Editing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Симферополь. Памятник П. И. Чайковскому..JPG|thumb|Statue of Tchaikovsky in [[Simferopol]] in [[Crimea]]]]
[[File:Russia stamp Swan Lake 1993 25r.jpg|thumb|''Swan Lake'', a 1993 stamp of Russia]]
According to Wiley, Tchaikovsky was a pioneer in several ways. "Thanks in large part to Nadezhda von Meck", Wiley writes, "he became the first full-time professional Russian composer". This, Wiley adds, allowed him the time and freedom to consolidate the Western compositional practices he had learned at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Russian folk song and other native musical elements to fulfill his own expressive goals and forge an original, deeply personal style. He made an impact in not only complete works such as the symphony but also program music and, as Wiley phrases it, "transformed Liszt's and Berlioz's achievements ... into matters of Shakespearean elevation and psychological import".<ref>Wiley, ''New Grove'' (2001), 25:144.</ref> Wiley and Holden both note that Tchaikovsky did all this without a native school of composition upon which to fall back. They point out that only Glinka had preceded him in combining Russian and Western practices and his teachers in Saint Petersburg had been thoroughly Germanic in their musical outlook. He was, they write, for all intents and purposes alone in his artistic quest.<ref>Holden, xxi; Wiley, ''New Grove'' (2001), 25:144.</ref>

Maes and Taruskin write that Tchaikovsky believed that his professionalism in combining skill and high standards in his musical works separated him from his contemporaries in The Five.<ref>Maes, 73; Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 4:663.</ref> Maes adds that, like them, he wanted to produce music that reflected Russian national character but which did so to the highest European standards of quality.<ref>Maes, 73.</ref> Tchaikovsky, according to Maes, came along at a time when the nation itself was deeply divided as to what that character truly was. Like his country, Maes writes, it took him time to discover how to express his Russianness in a way that was true to himself and what he had learned. Because of his professionalism, Maes says, he worked hard at this goal and succeeded. The composer's friend, music critic [[Herman Laroche]], wrote of ''The Sleeping Beauty'' that the score contained "an element deeper and more general than color, in the internal structure of the music, above all in the foundation of the element of melody. This basic element is undoubtedly Russian".<ref>As quoted in Maes, 166.</ref>

Tchaikovsky was inspired to reach beyond Russia with his music, according to Maes and Taruskin.<ref>Maes, 73; Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 664.</ref> His exposure to Western music, they write, encouraged him to think it belonged to not just Russia but also the world at large.<ref name="taruskin_go4663"/> [[Solomon Volkov|Volkov]] adds that this mindset made him think seriously about Russia's place in European musical culture—the first Russian composer to do so.<ref name="volkovsp126"/> It steeled him to become the first Russian composer to acquaint foreign audiences personally with his own works, [[John Warrack|Warrack]] writes, as well as those of other Russian composers.<ref>Warrack, ''Tchaikovsky'', 209.</ref> In his biography of Tchaikovsky, [[Anthony Holden]] recalls the dearth of Russian classical music before Tchaikovsky's birth, then places the composer's achievements into historical perspective: "Twenty years after Tchaikovsky's death, in 1913, [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' erupted onto the musical scene, signaling Russia's arrival into [[20th-century music]]. Between these two very different worlds, Tchaikovsky's music became the sole bridge".<ref>Holden, xxi.</ref>