Tchaikovsky is a famous Russian composer born on May 7, 1840, Votkinsk Russia, and died November 6, 1893, St. Petersburg. His cause of death was cholera, which is a bacterial infection of the small intestine. He was and still is a very well-known and distinguishable composer among most other composers.  His musical compositions are said to have had many emotional responses and have a very distinct style that is unique to all other composers. His most famous piece, a ballet, is Swan Lake. Swan Lake initially failed when it was first composed by Tchaikovsky, but it is now one of the most renowned pieces of music. Tchaikovsky has composed many other pieces such seven symphonies, eleven operas, three ballets, five suits, three piano concertos, one violin concerto, eleven overtures, four cantatas, twenty choral works, three strong quartets, a string sextet, and one hundred plus piano pieces. 

Tchaikovsky is the second of six children. He is the son of Ilya Tchaikovsky (father) and Alexandra Assier (mother). Ilya was a manager of a company called Kamsko-Votkinsk metal works and his mother was a descendant of French emigres. Tchaikovsky had shown a talent and love for music and music composition at a very young age. His musical interpretations and talents were displayed in his families Orchestrina; a group of small keyboard instruments that is related to harmonium. This led to his very first musical “composition” when he was four years old. This piece was composed together with his younger sister Alexandra. This led Tchaikovsky to take piano lessons and tutoring. Due to the lack of musical education in the area in which the Tchaikovsky family lived they knew not of his future musical career. They decided to send their son to school to work in a civil service career.  

In 1850 Tchaikovsky was sent to a boarding school for boys called Imperial School of Jurisprudence. Tchaikovsky attended boarding school for nine years, and in those years his mother passed of cholera, until his father realized his son’s talent and passion for music, and at the age of seventeen Tchaikovsky began being taught and mentored by Luigi Piccioli, an Italian singer. Piccioli being the first in Tchaikovsky’s to appreciate his musical talent would influence Tchaikovsky’s music for his entire composing career. 

After graduating in 1865 Tchaikovsky moved to Moscow to begin his musical teaching career and a at the Russian Music Society. Within a few years of teaching here Tchaikovsky wrote his first symphony called “Symphony no. 1. in G Minor” he also composed his first opera, The Voyevoda. Throughout his middle-aged years he composed many other symphonies and operas, some of which were accepted by critics and some which were booed and very disliked. This molded his career for his later years of fame and his future legacy.  

Tchaikovsky’s growth in popularity meant not only that his music was well-known but his personal life as well. This included his homosexuality, which was highly illegal and taboo in Russia at the time. Though not publicly out to his family or society there were many signs, some of which his brother noticed and stated “he was exhibiting modest sexual tendencies” this influenced Tchaikovsky to abruptly marry Antonnia Milyukova. This, to no one’s surprise, ended in immense and monumental disaster. Tchaikovsky eventually fled his wife and moved abroad and never spoke to his wife again.  

Arguably one of Tchaikovsky’s most well-known and most famous pieces would be his Swan Lake ballet. Swan Lake was composed between the years 1875-1876. It was derived from and initially had two acts. They were fashioned from both Russian and German folktales. The piece tells a story of a princess, Odette, who was turned into a swan by an infamous sorcerer’s curse. Its first performance was at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on March 4, 1877, the show was performed by Bolshoi Ballet. This piece has been presented in many different ways throughout and even when Tchaikovsky was alive. Originally it was thought that Tchaikovsky’s music would be too difficult to dance to and that his music style wouldn’t be fitting for a ballet because Tchaikovsky actually wrote more than was necessary for a ballet.. In turn the ballet has been modified to be shorter and easier to dance to throughout the years occurring after his death.  

Swan Lake libretto was loosely based on a story by German author Johann Karl August Musaus, “Der geraubte Schleier”. Swan Lake is also similar to the Russian folktale “The White Duck”. These are the two most widespread and accepted theories because there is a lot of speculation about what Swan Lake was truly inspired by. Some even take it as far to say that the swans are a symbolization of many things. Even though this piece initially failed during its debut Swan Lake and Tchaikovsky have become world renowned and are still talked about to this day, and his music is still performed in many parts of the world. This shows how people from hundreds of years ago can still have a huge influence upon future generations.