| Early Days |
| Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in a little town called Votkinsk, which is near Moscow, on May 7th, 1840. He was the second oldest of 4 brothers and a sister. He came from a wealthier family; his father was a superintendent of government owned mines and his half-French mother who suffered from nervosa and epilepsy lived at home. Constant psychological trauma was a factor later in Peter's life, and it originates from his mother. When Peter was scolded as a child, his reactions were much different than most kids, he'd cry for a very long time and took things very personally (www.geocities.com/Vienna). He was very sensitive and had quite intense emotions; this did not change throughout his life. |
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| 1848 - The Tchaikovsky family (Peter on left) |
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| Peter's Birthplace |
| As an adolescent, Tchaikovsky took piano lessons from a serf named Maria Palchikova, but he quickly exceeded her talents. He was always quite intrigued by music and loved playing and listening to Mozart, but his parents felt it was unhealthy for someone with emotional problems to indulge in music. |
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| Maria Palchikova |
| At the age of 10, his parents had him attend the School of Jurisprudence, which would prepare him for law school, but he was never interested in the subject. Peter�s intelligence carried him through the program easily. In 1854 Alexandra, Peter�s mother, died of cholera. He was very affectionate for her and cared for her an unusually high amount (according to some sources, I personally cannot see how it can be unusually high). He felt like his father didn�t care very much about her death, which made it even harder on him, so he wrote a waltz on the piano in her memory. He even considered composing an opera, but he never got around to it. Around this time, Peter became very close with his little brother, Modest, and began to have a sexual relationship with him (www.users.zetnet.co.uk). The brothers remained close for a long time after that. |
| Young Pyotr at his piano |
| After his mother�s death, Peter continued school and took more music lessons, and was becoming very good very fast. His father asked Rudolph Kundinger, Peter�s teacher, whether or not he should consider pursuing a career in music, and his response was, �certainly [Pyotr] was gifted, he had a good ear and a good memory, a fine touch, but otherwise there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that suggested a composer.� (www.tchaikovsky.host.sk) |
| Tchaikovsky�s childhood passed by and he began to study law as a profession at the Ministry of Justice, but he realized he wasn�t interested in the subject, so against his father�s wishes he enrolled in The St. Petersburg Music Conservatory in 1862. He was older and much more experienced than most of the students at The Conservatory, so he earned some money giving the younger kids lessons. The director of The Conservatory, Anton Rubenstein, saw talent in the young Tchaikovsky, but had to criticize him constantly in order for him to make substantial progress as a musician. Peter did not get along great with Anton for this reason, but later in his life he wrote about how much of a help it was having Rubenstein as a teacher, even though they did not get along. He was finished at the St. Petersburg Music Conservatory in 1866, which led to his career as one of the greatest composers of all time. |
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| Peter at age 20 |
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