The Composer:

The eminent Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7 (N.S.), 1840, in a settlement adjacent to the Kama-Votkinsk Metal Works (managed by his father) in the Ural Mountains. The first mention of his involvement with music appears in a letter of 1844 that reports him as having helped compose a song, "Mama's in Petersburg." At home he heard folk songs, popular arias, and romances sung by his mother, and pieces played by a mechanical organ, among them excerpts from Mozart's Don Giovanni. (Mozart would remain Tchaikovsky's most beloved composer.) Piano lessons, started about the age of five, continued in Saint Petersburg, where he entered boarding school in 1848.

From 1850 to 1859 he attended the School of Jurisprudence, where he assisted in a choir conducted by Gavriil Lomakin and studied piano with Rudolph Kundinger and harmony with Kundinger's brother. Assigned on graduation to the Ministry of Justice, Tchaikovsky continued to be drawn to music, and in 1861 he began classes sponsored by the Russian Music Society. The year after, he left his job and entered the just-founded Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Working zealously under Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Zaremba, he received a Silver Medal for his graduation cantata on Johann Schiller's An die Freude in December 1865.

Tchaikovsky taught theory in Moscow, joining the faculty of the new Moscow Conservatory when it opened in September 1866. During his 11 years there, he composed his Piano Concerto no. 1 (1875), the ballet Swan Lake (1876), four operas, three symphonies, and many smaller works. He also established close ties with the composers of the nationalist group known as "The Five," especially Mily Balakirev and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; the critic Vladimir Stasov called him the "sixth member of their circle."

Marriage in July 1877 to Antonina Miliukova triggered an emotional crisis, perhaps related to his homosexuality, that brought him near suicide. He fled Moscow in a state of turmoil but managed to finish three masterpieces--the Fourth Symphony, the Violin Concerto, and the opera Eugene Onegin--before May 1878, when his wife agreed to separation (they were never divorced). An annuity from Nadezhda von Meck, granted during his crisis, allowed him to quit (1878) teaching. His association with von Meck, begun in an exchange of letters about a commission in 1876, was sustained in voluminous correspondence over 13 years, although they never met. From 1878 to 1885, Tchaikovsky lived sometimes in Russia, sometimes in western Europe. His reputation grew with the Capriccio Italien (1880), the 1812 Overture (1880), and two more operas, as well as the Liturgy (1878) and the Vesper Service (1881). During his last years he lived in or near Moscow. In 1888 Tsar Alexander III granted him a yearly pension.

Tchaikovsky's fame, as both conductor and composer, spread as the result of a series of international tours, which brought him to the United States in 1891. He continued to compose--the ballets Sleeping Beauty (1889) and Nutcracker (1892), the Fifth (1888), Sixth (1893), and Manfred (1885) Symphonies, and three final operas, including the powerful and theatrical The Queen of Spades (1890). Younger composers emulated him, among them Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and, later, Sergei Rachmaninoff. On Nov. 6 (N. S.), 1893, a few days after conducting the premier of his Sixth Symphony, Tchaikovsky died in Saint Petersburg.  Although it was reported that he died of cholera, some scholars now believe that his death was in fact a suicide, the result of a threat to reveal his liaison with a young Russian nobleman.

Tchaikovsky's lyric gift owes much to Russian folk song, which he quotes or imitates (First Symphony, Second String Quartet), and to the 19th-century Russian salon song, whose traits permeate his vocal melody (songs and romances, Eugene Onegin) and even infuse his instrumental themes (Fifth and Sixth Symphonies). The expressive pathos of his themes depends on abundant use of suspensions and anticipations, which also pervade his rich harmonies.

References: 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Copyright 1996 Grolier Interactive, Inc.

Information and Photo courtesy of  http://www.island-of-freedom.com/TCHAIK.HTM

Swan Lake

Form:
 
 

Call Number	Measure Number	Description
1	1	A
2	6	A
3	10	B
4	27	B (1)
5	34	Transition
6	52	A (1)

Rhythm:

    In the examples below, one will find the rhythms of theme A and B of Act II, Scene I of "Swan Lake".  This movement of "Swan Lake" is in common time.  The rhythms are very repetitive and move to different instruments.  At the bottom of this site, I have added a lesson plan to teach the rhythm of this movement.

Theme A

Theme B
 

Melody:

The melody of Act II, Scene I of Swan Lake is very easy to follow.  It move basically by step wise motion.  When it does leap, it leaps by thirds.  The The A theme melody is played three times and is carried from the English Horn to various instruments throughout the orchestra and eventually to almost the entire orchestra.  The B theme is played twice and basically has the same characteristics.
 

Harmony:

This piece is written in b minor.  The harmony that Tchaikovsky uses in this piece is basicall kept within the accompaniment.  The melodic line in theme A and B pretty much stands on its own.  The piece uses many harmonic devices to appear sounding Major at times while still staying in a minor key.  During the transitition area there are more chromatic and non chord tone devises used.
 

Expressive Elements:

Tchaikovsky uses many expressive elements to enhance his piece.  One of the first things noticeable in
this piece is his use of dynamics.  The very beginning of the piece starts off at a  p marking.  As the piece
progresses, the dynamics build so that by the end of the piece, the orchestra has reached a ff dynamic
marking and almost the whole orchestra is playing..

The Work:

Swan Lake was a ballet in four acts, based on a German fairy tale, with music by Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky. The first production of the ballet was in Moscow, 4 May 1877, at the Bolshoi
Theater, with choreography by Julius Reisinger. This production was not a success.
The story, from a French version of a German tale, is about a princess, Odette, who is turned into
a swan by an evil magician, Rothbart; in some versions of the story, all of her friends become
swans, too. Every midnight, she (and her friends) become human again for a few hours. One
midnight, she is discovered by Prince Siegfried who falls madly in love with her and promises to
rescue her. There is a ball in the castle where Siegfried is meant to choose a bride. Odile, Knight
Rothbart's daughter, enters as a black swan, looking exactly like Princess Odette. Siegfried is
instantly drawn to her, and he declares she will be his bride. Odette then appears and sees what
has happened, and he recognizes her too, and realizes he has broken his promise. She rushes off to
the lake, and he comes and finds her there. She forgives him, but Rothbart creates a big storm and
both Odette and Siegfried are drowned. In some versions, there is a happy ending: Siegfried fights
Rothbart and rescues Odette and her companions after breaking the spell. Yet in other versions of
Swan Lake, Rothbart surprises the Princess and her companions while they are gathering flowers
at the lake and transforms them all into swans.
After Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, a memorial to the composer presented the second act,
rechoreographed by Lev Ivanov. A full production was performed on 27 January 1895 at the
Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, its debut for that city. The expectations of the Russian public
had to be fulfilled, giving an element of "pressure" to the composition and choreography. Marius
Petipa choreographed Acts I and III, and Ivanov choreographed Acts II and IV. This version
required major changes in the sequence of the music as originally written. This revival finally
received the appreciation that it had rightfully deserved.

Work information obtained from:
http://webserver.rcds.rye.ny.us/id/Dance/dancepagesp.html

Click here to take a quiz on Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Teachers, click here for a listening lesson of Act II, Scene I of Swan Lake

Click here to listen to Act II, Scene I of Swan Lake