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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893): He abandoned a civil service position to enter the St. Petersburg Conservatory to study under Anton Rubinstein. As a student he wrote “The Storm” in 1864. Rubinstein was appalled by its extravagant histrionics. The famous “Romeo & Juliet” fantasy overture would follow under Balakirev’s suggestions. On a deeper and more personal level, Tchaikovsky's delicate and changeable temperament was further complicated by his homosexuality. These factors often left him depressed and insecure. In 1877 he married a young student who was infatuated with him, but it naturally proved disastrous. Tchaikovsky left after nine short weeks with a suicide attempt and a nervous breakdown. He then established a financial and platonic relationship with a wealthy widow, Nadejda von Meck, who supported him under the condition that they should never meet. Their letters to one another serve as an interesting insight into their friendship and the music that poured forth from Tchaikovsky. Her sudden break with him in 1890, both financially and personally, deeply wounded Tchaikovsky. By that time he was financially stable, as his reputation had grown from the ballets, symphonies, and operas, but his mental health continued to decline. His works became more intense and emotional, filled with despair and hysterical outpourings. The 6th Symphony is a masterpiece, wrought from the extremes of Tchaikovsky’s soul, full of repression and release, introspection, yearning, and angst. The “secret” that he had musically represented in his last symphony was in danger of being exposed. Rumors were circulating that he had an affair with a member of the Imperial family. The official explanation for his death was cholera, after he drank a glass of unboiled water. (Ironically, cholera was the cause of his mother’s death.) But it has been put forth that a tribunal induced him to commit suicide because of the affair. After his death, talk began that he had killed himself as a result of his last symphony’s failure, a symphony whose title, “Pathetique” lent itself to such rumor. Tchaikovsky's music was marked by its sensuously rhythmic pulse, which enabled him to create the world's greatest ballet music. The music shows a mixture of playful classicism and romantic verve. That he should incorporate such melodies into his symphonies prompted critics to attack. Tchaikovsky's quick defense was simple; ballet music was by no means inferior to any other form of music. Tchaikovsky's conflicts between himself and the world’s view of him perhaps give a clue to the extremes in his music. He adored the style and grace of Mozart, yet gravitated to the revolutionary innovations of Liszt and the Romantics. He might escape and find peace and consolation in Mozart, but his inner turmoil and the tempestuous times in which he lived forced him to ingest and release stirring Romantic creations. Though he rejected overt nationalism, his music has an underlying sentiment that is distinctly Russian. But his technical ability at orchestration, sweeping melodic imagination, and most importantly his sincerity, strike a balance with those dark and bittersweet emotions.
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Unbridled
best describes the music of Tchaikovsky. His sensitive nature produced
lush melodies and intense emotion that have yet to be rivaled. Tchaikovsky's
personal life was in turmoil from the very beginning. He lost his mother
at age 14 and was forced by a disinterested father into a civil-service/military
boarding school, where he found solace in the few music opportunities
available to him. After hearing Mozart's Don Giovanni Tchaikovsky decided
to dedicate his life to music.