Who Is Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian revolutionary composer who played a big role in classical music. His life was not easy, and he used music as a rescue from his problems, thus, creating the most famous compositions still recognized and used today. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was not only a very talented composer who created great masterpieces like “The Nutcracker”, but a great man who put in himself all the strength to become a great figure who is still known today. He was growing to be one of the most significant composers in history.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840, in a small town of Votkinks, six hundred miles away of Moscow. His father, Ilya Petrovich, worked as an engineer in the Department of Mines, and his mother, Alexandra,
was a housewife and the mother of six children. Neither one of his parents had any musical experience. Tchaikovsky was a musical genius who was born in a community with barely any music at all. Tchaikovsky was a very smart child, he could fluently speak French and German when he was only six years old.
‘’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.’’ Since music was not popular at that time, there were few music institutions, his parents decided to send him to the civil service. After the civil service, at the age of 10, his parents decided to send him to the school of Jurisprudence of St. Petersburg, where he studied the basics of arts and discovered his passion for music. After four years without seeing his family, he comes back to his town, and a few days later, his mother dies. This led him to a great depression and splash of emotions. He returns back to St. Petersburg, and enters the ministry of Justice in order to repay the costs of his education. While he was in the civil service, he attended private lessons to improve his music career, and focus his mind on music. He wanted to make sure if he had to stay in the civil service, or do what he enjoyed to do. Eventually, he gave up his career in order to compose music. Tchaikovsky finally started writing some works and
compositions, however, only a very small public liked his music. Tchaikovsky was working hard every day to improve his compositions, and in 1866, he and his family moved to Moscow. In the same year, a composer Nichola Rubinstein, a friend of Tchaikovsky, obtained the post of a teacher of classical music in Moscow Conservatory. While only two months working there, he began to work on his First Symphony and later submitted it for performance in St. Petersburg. His symphony was not accepted, he was told to make severe changes in his symphony. Tchaikovsky remade his symphony in two years, and eventually, in 1868, he performed his First Symphony in Moscow.
Not even a year later, Tchaikovsky wrote his first opera the Voyevada. He later used this piece in his next opera, the Oprichnik, which actually won some success. Balakirev, a classical music critic, asked Tchaikovsky to write a work on Romeo and Juliet, which was later known as the Fantasy Overture. The work was rewritten many times until it met the requirements of Balakirev. He continued to work hard on his second symphony. In 1875, he posted one of the most famous symphonies, the Swan Lake, which was later converted in an opera in Moscow. In 1876, a wealthy widow named Nadejda Von Meck heard the works of Tchaikovsky and decided to help him with his financial problems. The help of the widow allowed Tchaikovsky the freedom to compose. Tchaikovsky was again in a great depression due to his sexuality, he thought he was a homosexual and even attempted suicide. To clear his mind, he traveled through Europe for the next four years.’’ During this time, Tchaikovsky wrote music for three ballets: The Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker, performed in 1892, was his final and his most popular work.’’ He spent some years in Paris, and when he returned to his country and made his final piece, the Sixth Symphony. It was performed in 1893.’’ Altogether,
Tchaikovsky wrote eleven operas, six symphonies, four concertos, three ballets, and numerous other works in only thirty years of his active musician career. Only after nine days after performing his final symphony, Tchaikovsky suddenly became ill and was diagnosed with cholera.’’ The doctors could not save him, and he died in the same year.’’ Though there were some rumors that he committed suicide poisoning himself with arsenic, but this theory is not approved.’’ The secret of Tchaikovsky’s success was his depression and his troubled life. ‘’Music became my refuge’’ he said. He created melodies in a way exactly how he lived, he created music the way his soul felt. ‘’Music is an incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for expressing the thousand different moments of the soul's moods.’’ said Tchaikovsky.