Download Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky The music of the Nutcracker is a swirling and

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky
The music of the Nutcracker is a swirling and vivid score which
allows for a wonderful expression of movement and story. Its
harmonious melodies have delighted audiences since the late
1800’s and it is a masterwork of Russian composer Peter Ilich
Tchaikovsky’s.
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840 to a working class
family with expectations of raising him to be a civil servant.
Early on he showed an inclination towards music despite little
encouragement from his parents. He began studying music on
and off at four years of age. He also attended the school of
jurisprudence.
Tchaikovsky turned to music to release emotion, dedicating his first waltz to his mother
after her passing. After a brief career as a civil servant Tchaikovsky quit his job to study
music full time at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He graduated in 1865 and his first
symphony performed publically in 1868.
Tchaikovsky’s work was often harshly judged by critics, yet popular with audiences. He
was the first Russian composer to incorporate Western European ideals into his
composition and move away from nationalistic themes. Tchaikovsky wanted to
incorporate a worldly professionalism and high skill while pleasing a broad, international
public.
Despite difficulties in his personal life, Tchaikovsky excelled professionally, He was a
professor at the Moscow Conservatory and a composer. He secured private patron-ship
and gave up his professorship to focus on composing.
Tchaikovsky was recognized by the Tzar of Russia and made Russian nobility. He
received a lifetime pension, and in 1893 received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the
University of Cambridge in Britain.
Tchaikovsky’s music created a bridge between old and new styles. He included harmonies,
melodies and tempos reminiscent of folk tunes and created a Western European sound,
through scale, color, and sequential style. He infused his compositions with an emotional
intensity.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votinsk, Russia on May 7, 1840. A very
bright child, he was able to read Russian, French, and German by the time he was six years
old. He hated physical exercise, did not like to wash and didn’t care about how he looked
or what he wore. He showed such a strong interest in music for a young child that his
governess worried about him. If he could not find a piano to try out the music he made up,
he would use his fingers to tap out his tunes on the windowpanes of his house. One time
while he was doing this, he tapped so hard that he broke the glass of the window, and cut
himself very badly.
Peter began taking piano lessons when he was six years old. After attending boarding
school he studied law and mathematics and worked as a clerk working in the Ministry of
Justice. After just four years he quit his job and enrolled as a full time student at the St.
Petersburg Conservatory. He studied music theory, composition, flute, piano and organ.
Tchaikovsky was a nervous, unhappy man all his life, yet his beautiful music made him
the most popular of all the Russian composers. He wrote the music for the three most
famous ballets of all time, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty.
In his lifetime he also wrote nine operas, six symphonies, four concertos, three string
quartets, and numerous songs, suites, and overtures. One of his most famous pieces is the
“1812” Overture, which uses cannons and church bells. Because it sounds so grand, it is
often chosen to accompany fireworks at 4th of July celebrations.
Tchaikovsky was only 53 when he died in St. Petersburg in 1893. He had just completed
his sixth symphony, which he felt was the greatest piece of music he ever created.