Music: Romantic Period - Tchaikovsky

Music: Romantic Period - Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 the second of six children in Votinsk, Russia. His father was a government official, and Tchaikovsky was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps. He studied law at and graduated from the School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg when he was nineteen years old. He then accepted a post in the Ministry of Justice. He stayed at the post until he was twenty three years old and decided that he did not want a career in law. He enrolled in the Conservatory at St. Petersburg to study music. Once, when a teacher asked him to compose variations as an assignment, Tchaikovsky handed in over 200 the next day. He graduated in three years and took a teaching post at the Moscow Conservatory. Most of his first compositions were not well liked. They were possibly a bit too advanced at the time, but Tchaikovsky would re-work them until they were pleasing to his audiences.

Tchaikovsky suffered from depression and nervous breakdowns from early on in his career. He also struggled with being homosexual. He married Antonina Ivanovana Milyukoff in 1877 in an attempt to normalize his life. While she adored him, he separated from her after one month. He tried to live with her again, but again separated after a short time, and he left his teaching post at the Conservatory as he endured a nervous breakdown and fled to his brothers in St. Petersburg. A wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Mech gave a substantial amount of money to Tchaikovsky so he could recover and spend some time in Europe. This was a fairly productive time for him, and in 1891 he participated in the opening ceremonies of Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1893 he conducted his last symphony, the “Pathetique” and died 9 days later at the age of 53.