian singing instructor Luigi Piccioli, the first person to appreciate his musical talents, and thereafter Tchaikovsky developed a lifelong passion for Italian music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni proved another revelation that deeply affected his musical taste. In the summer of 1861 he traveled outside Russia for the first time, visiting Germany, France, and England, and in October of that year he began attending music classes offered by the recently founded Russian Musical Society. When St. Petersburg Conservatory opened the following fall, Tchaikovsky was among its first students. After making the decision to dedicate his life to music, he resigned from the Ministry of Justice, where he had been employed as a clerk.
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Tchaikovsky spent nearly three years at St. Petersburg Conservatory, studying harmony and counterpoint with Nikolay Zaremba and composition and instrumentation with Anton Rubinstein. Among his earliest orchestral works was an overture entitled The Storm (composed 1864), a mature attempt at dramatic program music. The first public performance of any of his works took place in August 1865, when Johann Strauss the Younger conducted Tchaikovsky’s Characteristic Dances at a concert in Pavlovsk, near St. Petersburg.
After graduating in December 1865, Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow to teach music theory at the Russian Musical Society, soon thereafter renamed the Moscow Conservatory. He found teaching difficult, but his friendship with the director, Nikolay Rubinstein, who had offered him the position in the first place, helped make it bearable. Within five years Tchaikovsky had produced his first symphony, Symphony No. 1 in G Minor (composed 1866; Winter Daydreams), and his first opera, The Voyevoda (1868).
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In 1868 Tchaikovsky met a Belgian mezzo-soprano named Désirée Artôt, with whom he fleetingly contemplated a marriage, but their engagement ended in failure. The opera The Voyevoda was well received, even by the The Five, an influential group of nationalistic Russian composers who never appreciated the cosmopolitanism of Tchaikovsky’s music. In 1869 Tchaikovsky completed Romeo and Juliet, an overture in which he subtly adapted sonata form to mirror the dramatic structure of Shakespeare’s play. Nikolay Rubinstein conducted a successful performance of this work the following year, and it became the first of Tchaikovsky’s compositions eventually to enter the standard international classical repertoire.
- Alexander Poznansky
- He conducted Carnegie Hall’s inaugural concert. On May 5, 1891, Carnegie Hall, known as Andrew Carnegie’s new Music Hall, opened its doors for performances to the public.
- He suffered from stage fright. Despite being successful, Tchaikovsky was never emotionally secure with himself. He was a sensitive individual and suffered from many neuroses, including bouts of depression, severe anti-social behavior, and life-long debilitating, irrational stage fright.
- The Tsar was one of his biggest fans. Tsar Alexander III was an admirer of Tchaikovsky’s work and made sure he was awarded for his talents. Alexander III and the Imperial family often attended Tchaikovsky’s operas and ballets.
- He hated the “1812 Overture” In 1880, Tchaikovsky wrote the “1812 Overture” as a commemoration of the Battle of Borodino, a key battle of the Napoleonic Wars.
Apr 2, 2014 · After scrapping The Voyevoda, Tchaikovsky repurposed some of its material to compose his next opera, Oprichnik, which achieved some acclaim when it was performed at the Maryinsky in St....
Jun 14, 2023 · Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer most famous for his symphonies, the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker, and the operas Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.
- Mark Cartwright
The family name came from his Kazakh great-grandfather, who could imitate the call of a seagull (a “tchaika” - hence the name Tchaikovsky). However, the family origins may have been partly Polish , as Tchaikovsky suggested in a letter to his benefactress Madame von Meck.
Died: November 6, 1893. St. Petersburg, Russia. Russian composer. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was one of the most loved of Russian composers. His music is famous for its strong emotion, and his technical skill and strict work habits helped guarantee its lasting appeal.
