Study and beginning of musical activity
Pyotr Ilyich first studied at home, where he was helped by a governess. Education continued at the boarding school, and then the young man entered the school, where he taught law. At this time, Tchaikovsky was engaged in musical creativity as an elective. He began to take a serious interest in opera and ballet and went to theaters. For some time the young man works as a lawyer, but then enters the conservatory. During his studies, the composer created his first great musical works. Some of them were included in the ballet “Swan Lake”.
Education
Tchaikovsky received his initial education at home. Then Peter studied at a boarding school for two years, after which he studied at the St. Petersburg Law School. Tchaikovsky's creativity during this period was manifested in optional music classes. The death of his mother in 1862 greatly affected the vulnerable child. After graduating from college in 1859, Peter began serving in the Department of Justice.
In his free time, he often visited the opera house; he was especially impressed by the productions of operas by Mozart and Glinka.
Having shown a penchant for composing music, Tchaikovsky became a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Further studies in the life of Pyotr Ilyich with the excellent teachers N. Zaremba and A. Rubinstein greatly helped in the formation of a musical personality. After graduating from the conservatory, composer Tchaikovsky was invited by Nikolai Rubinstein (the teacher’s brother) to the Moscow Conservatory as a professor.
Tchaikovsky's work
Tchaikovsky's work is very diverse: he wrote operas, ballets, symphonies, overtures, fantasies, suites, quartets, concertos, piano and violin pieces, and the like, and in each of these types of musical works he created unsurpassed images.
Tchaikovsky is one of the most beloved and famous Russian composers of Ukrainian origin. The name of Tchaikovsky is known throughout the world due to the great accessibility of his music, due to the fact that he always spoke in simple, understandable musical language, even when he conveyed the most complex and deepest thoughts and feelings. His music delights with its sincerity, warmth and depth.
Tchaikovsky reveals these characteristic musical features equally clearly in both instrumental and vocal works. He wrote operas:
- "Oprichnik"
- "Cherevichki"
- "Eugene Onegin",
- "Maid of Orleans"
- "Mazepa"
- "Sorceress"
- "Queen of Spades"
- "Iolanta."
In addition, recently it was possible to establish from handwritten parts Tchaikovsky’s early opera “The Voevoda” based on the plot of A. N. Ostrovsky. Tchaikovsky destroyed the score of this opera after the first production.
Despite the variety of plots, all of Tchaikovsky’s operas are characterized by the fact that their heroes are mostly ordinary people and that the plots are based on a person’s personal drama.
The best and most popular of Tchaikovsky's operas are Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. Both of these operas are based on the works of Pushkin, his favorite poet, who inspired him to write immortal works.
Interesting facts about Tchaikovsky
You have already learned a lot about the great composer. Therefore, we decided to supplement the article with a random selection of simply interesting facts and fakes.
- Is Tchaikovsky Ukrainian by origin? What is his nationality?
In fact, Pyotr Ilyich's only ancestor of Ukrainian origin is his paternal great-grandfather. Fyodor Afanasyevich Chaika (1695-1767) came from near Kremenchug and served in the Mirgorod regiment. Some Russian sources even write that he participated in the battle of Poltava on the side of the Muscovites, but we doubt this - after all, at the time of the battle of Poltava (1709) he was only 14 years old. However, Fyodor Afanasyevich’s daughter-in-law, and accordingly Pyotr Ilyich’s grandmother, was Russian, and her name was Anastasia Posokhova. So on his father’s side, Tchaikovsky is half Ukrainian. On the maternal side, it’s even more interesting - the grandfather, Andrei Assier, is of French origin, and the grandmother is again Russian, her name was Ekaterina Popova.
As a result, Pyotr Ilyich had approximately 25% Ukrainian roots, 50% Russian roots and 25% French roots.
- Tchaikovsky - founder of the Kyiv Conservatory?
In fact, the Kiev Conservatory received the status of a higher educational institution, that is, a “conservatory” itself, in 1913. Pyotr Ilyich died in 1893. That is, he did not live to see this significant date for 20 years. Of course, he visited Kiev, visited the Kiev Music School, communicated with Ukrainian musicians, but did not hold any administrative or teaching positions in Kyiv. Where Pyotr Tchaikovsky taught was in Moscow. But not in Kyiv. Who really played a decisive role in ensuring that the Kiev music school was reorganized into a conservatory was Sergei Rachmaninov - it was his approving review that influenced the officials of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, and they allowed Kiev to have its own higher musical educational institution.
And the name of Tchaikovsky was given to the Kyiv Conservatory in 1940 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pyotr Ilyich. Exactly two years after being awarded the Order of Lenin. Of course, this is not a reason to rename something there, but we must understand that Pyotr Ilyich was not the founder of the Kyiv Conservatory.
- Tchaikovsky lived in Ukraine
He lived for some time, sporadically. The three most important points are:
Tchaikovsky first came to Ukraine at the age of 24. Namely, in Trostyanets (Sumshchyna), he lived in a palace that at that time belonged to the Golitsyns.
In 1865-1878, Tchaikovsky repeatedly came to Kamenka (Cherkasy region), where his sister’s husband, Lev Davydov, managed the estate.
And finally, in 1878-1880, he visited Brailov (Vinnytsia), one of the many estates of Nadezhda von Meck. What is noteworthy is that von Meck herself preferred not to be seen by Pyotr Ilyich (and he probably thought so too), so whenever Tchaikovsky was in Brailov, the mistress of the house was not there, only her servant.
- Tchaikovsky had a younger brother, Modest.
- In 1865 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (Russian Empire, now Russia), receiving a silver medal.
- After separating from his wife, he attempted suicide.
- Tchaikovsky received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge (Honorary Doctor of Philosophy)
