19 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Facts: This Will Blow Your Mind!

Have you heard of famous composers like Mozart and Beethoven, the stalwarts of classical music?

Classical music is an old and complex, yet beloved form of music in Western countries. It generally takes an orchestra band, sheet music developed by a composer and a conductor to be performed.

While classical music gained its roots in Western European countries, there was a musical legend in eastern Europe, who forever changed the landscape and boundaries of orchestral composition. His name was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and he belonged to Russia.

Born on May 7, 1840, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky spent most of his youth in the civil service. Unable to deny his childhood passion for music any further, Tchaikovsky decided to leave his job to become a full-time music student.

After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1865, his musical career went through major ups and downs accompanied by many public controversies about his personal life.

Even after losing his mother at a young age, going through a short-lived marriage, and seeing his best friend Nikolai Rubinstein pass away, Pyotr Tchaikovsky came on top as the first Russian composer to be acknowledged worldwide for his music. Mozart was one of his biggest inspirations.

Tchaikovsky is best known for world-famous ballets like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, operas like The Maid of Orleans, symphonies, and piano concertos.

Tchaikovsky died of cholera on November 6, 1893, at 53 years of age. There is still a vast controversy over whether cholera was the actual cause of his death or he committed suicide because of the various depressions in his personal life.

Here we will discover mind-blowing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky facts, that will leave you wanting to know more about classical music and famous composers through the ages!

Childhood of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The musical master of Russia, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, located in a remote town in Vyatka Governorate in the Russian Empire, on May 7, 1840.

Tchaikovsky’s father had provided military service in his time as a lieutenant colonel and engineer and managed ironworks. Tchaikovsky’s mother was half Russian and half French and German. They were both musically trained and encouraged music in the household.

Out of the six siblings, Tchaikovsky was the prodigal one. He began piano lessons at the early age of five. By the time he turned eight, he had mastered reading sheet music as well as his teacher! At six years old, he had become fluent in both French and German.

As Pyotr turned 10 years old, the Tchaikovsky family income began running low. Hence his parents sent him to a boarding school at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg.

Despite being talented in music, his family wanted him to pursue civil services and become financially independent, as the scope for music in Russia was very low at the time. Only the Russian aristocracy was able to pursue careers in music, while the local musicians enjoyed very little rights and earned even less.

When Tchaikovsky was 14, his mother passed away due to cholera. This left him in a deep state of trauma, after which he began writing music for the first time: a waltz in the memory of his mother.

Subsequently, his love for music was reignited and he began attending operas with his friends and started playing the harmonium in school.

Death Of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The most interesting and controversial facts about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, remain those surrounding his death. At just 53 years, Tchaikovsky died on November 6, 1893. But what did he really die of?

During that period St. Petersburg was going through a cholera epidemic. It is said that Tchaikovsky drank unboiled water at a local restaurant and contracted the disease.

Not only was Tchaikovsky a man who took the utmost care of his health, but the chances of a restaurant serving unboiled water during an epidemic in Russia were also very small as the laws were extremely strict.

Furthermore, cholera is a highly contagious disease, yet Tchaikovsky’s funeral was in an open casket. These points led many people to wonder whether, Tchaikovsky had committed suicide, as rumors of him being a homosexual were spreading all across Europe. He had also never fully recovered from the loss of his mother and possible love interest Nikolai Rubinstein.

Artistic Nature of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky’s music is best known for its confluence of Russian folk music and western classical music. Of all Russian composers before him, it was only Tchaikovsky whose music was liked by Europeans, and hence became popular.

Some Russian music critics took this as a flaw in the music Tchaikovsky composed, stating that his composition did not sound fully Russian.

Tchaikovsky began taking music lessons in music theory provided by the Russian Musical Society, which was founded in 1859 to nurture native Russian talent. In some years, Tchaikovsky spent his whole time immersed in music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and left his job as a civil servant.

The St. Petersburg Conservatory was established by famous Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein in 1862.

Under his guidance, Tchaikovsky was academically trained in composition. He was exposed to classical music from across the globe. This helped Tchaikovsky develop a deeper understanding of the nature of Russian folk music, its relationship with European classical music, and finally, develop his own unique composition style which showcased the interdependence of these two forms of music beautifully.

He was one of the first Russian composers to be academically trained in composition, due to which the artistic nature of his work differed immensely from other Russian musicians. Tchaikovsky’s career and unique composition inspired many other Russian composers after him to develop their own style of music.

Legacy Of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The legacy of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is of humongous significance not only in the world of orchestral music but also in ballet and opera.

All three of Tchaikovsky’s ballets: 'Swan Lake', 'The Sleeping Beauty', and 'The Nutcracker' are considered milestones in the development of ballet dance music.

The early operas of Tchaikovsky were not much of a success, but other operas such as 'The Queen of Spades the Maid of Orleans' are greatly respected.

Of the seven symphonies he has composed, the First Symphony, the Fifth Symphony, and the Sixth Symphony are regarded as his major achievements.

Tchaikovsky’s piano concertos and violin concerto are some of his best-known compositions and are played to date.

In his chamber music, the First-String Quartet is known to be the most appealing with its melodious and capturing slow movements.