Eugene Onegin was written after the disaster of Tchaikovsky’s marriage in 1877, and was also influenced by his platonic relationship with his admirer and patron Nadezhda von Meck. Tchaikovsky began Eugene Onegin by writing the famous ‘letter scene’ from Act I, in which the heroine Tat’yana spends the night writing to Onegin, telling him of her love for ...
The Queen of Spades, based on another story by Pushkin, was Tchaikovsky’s penultimate opera and one in which western influences were particularly evident. It was first produced at the Maryinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on 19 December 1890. However, 20 years passed before it was staged at the Metropolitan Opera, New York on 5 March 1910 and ...
1840–93, Russian Tchaikovsky was an intensely emotional, painfully sensitive man, much given to depression and morbid states of mind. He almost went mad with grief when his mother died of cholera in 1854, when he was 14. To compound his melancholy mindset, Tchaikovsky was tortured by his homosexuality, and saw marriage as a possible solution. ...
(Pi’-otr Il’-yech Chi’-kôf-ska) 1840–93 Russian composer Few composers from the second half of the nineteenth century have achieved as great a popularity as Tchaikovsky. For many listeners, the secret lies in his special gift for broad, arching melodies and his tendency towards agonized self-expression, rooted in a series of crises in his personal life, which fall easy prey ...
In 1876 Pyotr Tchaikovsky began an extraordinary relationship with a wealthy widow, Nadezhda von Meck (1831–94), which was totally platonic and conducted entirely by letter. The two of them never formally met, but they remained devoted to each other for the rest of their lives. Madame von Meck settled on Tchaikovsky an allowance of 6,000 roubles, which ...
On the face of it, barrels and music would seem unlikely bedfellows. Their alliance, however, goes back at least to the ninth century, when the first detailed description of a barrel organ appeared in an Arab treatise. Mechanics of the Barrel Organ The mechanical principle underlying all such instruments, from the automated organ and piano to ...
The celesta is a type of keyboard glockenspiel, with a range of four octaves upwards from middle C, and a damping pedal like a piano. Inside the body of the instrument is a series of chromatically tuned metal bars, which are struck with felt hammers when the performer plays the keyboard. Creation of the Celesta The celesta was ...
The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...
Bass Drum The dominant feature of every military band is its big bass drum. Throughout the history of percussion instruments, this drum has been the mainstay of time-keeping, whether it is used for a marching army or in a late-twentieth century heavy metal band. Early versions of the bass drum (it was certainly known in Asia around 3500 BC) ...
The violin family is a group of fretless bowed stringed instruments that has its roots in Italy. Four instruments make up the family: the violin, the viola, the violoncello (commonly abbreviated to cello), and the double bass. The characteristic body shape is one of the most recognizable in music; the particular acoustic properties this shape imparts have made the ...
(Al-fred Shnit’-ke) 1934–98 Russian composer The most striking aspect of Schnittke’s music is its combination of a multitude of styles. His Symphony No. 1 (1972) contains quotations from many composers – from Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93). The Concerti grossi parody Baroque styles with a degree of wit. Unlike other exponents of collage style, Schnittke retains a ...
1820–89, Italian Enrico Tamberlik, the Italian tenor, made his debut in Naples in 1841, as Enrico Danieli, singing Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Bellini’s Romeo and Juliet opera. Afterwards, while at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, he took the surname Tamberlik and retained it for engagements in London, St ...
1882–1971, Russian Stravinsky, who was born in Oranienbaum, Russia, and died in New York, is one of the most important composers of the twentieth century. A master of style, he could create sound palettes as extreme and varied as any written during his lifetime, even if these extremes stemmed from his refusal to associate ...
1832–1906, Russian Ivan Melnikov, the Russian baritone, was best known for creating the role of Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky’s opera in 1869. Trained in Russia and Italy, Melnikov had made his debut at the Maryinsky Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg only two years earlier, as Riccardo in Bellini’s I puritani. Melnikov continued to sing at the ...
(Mekh’-a-il E-va-no’-vich Glin’-ka) 1804–57 Russian composer Known as the ‘father of Russian music’, Glinka was the initial force behind nineteenth-century Russian nationalism. He grew up in a cosseted environment, and his early exposure to music was confined largely to the folksongs sung by his nurse, the traits of which were later absorbed into his melodic style. After a couple of ...
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