1812 Overture by Pyotr Tchaikovsky

1812 Overture by Pyotr Tchaikovsky

I grew up in a household where classical music was an everyday occurrence. My father would sit down possible suitors and grill them about who the composer was, the era in which the piece was written and any other odd and obscure fact my father could come up with to completely embarrass the young man. It was also my father’s love of classical music that helped me to pursue playing the flute. I learned to play in fifth grade and continue to play even today. One of the things I have been very talented at doing is taking a piece of music and picking out the tune without sheet music. The 1812 Overture is one of those musical compositions that I picked out the melody to play to impress my father. Now that I have done extensive research on the life of Tchaikovsky and this particular composition, I rather wish I had not. I guess it is true what they say: what you don’t know can’t hurt you. What follows is a brief summary of Tchaikovsky’s life, and analysis of his 1812 Overture and a summary of how this masterpiece came to be.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky lived from May 7, 1840 to November 6, 1893. He attended school to be a lawyer, but later chose to devote his life to music. He is one of the well known Romantic Era composers. Some of his most characteristic compositions include: Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker Suite.

Tchaikovsky was eccentric. He was reported to be, and at times flagrantly lived, a homosexual lifestyle. It was only when his antics began to bring attention to him that he would attempt to ignore his sexual tendencies. Various sources of his life signify that Tchaikovsky fought within himself due to his sexuality. He even condemned his younger brother, Modest, for...

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...vsky complained to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck, that he was "not a concocter of festival pieces," and that the Overture would be "very loud and noisy, but [without] artistic merit, because I wrote it without warmth and without love,” (Wikipedia, 2006). This seems quite an ironic statement considering the renown of the 1812 Overture.

Reference:

Poznansky, A. (2007). Tchaikovsky: A life. retrieved on May 5th, 2009. from

http://www.tchaikovsky-research.net/en/features/life4.html

Wikipedia. (2006). 1812 Overture. retrieved on May 5th, 2009. from

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/1812_Overture

Works Cited

Poznansky, A. (2007). Tchaikovsky: A life. retrieved on May 5th, 2009. from

http://www.tchaikovsky-research.net/en/features/life4.html

Wikipedia. (2006). 1812 Overture. retrieved on May 5th, 2009. from

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/1812_Overture