840-1893) like so
many of the Russian composers, began as a cultivated amateur who
showed no special musical gifts, save a sensitive nature and a general
fondness for the art. He studied in the school of jurisprudence and
won a post in the Ministry of Justice. In 1861, however, his musical
nature awaking with a bound, he gave up all official work and for the
sake of art faced a life of poverty. Under the teaching of Nicholas
Rubinstein at the Petrograd Conservatory he made such amazing progress
that in five years he himself was Professor of Harmony at Moscow and
had begun his long series of compositions--at first operas of merely
local fame. There now followed years of great activity spent in
teaching and composing--well-known works being the first String
Quartet and the Pianoforte Concerto in B-flat minor, first performed
by von Buelow at Boston in '88. At this period his health completely
broke down, the immediate cause being an unhappy marriage. He finally
rallied but had to travel abroad for a year, and for the rest of his
life his temper, never bright, was overcast with gloom. There now
entered Tchaikowsky's life Frau von Meck, the woman who played the
part of fairy godmother. She greatly admired his music, was wealthy
and generous and, that he might have entire leisure for composition,
settled upon him a liberal annuity. Their relationship is one of the
most remarkable in the annals of art; for, fearing that the ideal
would be shattered, they met but once, quite by accident, and
Tchaikowsky was "acutely embarrassed." We have a lengthy and
impassioned correspondence, and Tchaikowsky's 4th Symphony, dedicated
"a mon meilleur ami," is the result of this friendship. In 1891,
invited to New York for the dedication of Carnegie Hall, he made his
memorable American tour. His success was genuine, and was the
beginning of the popularity his music has always enjoyed in this
country. For several years Tchaikowsky had been working at his Sixth
Symphony, to which he himself gave the distinctive title "Pathetic."
This work ends with one of the saddest dirges in all literature,
although Tchaikowsky, during its composition, as we know from his
letters, had never been in a happier state of mind or worked more
passionately and freely. He himself says, "I consider it the best,
especially the most open-hearted of all my works." When, however, he
suddenly died in 1893, there were rumors of suicide, but it is now
definitely settled that