Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Overview

By all accounts, Peter Tchaikovsky was an emotionally troubled man. He suffered from nervous depression, which was heightened by the constant social presssure to hide his homosexuality. The composer had affairs with women and even married Antonina Miliukova -- with disastrous... [more]

By all accounts, Peter Tchaikovsky was an emotionally troubled man. He suffered from nervous depression, which was heightened by the constant social presssure to hide his homosexuality. The composer had affairs with women and even married Antonina Miliukova -- with disastrous emotional effects to both parties -- but his attraction toward the same sex remained a well-known, if unspoken, fact. The passion that Tchaikovsky could not openly display found an outlet in his music, which is highly dramatic and darkly beautiful. Tchaikovsky's introduction to music came through the traditional folk ballads and romantic songs that his mother sang. At the age of five he began piano lessons, which he continued throughout his school years. His early exposure to Russian folk songs greatly influenced the music that he composed in later years. As an adult, Tchaikovsky crafted folk-tinged operas, concertos, and symphonies. He is best known for his ballets, "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker Suite" -- even people who do not regularly attend the ballet venture out every Christmas to see "The Nutcracker." Tchaikovsky was close to many of the members of the "Five" -- a quintet comprised of the great Russian composers Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Critics complimented Tchaikovsky by calling him the sixth member of the circle. Ironically, his lyrical melodies and lushly complex harmonies have made the sixth member more famous than any of the five original members. [show less]