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100-446: Manfred: A dramatic poem is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron . It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of Gothic fiction . Byron commenced this work in late 1816, a few months after the famous ghost-story sessions with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley that provided

200-406: A waltz in her memory. Tchaikovsky's father, who had also contracted cholera but recovered fully, sent him back to school immediately in the hope that classwork would occupy the boy's mind. Isolated, Tchaikovsky compensated with friendships with fellow students that became lifelong; these included Aleksey Apukhtin and Vladimir Gerard. Music, while not an official priority at school, also bridged

300-469: A "substitute" for playgoing. Thus, playwrights were moved to take on "propagandist aims" against parliament and topics beyond the theatre in their writing, meaning reading such work could be considered a revolutionary act. However, playwrights could write in relative security, protected by the anonymous means of print. Thomas Killigrew is an example of a stage playwright who turned to closet drama when his plays could no longer be produced during this period; he

400-516: A Gothic exterior the tender heart of the Hero of Sensibility; but as a rebel, like Satan , Cain , and Prometheus , he embodies Romantic self-assertion. Manfred was not originally intended for stage performance; it was written to be a dramatic poem or, as Byron called it, a "metaphysical" drama. It has received much more attention on stage for its musical treatments by Tchaikovsky and Schumann than it has on its own dramatic terms. Nevertheless, Manfred

500-431: A bachelor for most of his life. In 1868, he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt with whom he considered marriage, but, owing to various circumstances, the relationship ended. Tchaikovsky later claimed she was the only woman he ever loved. In 1877, at the age of 37, he wed a former student, Antonina Miliukova . The marriage was a disaster. Mismatched psychologically and sexually, the couple lived together for only two and

600-523: A formal influence but also as an example of musical dramaturgy and self-expression. Leon Botstein argues the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner also left their imprints on Tchaikovsky's orchestral style. The late-Romantic trend for writing orchestral suites, begun by Franz Lachner , Jules Massenet , and Joachim Raff after the rediscovery of Bach 's works in that genre, may have influenced Tchaikovsky to try his own hand at them. Tchaikovsky's teacher Anton Rubinstein's opera The Demon became

700-458: A group known as the Belyayev circle , named after a merchant and amateur musician who became an influential music patron and publisher. Tchaikovsky spent much time in this circle, becoming far more at ease with them than he had been with the 'Five' and increasingly confident in showcasing his music alongside theirs. This relationship lasted until Tchaikovsky's death. In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted

800-407: A half months before Tchaikovsky left, overwrought emotionally and suffering from acute writer's block . Tchaikovsky's family remained supportive of him during this crisis and throughout his life. Tchaikovsky's marital debacle may have forced him to face the full truth about his sexuality; he never blamed Antonina for the failure of their marriage. Tchaikovsky was also aided by Nadezhda von Meck ,

900-460: A homosexual acquaintance: "Petashenka used to drop by with the criminal intention of observing the Cadet Corps, which is right opposite our windows, but I've been trying to discourage these compromising visits—and with some success." In another one, he wrote: "After our walk, I offered him some money, which was refused. He does it for the love of art and adores men with beards." Tchaikovsky lived as

1000-497: A lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles from the Tsar. This made him the premier court composer, in practice if not in the actual title. Despite Tchaikovsky's disdain for public life, he now participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. He helped support his former pupil Sergei Taneyev , who was now director of Moscow Conservatory, by attending student examinations and negotiating

1100-661: A longer poetic form, without the connection to practical theater and performance. In the early modern period, women writers who were unable to "use their voice" in public were able to emphasize their opinions using the form of closet drama. This outlet for communication provided a woman the ability to "engage in political discourse without exposing her views to an indiscriminate public," since she could choose to restrict her readership. However, women's writing could be influenced by societal pressures and occurrences. Margaret Lucas Cavendish , author of fourteen folio volumes, explored writing closet dramas during her exile and became one of

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1200-551: A member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, only the second Russian subject to be so honored (the first was sculptor Mark Antokolsky ). The following year, the University of Cambridge in England awarded Tchaikovsky an honorary Doctor of Music degree. Discussion of Tchaikovsky's personal life, especially his sexuality , has perhaps been among the most extensive of any composer in

1300-438: A mode of dramatic writing for those without access to the commercial playhouse, and in this context has become closely associated with early modern women's writing. Closet dramas were published in manuscript form, including dramatis personae and elaborate stage directions, allowing readers to imagine the text as if it were being performed. This created an "unusually tight fusion between book and reader as it endeavours to stimulate

1400-419: A model for the final tableau of Eugene Onegin . So did Léo Delibes ' ballets Coppélia and Sylvia for The Sleeping Beauty and Georges Bizet 's opera Carmen (a work Tchaikovsky admired tremendously) for The Queen of Spades . Otherwise, it was to composers of the past that Tchaikovsky turned— Beethoven , whose music he respected; Mozart , whose music he loved; Glinka, whose opera A Life for

1500-530: A musical professional, with tools to help him thrive as a composer, and the in-depth exposure to European principles and musical forms gave him a sense that his art was not exclusively Russian or Western. This mindset became important in Tchaikovsky's reconciliation of Russian and European influences in his compositional style. He believed and attempted to show that both these aspects were "intertwined and mutually dependent". His efforts became both an inspiration and

1600-542: A musician in Russia and his unwillingness for Tchaikovsky to be treated likewise. Tchaikovsky was told to finish his course and then try for a post in the Ministry of Justice. On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained

1700-650: A new production of Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg. By having the opera staged there and not at the Mariinsky Theatre , he served notice that Tchaikovsky's music was replacing Italian opera as the official imperial art. In addition, at the instigation of Ivan Vsevolozhsky , Director of the Imperial Theaters and a patron of the composer, Tchaikovsky was awarded

1800-572: A physician's assistant in the army and later as city governor of Glazov in Vyatka. His great-grandfather, a Zaporozhian Cossack named Fyodor Chaika, served in the Russian military at the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Tchaikovsky's mother, Alexandra Andreyevna (née d'Assier), was the second of Ilya's three wives; his first wife died several years before Pyotr's birth. She was 18 years younger than her husband and

1900-543: A precursor to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory , which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class. He studied harmony and counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein. He was awarded a silver medal for his thesis, a cantata on Schiller's " Ode to Joy ". The Conservatory benefited Tchaikovsky in two ways. It transformed him into

2000-475: A romantic love between the two. Tchaikovsky's 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 accidental or intentional. While his music has remained popular among audiences, critical opinions were initially mixed. Some Russians did not feel it was sufficiently representative of native musical values and expressed suspicion that Europeans accepted

2100-580: A senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career. Meanwhile, the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of Tsar Alexander II ) and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein . Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent. The aim of the RMS

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2200-806: A small town in Vyatka Governorate during the Russian Empire in present-day Udmurtia near the banks of the Kama River . His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, served as a lieutenant colonel and engineer in the Department of Mines and managed the Ironworks in Kamsko-Votkinsk . His grandfather, Pyotr Fedorovich Tchaikovsky, was born in the village of Nikolaevka, Yekaterinoslav Governorate , Russian Empire in present-day Mykolaivka , Ukraine, and served first as

2300-479: A starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles. Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky's musical talent on the whole and cited him as "a composer of genius" in his autobiography. He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky's student work. Nor did he change his opinion as Tchaikovsky's reputation grew. He and Zaremba clashed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his First Symphony for performance by

2400-456: A super-human being to compose a piano score in 1872 based on it, "Manfred Meditation". Byron wrote this "metaphysical drama", as he called it, after his marriage to Annabella Millbanke failed because of a scandal due to charges of sexual improprieties and an incestuous affair between Byron and his half-sister, Augusta Leigh . Attacked by the press and ostracised by London society, Byron fled England for Switzerland in 1816 and never returned. At

2500-510: A tutor, bought an orchestrion , a form of barrel organ that could imitate elaborate orchestral effects, and encouraged his piano study for both aesthetic and practical reasons. However, they decided in 1850 to send Tchaikovsky to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg. They had both graduated from institutes in Saint Petersburg and the School of Jurisprudence, which mainly served

2600-500: A wide stylistic and emotional range, from light salon works to grand symphonies. Some of his works, such as the Variations on a Rococo Theme , employ a "Classical" form reminiscent of 18th-century composers such as Mozart (his favorite composer). Other compositions, such as his Little Russian symphony and his opera Vakula the Smith , flirt with musical practices more akin to those of

2700-452: Is a play created primarily for reading, rather than production. Closet dramas are traditionally defined in narrower terms as belonging to a genre of dramatic writing unconcerned with stage technique. Stageability is only one aspect of closet drama: historically, playwrights might choose the genre of 'closet' dramatic writing to avoid censorship of their works, for example in the case of political tragedies. Closet drama has also been used as

2800-567: Is attributed to cholera , caused by drinking unboiled water at a local restaurant . In the 1980s in Britain, however, there was academic speculation that he killed himself, either with poison or by contracting cholera intentionally; in the New Grove Dictionary of Music , Roland John Wiley wrote: "the polemics over Tchaikovsky's death have reached an impasse … . As for illness, problems of evidence offer little hope of satisfactory resolution:

2900-507: Is not intended for commercial performance can nevertheless cross between private playreading and the public sphere" through this medium. The philosophical dialogues of ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Plato (see Socratic dialogue ) were written in the form of conversations between "characters" and are in this respect similar to closet drama, many of which feature little action but are often rich in philosophical rhetoric. Beginning with Friedrich von Schlegel , many have argued that

3000-474: Is quoted on page 351 of The Masters of Solitude by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin . "In Memory of My Feelings", the poem by Frank O'Hara , includes the line "Manfred climbs to my nape,/ speaks, but I do not hear him,/ I'm too blue." In Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke , Byron is said to have written Manfred after meeting the magician Jonathan Strange and finding him most disagreeable. It

3100-526: Is referenced in Colonel Calverley's patter song "If you want a receipt for that popular mystery" (A Heavy Dragoon), listing one ingredient as "a little of Manfred but not very much of him". German gothic metal band The Vision Bleak extensively quote from Manfred in their song "A Curse of the Grandest Kind", on their 2010 album Set Sail to Mystery Big Finish 's Dark Shadows references

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3200-528: Is suggested that he wrote it because he was so disappointed with Strange that he created a magician more to his liking. The final scene of Daisy Miller by Henry James is set in the Colosseum of Rome. James mentions that, before entering the Colosseum, his protagonist Winterbourne loudly quotes Manfred's monologue on the Colosseum (Act III, Scene IV). In the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Patience , Manfred

3300-442: The 1812 Overture , would be "very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it". He also warned conductor Eduard Nápravník that "I shan't be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts". Nevertheless, the overture became, for many, "the piece by Tchaikovsky they know best", particularly well-known for

3400-585: The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for performances of his opera Cherevichki . Within a year, he was in considerable demand throughout Europe and Russia. These appearances helped him overcome life-long stage fright and boosted his self-assurance. In 1888, Tchaikovsky led the premiere of his Fifth Symphony in Saint Petersburg, repeating the work a week later with the first performance of his tone poem Hamlet . Although critics proved hostile, with César Cui calling

3500-502: The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour nearing completion in Moscow in 1880, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II in 1881, and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition in the planning stage, Nikolai Rubinstein suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a grand commemorative piece. Tchaikovsky agreed and finished it within six weeks. He wrote to Nadezhda von Meck that this piece,

3600-573: The First Piano Concerto , did not help matters. His popularity grew, however, as several first-rate artists became willing to perform his compositions. Hans von Bülow premiered the First Piano Concerto and championed other Tchaikovsky works both as pianist and conductor. Other artists included Adele aus der Ohe , Max Erdmannsdörfer , Eduard Nápravník and Sergei Taneyev . Another factor that helped Tchaikovsky's music become popular

3700-457: The Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth class), which included a title of hereditary nobility and a personal audience with the Tsar. This was seen as a seal of official approval which advanced Tchaikovsky's social standing and might have been cemented in the composer's mind by the success of his Orchestral Suite No. 3 at its January 1885 premiere in Saint Petersburg. In 1885, Alexander III requested

3800-583: The Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony. Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony. It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February 1868. Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein's brother Nikolai offered him

3900-603: The Russian Musical Society , critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, Mily Balakirev , met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that would take the operas of Mikhail Glinka as a model and incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western practices and use non-Western harmonic devices such as the whole tone and octatonic scales . They saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent. Balakirev, César Cui , Modest Mussorgsky , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin became known as

4000-507: The Russian Symphony Concerts , devoted exclusively to the music of Russian composers. One included the first complete performance of his revised First Symphony; another featured the final version of Third Symphony of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , with whose circle Tchaikovsky was already in touch. Rimsky-Korsakov, with Alexander Glazunov , Anatoly Lyadov and several other nationalistically-minded composers and musicians, had formed

4100-617: The Violin Concerto . He returned briefly to the Moscow Conservatory in the autumn of 1879. For the next few years, assured of a regular income from von Meck, he traveled incessantly throughout Europe and rural Russia, mainly alone, and avoided social contact whenever possible. During this time, Tchaikovsky's foreign reputation grew and a positive reassessment of his music also took place in Russia, thanks in part to Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky 's call for "universal unity" with

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4200-592: The moguchaya kuchka , translated into English as the "Mighty Handful" or "The Five" . Rubinstein criticized their emphasis on amateur efforts in musical composition; Balakirev and later Mussorgsky attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training. Tchaikovsky and his fellow conservatory students were caught in the middle. While ambivalent about much of The Five's music, Tchaikovsky remained on friendly terms with most of its members. In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on what became Tchaikovsky's first recognized masterpiece,

4300-479: The tragedies of Seneca the Younger in the first century AD were written to be recited at small parties rather than performed. Although that theory has become widely pervasive in the history of theater, there is no evidence to support the contention that Seneca's plays were intended to be read or recited at small gatherings of the wealthy. The emperor Nero , a pupil of Seneca, may have performed in some of them. Some of

4400-499: The 19th century and certainly of any Russian composer of his time. It has also at times caused considerable confusion, from Soviet efforts to expunge all references to homosexuality and portray him as a heterosexual, to efforts at analysis by Western biographers. Biographers have generally agreed that Tchaikovsky was homosexual . He sought the company of other men in his circle for extended periods, "associating openly and establishing professional connections with them." His first love

4500-492: The Count declares: "No, no, I wish to do away with that mysterious reputation that you have given me, my dear viscount; it is tiresome to be always acting Manfred. I wish my life to be free and open." Indeed, the Count of Monte Cristo is quite similar to Manfred, in that he wants to keep his past a secret, feels superior to social conventions, and is following an agenda that runs counter to the social mores. Fyodor Dostoyevsky mentions

4600-498: The Hay Maidens , in his opera The Voyevoda ). From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with music criticism while continuing to compose. This activity exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad. In his reviews, he praised Beethoven , considered Brahms overrated and, despite his admiration, took Schumann to task for poor orchestration. He appreciated

4700-476: The Imperial School of Jurisprudence to begin a seven-year course of studies. Tchaikovsky's early separation from his mother, despite the aforementioned alleged distant relationship, caused an emotional trauma that lasted the rest of his life and was intensified by her death from cholera in 1854 when he was 14. The loss of his mother also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at composition,

4800-598: The Tsar made an indelible impression on him as a child and whose scoring he studied assiduously; and Adolphe Adam , whose ballet Giselle was a favorite of his from his student days and whose score he consulted while working on The Sleeping Beauty . Beethoven's string quartets may have influenced Tchaikovsky's attempts in that medium. Other composers whose work interested Tchaikovsky included Hector Berlioz , Felix Mendelssohn , Giacomo Meyerbeer , Gioachino Rossini , Giuseppe Verdi , Vincenzo Bellini , Carl Maria von Weber and Henry Litolff . Tchaikovsky displayed

4900-610: The West at the unveiling of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow in 1880. Before Dostoevsky's speech, Tchaikovsky's music had been considered "overly dependent on the West". As Dostoevsky's message spread throughout Russia, this stigma toward Tchaikovsky's music evaporated. The unprecedented acclaim for him even drew a cult following among the young intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg, including Alexandre Benois , Léon Bakst and Sergei Diaghilev . Two musical works from this period stand out. With

5000-476: The best known women playwrights due to her interest in philosophical nature. Although living in relative oppression, women dealt with the risks of public shame and rejection in the effort to have their writing recognized. Other notable women involved in a closet drama include Anne Finch , Jane Lumley , and Elizabeth Cary . Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( / tʃ aɪ ˈ k ɒ f s k i / chy- KOF -skee ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893)

5100-642: The closet drama. The popularity of closet drama at this time was both a sign of, and a reaction to, the decline of the verse tragedy on the European stage in the 1800s. Popular tastes in theater were shifting toward melodrama and comedy and there was little commercial appeal in staging verse tragedies (though Coleridge , Robert Browning , and others wrote verse dramas that were staged in commercial theaters). Playwrights who wanted to write verse tragedy had to resign themselves to writing for readers, rather than actors and audiences. Nineteenth-century closet drama became

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5200-462: The collapse of his 13-year association with the wealthy patroness Nadezhda von Meck . Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor though some scholars have played down its importance. His dedication of his Sixth symphony to his nephew Vladimir "Bob" Davydov and his feelings expressed about Davydov in letters to others, especially following Davydov's suicide, have been cited as evidence for

5300-468: The composer's same-sex attraction, have been published, as have letters previously suppressed by Soviet censors in which Tchaikovsky openly writes of it. Such censorship has persisted in the Russian government, resulting in many officials, including the former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky , denying his homosexuality outright. Passages in Tchaikovsky's letters which reveal his homosexual desires have been censored in Russia. In one such passage he said of

5400-541: The contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his 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

5500-428: 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 his mother's early death, the death of his close friend and colleague Nikolai Rubinstein , his failed marriage with Antonina Miliukova , and

5600-528: The drama of the Middle Ages was of the closet-drama type, such as the drama of Hroswitha of Gandersheim and debate poems in quasi-dramatic form. Fulke Greville , Samuel Daniel , Elizabeth Cary , Sir William Alexander , and Mary Sidney wrote closet dramas in the age of Shakespeare and Jonson . Between 1642 and 1660, the English government banned public performance. During this time, playreading became

5700-712: The fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet , a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced. The group also welcomed his Second Symphony , later nicknamed the Little Russian . Despite their support, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. The infrequency of Tchaikovsky's musical successes, won with tremendous effort, exacerbated his lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein's private fits of rage critiquing his music, such as attacking

5800-435: The gap between Tchaikovsky and his peers. They regularly attended the opera and Tchaikovsky would improvise at the school's harmonium on themes he and his friends had sung during choir practice. "We were amused," Vladimir Gerard later remembered, "but not imbued with any expectations of his future glory". Tchaikovsky also continued his piano studies through Franz Becker, an instrument manufacturer who made occasional visits to

5900-409: The home market also helped boost the composer's popularity. During the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first, The Voyevoda , based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky , premiered in 1869. The composer became dissatisfied with it, however, and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript. Undina followed in 1870. Only excerpts were performed and it, too,

6000-465: The initial impetus for Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus . The supernatural references are made clear throughout the poem. Manfred was adapted musically by Robert Schumann in 1852, in a composition entitled Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts , and in 1885 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his Manfred Symphony . Friedrich Nietzsche was inspired by the poem's depiction of

6100-476: The lesser nobility and thought that this education would prepare Tchaikovsky for a career as a civil servant. Regardless of talent, the only musical careers available in Russia at that time—except for the affluent aristocracy—were as a teacher in an academy or as an instrumentalist in one of the Imperial Theaters. Both were considered on the lowest rank of the social ladder, with individuals in them enjoying no more rights than peasants. Tchaikovsky's father's income

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6200-408: The libretto himself, modeling his dramatic technique on that of Eugène Scribe . Cui wrote a "characteristically savage press attack" on the opera. Mussorgsky, writing to Vladimir Stasov , disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless, The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia. The last of the early operas, Vakula the Smith (Op. 14), was composed in

6300-451: The music for its Western elements. In an apparent reinforcement of the latter 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. Tchaikovsky was born on 7 May 1840 in Votkinsk ,

6400-462: The nickname 'Bob', would become very close to him. In 1844, the family hired Fanny Dürbach, a 22-year-old French governess. Four-and-a-half-year-old Tchaikovsky was initially thought too young to study alongside his older brother Nikolai and a niece of the family. His insistence convinced Dürbach otherwise. By the age of six, he had become fluent in French and German. Tchaikovsky also became attached to

6500-474: The opera Christmas Eve , based on the same story. Other works of this period include the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the Third and Fourth Symphonies , the ballet Swan Lake , and the opera Eugene Onegin . Tchaikovsky remained abroad for a year after the disintegration of his marriage. During this time, he completed Eugene Onegin , orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed

6600-474: The 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 system of public music education. 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 that Tchaikovsky received there set him apart from composers of

6700-480: The poem in Notes from Underground when the narrator states, "I received countless millions and immediately gave them away for the benefit of humanity, at the same moment confessing before the crowd all my infamies, which, of course, were not mere infamies, but also contained within them a wealth of 'the lofty and the beautiful' of something Manfred-like" (Dostoyevsky, page 57. Bantam Books 2005) Herman Melville references

6800-672: The poem twice in Mardi (1849): in Chapter 4 describing being up in the foremast-head: "Now this standing upon a bit of stick 100 feet aloft for hours at a time, swiftly sailing over the sea, is very much like crossing the Channel in a balloon. Manfred-like, you talk to the clouds: you have a fellow feeling for the sun."; and in Chapter 11 wondering at a character's gravity: "It was inconceivable, that his reveries were Manfred-like and exalted, reminiscent of unutterable deeds, too mysterious even to be indicated by

6900-545: The post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory . While the salary for his professorship was only 50 rubles a month, the offer itself boosted Tchaikovsky's morale and he accepted the post eagerly. He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his Characteristic Dances , conducted by Johann Strauss II at a concert in Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865 (Tchaikovsky later included this work, re-titled Dances of

7000-449: 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

7100-808: The powerful spirits. Manfred directs his final words to the Abbot, remarking, "Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die". "The unconquerable individual to the end, Manfred gives his soul to neither heaven nor hell, only to death." Published in June 1817, Manfred has as its epigraph the famous saying from Shakespeare 's Hamlet : "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio , than are dreamt of in your philosophy." It seems to be strongly influenced by Goethe 's Faust , which Byron probably read in translation (although he claimed never to have read it). In September 1817, John Neal accused Byron of "egotism, contradiction, and affection" in authoring Manfred , claiming that "Byron

7200-597: The premiere of his Sixth Symphony , the Pathétique , in Saint Petersburg. Nine days later, on 6 November, Tchaikovsky died there, aged 53. He was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery , near the graves of fellow-composers Alexander Borodin , Mikhail Glinka , and Modest Mussorgsky ; later, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Mily Balakirev were also buried nearby. Tchaikovsky's death

7300-846: The remotest of hints." The whale-boat used to escape in the beginning is named "Chamois," referring explicitly to the goat-antelope creature, and likely also alluding to the hunter in Manfred. In Act II of Ivanov (play) by Anton Chekhov , Ivanov compares himself to Manfred, saying: “I could die of shame at the thought that I, a healthy, strong man, have turned into some sort of Hamlet, or Manfred, or superfluous man—God only knows what! (Chekhov 40)” (Chekhov, Anton. The Major Plays. 1964. Translated by Ann Dunnigan, Signet Classics, 2006.) On page 61 of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon , Di Presso seems to refer (perhaps by accident) to Metzger as Manfred. Manfred's oft-quoted speech from Act II Scene 1 which begins "Think'st thou existence doth depend on time?"

7400-428: The school; however, the results, according to musicologist David Brown , were "negligible". In 1855, Tchaikovsky's father funded private lessons with Rudolph Kündinger and questioned him about a musical career for his son. While impressed with the boy's talent, Kündinger said he saw nothing to suggest a future composer or performer. He later admitted that his assessment was also based on his own negative experiences as

7500-511: The second half of 1874. The libretto, based on Gogol 's Christmas Eve , was to have been set to music by Alexander Serov . With Serov's death, the libretto was opened to a competition with a guarantee that the winning entry would be premiered by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre . Tchaikovsky was declared the winner, but at the 1876 premiere, the opera enjoyed only a lukewarm reception. After Tchaikovsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote

7600-450: The sometimes sensitive relations among various members of the staff. He served as director of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society during the 1889–1890 season. In this post, he invited many international celebrities to conduct, including Johannes Brahms , Antonín Dvořák and Jules Massenet . During this period, Tchaikovsky also began promoting Russian music as a conductor, In January 1887, he substituted, on short notice, at

7700-496: The stage. Several closet dramas in verse were written in Europe after 1800; these plays were by and large inspired by classical models. Faust, Part 1 and Faust, Part 2 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , among the most acclaimed pieces in the history of German literature , were written as closet dramas, though both plays have been frequently staged. Lord Byron , Percy Bysshe Shelley , and Alexander Pushkin devoted much time to

7800-501: The staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at its inaugural performance in Bayreuth (Germany), but not the music, calling Das Rheingold "unlikely nonsense, through which, from time to time, sparkle unusually beautiful and astonishing details". A recurring theme he addressed was the poor state of Russian opera . In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form

7900-451: The state of diagnosis; the confusion of witnesses; disregard of long-term effects of smoking and alcohol. We do not know how Tchaikovsky died. We may never find out." Of Tchaikovsky's Western predecessors, Robert Schumann stands out as an influence in formal structure, harmonic practices, and piano writing, according to Brown and musicologist Roland John Wiley . Boris Asafyev comments that Schumann left his mark on Tchaikovsky not just as

8000-585: The symphony "routine" and "meretricious", both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by audiences and Tchaikovsky, undeterred, continued to conduct the symphony in Russia and Europe. Conducting brought him to the United States in 1891, where he led the New York Music Society's orchestra in his Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall . In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived at Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of

8100-636: The tale in an audio production, Dress Me in Dark Dreams . Edith Collins seeks to re-read the poem after some lines are stuck in her head. Christopher Tin and Shoji Kameda (as " Stereo Alchemy Archived 19 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine ") used the text of Manfred as the basis for the lyrics to Monster of the Sky on their album God of Love Manfred Township, Minnesota is named after Manfred Closet drama A closet drama (or closet play)

8200-447: The theatrical imagination." The playwrights did not have to worry about the pressure to impress an audience due to their audience being whom they chose. Thus, it was considered to be a freeing style of writing. Marta Straznicky describes the form as "part of a larger cultural matrix in which closed spaces, selective interpretive communities, and political dissent are aligned." Print is the crucial factor behind closet dramas: "a play that

8300-571: The time, he was living at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. Because Manfred was written immediately after this, and because it regards a main character tortured by his own sense of guilt for an unmentionable offence, some critics consider it to be autobiographical, or even confessional. The unnamed, but forbidden, nature of Manfred's relationship to Astarte is believed to represent Byron's relationship with his half-sister Augusta. Most of Manfred

8400-706: The two. The degree to which the composer might have felt comfortable with his sexual desires has, however, remained open to debate. It is still unknown whether Tchaikovsky, according to musicologist and biographer David Brown , "felt tainted within himself, defiled by something from which he finally realized he could never escape" or whether, according to Alexander Poznansky , he experienced "no unbearable guilt" over his sexual desires and "eventually came to see his sexual peculiarities as an insurmountable and even natural part of his personality ... without experiencing any serious psychological damage". Relevant portions of his brother Modest's autobiography, where he tells of

8500-765: The use of cannon in the scores. On 23 March 1881, Nikolai Rubinstein died in Paris. That December, Tchaikovsky started work on his Piano Trio in A ;minor , "dedicated to the memory of a great artist". First performed privately at the Moscow Conservatory on the first anniversary of Rubinstein's death, the piece became extremely popular during the composer's lifetime; in November 1893, it would become Tchaikovsky's own elegy at memorial concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1884, Tchaikovsky began to shed his unsociability and restlessness. That March, Emperor Alexander III conferred upon him

8600-402: The various components of the corporeal world, are unable to control past events and thus cannot grant Manfred's plea. For some time, fate prevents him from escaping his guilt through suicide. At the end, Manfred dies, defying religious temptations of redemption from sin. Throughout the poem he succeeds in challenging all of the authoritative powers he faces, and chooses death over submitting to

8700-400: The widow of a railway magnate, who had begun contact with him not long before the marriage. As well as an important friend and emotional support, she became his patroness for the next 13 years, which allowed him to focus exclusively on composition. Although Tchaikovsky called her his "best friend", they agreed never to meet under any circumstances. On 16/28 October 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted

8800-512: The young woman; her affection for him was reportedly a counter to his mother's coldness and emotional distance from him, though others assert that the mother doted on her son. Dürbach saved much of Tchaikovsky's work from this period, including his earliest known compositions, and became a source of several childhood anecdotes. Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at age five. Within three years he had become as adept at reading sheet music as his teacher. Tchaikovsky's parents, initially supportive, hired

8900-604: Was a Russian composer during the Romantic period . He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker , the 1812 Overture , his First Piano Concerto , Violin Concerto , the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies , and

9000-483: Was a production on BBC Radio 3 in 1988, however, which starred Ronald Pickup as Manfred. A new production, adapted and directed by Pauline Harris with original music composed and performed by Olly Fox and starring Joseph Millson as Manfred, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 8 January 2017 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Manfred ' s completion. The character Manfred was mentioned by Alexandre Dumas, père in his novel The Count of Monte Cristo , where

9100-455: Was a shift in attitude among Russian audiences. Whereas they had previously been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight works, they gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the composition itself. Tchaikovsky's works were performed frequently, with few delays between their composition and first performances; the publication from 1867 onward of his songs and great piano music for

9200-425: Was also growing increasingly uncertain, so both parents may have wanted Tchaikovsky to become independent as soon as possible. As the minimum age for acceptance was 12 and Tchaikovsky was only 10 at the time, he was required to spend two years boarding at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence's preparatory school, 1,300 kilometres (800 mi) from his family. Once those two years had passed, Tchaikovsky transferred to

9300-434: Was destroyed. Between these projects, Tchaikovsky started to compose an opera called Mandragora , to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects. The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact, The Oprichnik , premiered in 1874. During its composition, he lost Ostrovsky's part-finished libretto. Tchaikovsky, too embarrassed to ask for another copy, decided to write

9400-529: Was in exile from England during the English Civil War . Following the Restoration in 1660, some authors, such as Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne , continued to favour closet drama, proving that the form "served a cultural function distinct from that of commercial drama." John Milton 's play Samson Agonistes , written in 1671, is an example of early modern drama never intended for

9500-476: Was later famously played by Samuel Phelps . There are no recorded full stagings in Britain in the twentieth century, but readings are more popular, partly because of the difficulty of staging a play set in the Alps, partly because of the work's nature as a closet drama that was never actually intended for the stage in the first place. The exceptional size of the role of Manfred also makes the play difficult to cast. There

9600-405: Was made for crime, not vice." Aside from pointing out the poem's absurdities, Neal nevertheless offered high praise and claimed of one verse that "our language does not furnish a more delicate, beautiful, mellow, and quiet picture." Manfred has as its theme defiant humanism, represented by the hero’s refusal to bow to supernatural authority. Peter L. Thorslev Jr. notes that Manfred conceals behind

9700-482: Was of French and German ethnicity through her paternal side. Both Ilya and Alexandra were trained in the arts, including music. Of his six siblings, Tchaikovsky was close to his sister Alexandra and twin brothers Anatoly and Modest . Alexandra's marriage to Lev Davydov would produce seven children and lend Tchaikovsky the only real family life he would know as an adult, especially during his years of wandering. One of those children, Vladimir Davydov , who went by

9800-453: Was reportedly Sergey Kireyev, a younger fellow student at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence. According to Modest Tchaikovsky , this was Pyotr Ilyich's "strongest, longest and purest love". Tchaikovsky's dedication of his Sixth symphony to his nephew Vladimir "Bob" Davydov (21 at the time) and his feelings expressed about Davydov in letters to others, especially following Davydov's suicide, has been cited as evidence for romantic love between

9900-534: Was to fulfill Alexander II's wish to foster native talent. It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed) and provided basic professional training in music. In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in music theory taught by Nikolai Zaremba at the Mikhailovsky Palace (now the Russian Museum ). These classes were

10000-569: Was written on a tour through the Bernese Alps in September 1816. The third act was rewritten in February 1817, since Byron was not happy with its first version. Manfred is a Faustian noble living in the Bernese Alps . Internally tortured by some mysterious guilt, which has to do with the death of his most beloved, Astarte, he uses his mastery of language and spell-casting to summon seven spirits, from whom he seeks forgetfulness. The spirits, who rule

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