Editing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (section)

{{short description|Russian composer (1840–1893)}}
{{Redirect|Tchaikovsky|other persons (including the composers André, Alexandr & Boris)|Tchaikovsky (surname)|other uses|Tchaikovsky (disambiguation)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox composer
<!-- Attention: Before making changes to this infobox please consider discussing on the talk page. Per [[Special:PermanentLink/1131740353#RFC regarding the addition of an infobox]], this is intentionally concise as the result of community consensus. -->
| name = Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
| native_name = {{nobold|Пётр Ильич Чайковский}}
| native_name_lang = ru
| image = Tchaikovsky by Reutlinger (cropped).jpg
| alt = Cabinet card portrait of Tchaikovsky
| caption = Tchaikovsky, {{Circa|1888}}
| birth_place = [[Votkinsk]], Russia
| birth_date = {{birth date|1840|05|07|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1893|11|06|1840|05|07|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia
| works = [[List of compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|List of compositions]]
| signature = <div class="center">[[file:Tchaikovsky's signature (transparent).png|242px]]<br><small>(in [[Latin script]])</small><br>[[file:Tchaikovsky Signature.svg|242px]]<br><small>(in [[Cyrillic script]])</small></div>
| signature_alt = Tchaikovsky's signature
}}
'''Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky'''{{refn|{{family name explanation|Ilyich|Tchaikovsky|lang=Eastern Slavic}} Often anglicized as ''Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky''; also standardized by the [[Library of Congress]]. His names are also transliterated as ''Piotr'' or ''Petr''; ''Ilitsch'' or ''Il'ich''; and ''Tschaikowski'', ''Tschaikowsky'', ''Chajkovskij'', or ''Chaikovsky''. He used to sign his name/was known as ''P. Tschaïkowsky''/''Pierre Tschaïkowsky'' in French (as in his afore-reproduced signature), and ''Peter Tschaikowsky'' in German, spellings also displayed on several of his scores' title pages in their first printed editions alongside or in place of his native name. In [[Russian alphabet|Cyrillic script]], his name is written as {{lang|ru|Пётр Ильич Чайковский}} ({{lang|ru|Петръ Ильичъ Чайковскій}} in Russian pre-revolutionary script), {{IPA|ru|ˈpʲɵtr ɨˈlʲjitɕ tɕɪjˈkofskʲɪj|IPA|Ru-Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.ogg}}. The modern [[Romanization of Russian|transliterations of Russian]] produce the following results for '{{lang|ru|Пётр Ильич Чайковский|}}' — [[WP:RUS]]: {{Transliteration|ru|Pyotr Ilyich Chaykovsky}}, [[ISO 9]]: {{Transliteration|ru|ISO|Pëtr Ilʹič Čajkovskij}}, [[ALA-LC romanization for Russian|ALA-LC]]: {{Transliteration|ru|ALA-LC|Pëtr Ilʹich Chaĭkovskiĭ}}, [[BGN/PCGN romanization of Russian|BGN/PCGN]]: {{Transliteration|ru|BGN/PCGN|Pëtr Il'ich Chaykovskiy}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russian – BGN/PCGN transliteration system |url=https://www.translitteration.com/transliteration/en/russian/bgn-pcgn/ |website=transliteration.com |access-date=2 December 2020}}</ref>|group=n}} ({{IPAc-en|tʃ|aɪ|ˈ|k|ɒ|f|s|k|i|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky.wav}} {{Respell|chy|KOF|skee}};<ref>[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/tchaikovsky "Tchaikovsky"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893){{refn|Russia was still using [[Old Style dates]] in the 19th century, rendering his lifespan as 25 April 1840&nbsp;– 25 October 1893. Some sources in the article report dates as Old Style rather than New Style.|group=n}} was a Russian composer during the [[Romantic music|Romantic period]]. He was the first Russian composer [[Music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|whose music]] made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets ''[[Swan Lake]]'' and ''[[The Nutcracker]]'', the ''[[1812 Overture]]'', his [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)|First Piano Concerto]], [[Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)|Violin Concerto]], the ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky)|Romeo and Juliet]]'' Overture-Fantasy, several [[Symphonies by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|symphonies]], and the opera ''[[Eugene Onegin (opera)|Eugene Onegin]]''.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant as there was little opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no public music education system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steen |first=Michael |title=The Lives and Times of Great Composers |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-522218-0 |pages=663 |language=English}}</ref> When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent [[Saint Petersburg Conservatory]], from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching Tchaikovsky received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary [[nationalist]] movement embodied by the Russian composers of [[The Five (composers)|The Five]], with whom his [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Five|professional relationship was mixed]].

Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From that reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style. The principles that governed melody, harmony, and other fundamentals of Russian music diverged from those that governed Western European music, which seemed to defeat the potential for using Russian music in large-scale Western composition or for forming a composite style, and it caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence. Russian culture exhibited a split personality, with its native and adopted elements having drifted apart increasingly since the time of [[Peter the Great]]. That resulted in uncertainty among the [[intelligentsia]] about the country's national identity, an ambiguity mirrored in Tchaikovsky's career.

Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his early separation from his mother for boarding school followed by her early death, the death of his close friend and colleague [[Nikolai Rubinstein]], his failed marriage to [[Antonina Miliukova]], and the collapse of his 13-year association with the wealthy patroness [[Nadezhda von Meck]]. Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, which he kept private,<ref name="Alberge2018Guardian">{{cite news |last1=Alberge |first1=Dalya |title=Tchaikovsky and the secret gay loves censors tried to hide |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/02/tchaikovsky-letters-saved-from-censors-reveal-secret-loves-homosexuality |access-date=5 January 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=2 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref> has traditionally also been considered a major factor, though some scholars have downplayed its importance.<ref name="WileyC2008">{{cite thesis |last1=Wiley |first1=Christopher Mark |title=Rewriting Composers' Lives: Critical Historiography and Musical Biography |type=PhD dissertation |year=2008 |pages=222–223, 229, 324, 333–337 |url=https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/2012/ |access-date=5 January 2023 |publisher=Royal Holloway, University of London |language=en}}</ref><ref name="QueerEncyclopedia2004">{{cite book |last1=Summers |first1=Claude |title=The queer encyclopedia of music, dance & musical theater |date=2004 |publisher=Cleis Press |location=San Francisco |isbn=9781573448758 |page=255 |edition=First |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=so0UAQAAIAAJ |access-date=5 January 2023}}</ref> His dedication of his Sixth symphony to his nephew [[Vladimir Davydov]] and the feelings he expressed about Davydov in letters to others have been cited as evidence for romantic love between the two.<ref name="Leonowitz2016">{{cite journal |last1=Leonowitz |first1=Jacob |title=Reevaluating Perceptions of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony |journal=Duquesne University Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium |date=6 April 2016 |url=https://dsc.duq.edu/urss/2016/proceedings/4 |access-date=10 February 2023}}</ref><ref name="Peraino2005">{{cite book | title = Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig | last1 = Peraino | first1 = Judith A. | chapter = A Music of One's Owndiscipline | date = 30 October 2005 | pages = 68–109 | publisher = University of California Press | doi = 10.1525/california/9780520215870.003.0003 | isbn = 9780520215870 | url = }}</ref><ref name="Keeling2003">{{cite journal |last1=KEELING |first1=BRET L. |title=No Trace of Presence": Tchaikovsky and the Sixth in Forster's "Maurice |journal=Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal |year=2003 |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=85–101 |jstor=44030280 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44030280 |access-date=10 February 2023 |issn=0027-1276}}</ref> Tchaikovsky's [[death of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|sudden death at the age of 53]] is generally ascribed to [[cholera]], but there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause and whether the death was intentional.

While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it sufficiently represented native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted the music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of that claim, some Europeans lauded Tchaikovsky for offering music more substantive than exoticism, and said he transcended the stereotypes of Russian classical music. Others dismissed Tchaikovsky's music as deficient because it did not stringently follow Western principles.