Tchaikovsky was the leading exponent of Romanticism in its characteristically Russian mold, which owes as much to the French and Italian musical traditions as it does to the German. Although not as ostentatiously as the nationalist composers, such as Modest Mussorgsky (Mussorgsky, Modest) and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay), Tchaikovsky was clearly inspired by Russian folk music. In the words of the Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky, “Tchaikovsky drew unconsciously from the true, popular sources of our race.”
The first great Russian symphonist, he exhibited a particular gift for melody and orchestration. In his best work, the powerful tunes underlining musical themes are harmonized into magnificent, formally innovative compositions. His resourceful use of instruments allows easy identification of most of his works by their characteristic sonority. Tchaikovsky excelled primarily as a master of instrumental music; his operas, often eclectic in subject matter and style, do not find much appreciation in the West, with the exception of Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades. Whereas most of his operas met with limited success, Tchaikovsky nonetheless proved eminently successful in transforming ballet, then a grand decorative gesture, into a staged musical drama, and thus he revolutionized the genre.
Moreover, Tchaikovsky brought an integrity of design that elevated ballet to the level of symphonic music. To this end, he employed a symphonist's sense of large-scale structure, organizing successive dances through the use of keys to create a cumulative feeling of purpose, in distinction to the more random or decorative layout in the ballets of his predecessors. His special sense of how melody can engender the dance gave his ballets a unique place in the world's theatres. The influence of his experimentation is evident in the ballets of Sergey Prokofiev (Prokofiev, Sergey) and Aram Khachaturian (Khachaturian, Aram).
Tchaikovsky's symphonic poems (symphonic poem) are part of the line of development in single-movement programmatic works initiated by Franz Liszt (Liszt, Franz), and they run the gamut of expressive and stylistic features that typify the genre. At one extreme the early Fatum (1868) shows a freedom of form and modernist expression. At the other extreme is the classical poise of the Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, in which passionate Romanticism is counterbalanced by the rigours of the sonata form. Furthermore, Tchaikovsky loosened the strictures of chamber music by introducing unorthodox meter in the scherzo of the Second String Quartet in F Major, Opus 22 (1874), and undermining the sense of key in the finale. His innovation is also evident in the second movement of the string sextet Souvenir de Florence (1890), for which he wrote music that revels in almost pure sound-effect—something more familiar in the orchestral sphere. His skill in counterpoint, the traditional bedrock of chamber music, can also be seen throughout his chamber works.
Tchaikovsky's approach to solo piano music, on the other hand, remained mostly traditional, that is, it more or less satisfied the 19th-century taste for short salon pieces with descriptive titles, usually arranged in groups, as in the famous The Seasons (1875–76). In several of his piano pieces, Tchaikovsky's melodic flair surfaces, but on the whole he was far less committed when composing these works than he was when writing his orchestral music, concertos, operas, and chamber compositions.
Tchaikovsky steered an unlikely path between the Russian nationalist tendencies so prominent in the work of his rivals in The Five and the cosmopolitan stance encouraged by his conservatory training. He was both a Russian nationalist and a Westernizer of polished technical skill. He put his personal stamp on the late-19th-century symphony with his last three symphonies; they demonstrate a heightened subjectivity that would influence Gustav Mahler (Mahler, Gustav), Sergey Rachmaninoff (Rachmaninoff, Sergey), and Dmitry Shostakovich (Shostakovich, Dmitry) and encourage the genre to pass with renewed vigour into the 20th century.
It cannot be denied that the quality of Tchaikovsky's oeuvre remains uneven. Some of his music is undistinguished—hastily written, repetitious, or self-indulgent. But in such symphonies as his No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, and Manfred and in many of his overtures, suites, and songs, he achieved the unity of melodic inspiration, dramatic content, and mastery of form that elevates him to the premiere rank of the world's composers.
Alexander Poznansky
Additional Reading
Basic source material on Tchaikovsky may be found in Modeste Tchaikovsky (Modest Ilich Chaikovskii), The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, trans. from Russian and ed. by Rosa Newmarch (1906, reprinted in 2 vol., 1973); Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky), The Diaries of Tchaikovsky, trans. from Russian with notes by Wladmir Lakond (pseudonym of Walter Lake) (1945, reprinted 1973), Letters to His Family: An Autobiography, trans. from Russian (1973, reissued 1982), and To My Best Friend: Correspondence Between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, 1876–1878, trans. from Russian, ed. by Edward Garden and Nigel Gotteri (1993); also David Brown, Tchaikovsky Remembered (1993); Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky's Last Days (1996); and Alexander Poznansky (compiler and ed.), Tchaikovsky Through Others' Eyes, trans. from Russian (1999). The most recent biographies are John Warrack, Tchaikovsky (1973, reprinted 1989); Vladimir Volkoff, Tchaikovsky: A Self-Portrait (1975); David Brown, Tchaikovsky: A Biographical and Critical Study, 4 vol. (1978–91); Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man (1991, reissued 1993). Specialized discussions of his music may be found in Eric Blom, Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works (1927, reprinted 1970); John Warrack, Tchaikovsky Symphonies and Concertos, 2nd ed. (1974); Roland John Wiley, Tchaikovsky's Ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker (1985, reissued 1991); and Henry Zajaczkowski, Tchaikovsky's Musical Style (1987). Works that consider the cultural context of his time include Leslie Kearney (ed.), Tchaikovsky and His World (1998); and Alexandar Mihailovic (ed.), Tchaikovsky and His Contemporaries: A Centennial Symposium (1999).
Mussorgsky, Modest
▪ Russian composer
Introduction
in full Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky , Mussorgsky also spelled Musorgsky or Moussorgsky
born March 9 [March 21, New Style], 1839, Karevo, Russia
died March 16 [March 28], 1881, St. Petersburg
Russian composer noted particularly for his opera Boris Godunov (final version first performed 1874), his songs, and his piano piece Pictures from an Exhibition (1874). Mussorgsky, along with Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and César Cui, was a member of The Five (Five, The), a group of Russian composers bound together in the common goal of creating a nationalist school of Russian music.
Life and career
Mussorgsky was the son of a landowner but had peasant blood, his father's grandmother having been a serf. According to his autobiographical sketch, written in 1881, Mussorgsky learned about Russian fairy tales from his nurse. “This early familiarity with the spirit of the people, with the way they lived, lent the first and greatest impetus to my musical improvisations.” His mother, herself an excellent pianist, gave Modest his first piano lessons, and at seven he could play some of Franz Liszt's simpler pieces.
In August 1849 his father took Modest and his other son, Filaret, to St. Petersburg, where Modest attended the Peter-Paul School in preparation for a military career. At the same time, mindful of Modest's musical bent, their father entrusted the boys to Anton Gerke, future professor of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.