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 ...
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 ...
was staged at the Metropolitan Opera, New York on 5 March 1910 and another five before it was premiered in London on 29 May 1915. In 1876, when Tchaikovsky was visiting Paris, he saw a performance of Bizet’s Carmen and became entranced by its tuneful, graceful music. Three years later, echoes of Carmen went into The ...
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. ...
return to classical models, above all his beloved Mozart. Far from being merely a ‘Westernized’ composer at loggerheads with nationalist Russian musicians, as he is often portrayed, Tchaikovsky, through his association with many of those figures, above all their leader Balakirev, produced many works robustly Russian in spirit, especially in his early years. He ...
organs disgorged numerous overtures, symphonic movements, selections from operas, sets of waltzes and other music. One of these had a formative influence on the child Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93). In 1825, Clementi in London produced a machine that marked a new chapter in the story of the piano, though its full import was not perceived at ...
a more resonant and sweeter sound than the glockenspiel, as well as a greater capacity to play complex music. Celesta Music The celesta was first used by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) to represent the Sugar Plum Fairy in his ballet The Nutcracker (1891–92). It can create a range of ethereal effects, playing runs and arpeggiated chords with great agility. ...
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 ...
is a rarity, ousted among other things by its electronic successors, but it was never a bumpkin. Many distinguished composers have taken it very seriously, among them Tchaikovsky, Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868), Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), César Franck (1822–90), Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921), Max Reger (1873–1916), and the lesser-known (though famous to organists) Siegfried Karg Elert (1877–1933), who not only ...
There is a starting pistol in Erik Satie’s (1866–1925) ballet Parade (1917), which also includes a typewriter and a bouteillophone, a set of tuned bottles played like a xylophone. Tchaikovsky writes for cannon in his overture The Year 1812, but this sound is often produced electronically, as it is a logistical challenge to co-ordinate ballistics with an orchestra ...
Zither The zither is part of a group of instruments which are linked by the fact that sets of strings run parallel to their main body, and that – unlike the lute, lyre or harp – they can still be played even without a resonating device. In the concept’s least advanced state, native instruments exist which are little ...
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) ...
Half the size of the flute, the piccolo is played the same way: held sideways to the mouth. The player blows not into but across a small hole. It sounds an octave above the flute and came into orchestral use in the late classical age, making an appearance in Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and the ‘Egmont’ Overture. It ...
Tubular bells, also known as orchestral or symphonic chimes, are a set of tuned steel tubes with a chrome finish, hanging vertically in a stand with a pedal damper. The optimum range for a chromatic set of tubular bells is 11⁄2 octaves rising from middle C (c'–f''), as notes above or below this range are difficult to tune ...
a position it has yet to relinquish. Outstanding examples of the concerto repertoire include Beethoven, Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Alban Berg (1885–1935), Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), Johannes Brahms (1833–97), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) and Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). The Viola The viola is the alto member of the violin family. It had become established by 1535 and at that time it was more ...
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