Angel Petrossian MUSC 1010 Introduction to Music

Music 1010 Presentation Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( )

Biblioraphy Born: May 7,1840 Votkinsk, Russia First instrument at Age 5, Piano Married 1877 to Antonina Miliukova Died: November 6, 1893 St. Petersburg, Russia Tchaikovsky and wife Antonina

Early Life  His father was an engineer and posted as lieutenant colonel in the department of mines  His mother was Alexamdra Amdreuevna, he was very devoted to his mother  Educated by a French governess  Attended law school in St Petersburg  He took music and composing classes

His music  His first Symphony “Winter Daydreams”  Three Piano Concertos  Violin Concerto  1812 Overture  Opera: Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades  Ballet: Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker  Romeo and Juliet

Tchaikovsky’s Contributions  With his music he wanted people to feel emotions. He wrote  7 Symphonies  11 Operas  3 Piano Concertos  5 suites  11 Overtures  3 Ballets

Who influenced Tchaikovsky  He was interested in music from young age  Played piano on a keyboard called Orchestrina  Had local tutors for music  During teenage years, he was taught by Rudooph Kundinger  Singing teacher, Luigi Piccioli  He was a student at Russian Musical Society and St Petersburg Conservatory  Anton Rubinstein and Nikolay Zaremba  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  Brahms

History of 1812 Overture  The idea of this piece came from Nikolai Rubinstein in 1880  This piece represents the events that happened in the war of 1812  Estimated over 100,000 lost their lives  Neither side won, but the Russians drove the French out of their land

Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture to tell a story of How the Russian Soldiers and people faced many challenges during the invasion. Tchikovsky was so emotionally moved by the bravery of the Russian people and how the defended Russia’s Capital against the French army, that he tried to describe the events in the 1812 Overture.

Listening Guide 0:00-1:00; introduction, section A starts in the E Flat Major, slow tempo, violins are heard at slow crescendo with mezzo-pianno. At 0:52 or there abouts strings continue slow melodic melody and have the volume of piano 1:00-1:20; Wind instruments enter as well as the hymn “God preserve thy people” 1:30-2:00 new section with wood wind, flutes, where they match mezzo level with strings.

2:00 Section B starts, with oboe solo in C minor with strings 2:20 Flutes join the oboe solo 2:30-3:00, there is a crescendo into the strings, Cello and bass instruments 3:12-3:40 French horns, trommbones 3:41-4:00 the melody is played by strings such as violins, cellos and violas, the sound builds up as if there were urgency in the tempo 4:00-4:30 Trumpet is slowly gaining vloume, and also there are strings that are re- introduced

4:30- 5:40; the trumpet and bass fade away and there is about 10 seconds of silence where the strings burst back into the music. There is a brass section, with trombone, French horns and it leads into a decent 5:30-6:00the brass still holding, the bass and trumpets with what seems to be a frantic tempo. The tempo keeps the fast pace and accented by the percussion

6:00-7:00 Bass drums accent to hard hitting notes, the brass and strings play the melody, we hear the oboe, English horn countering the melody 7:00-7:06 is melody played and continued with the flutes 7:21 French National Anthem is played with the bassoon still in the background the tempo continues to slow down till about min 8:00 8:00 hear some tubas and the strings faintly playing

8:00-9:00 Slow tune, continue with sorrow full tune in pianissimo level with strings 9:00- 10:00 we hear the return of violins and trumpet with the rising of tempo and volume, drums enter and the energy continues to build. The energy keeps building with cymbals and drums. 10:00-11:00 brass being used in the melody, with descending scales into silence. Yet in background you can hear the melody by the strings

11:00-12:25 strings following still in the slow mood as they ascend to a faster tempo. Brass is re entered in, we also have the chorus, the Russian religious hymn. 12:00-15:08 we have the strings and Cannons and bells that play in a ascending tone and lots of energy, we also hear brass and percussions, it almost feels as if they are celebrating the victory over the French army.

Some explanations  Tchaikovsky used the national Anthems for each country to represent each nation in his music  He also used Russian Church music and Folk songs  In the introduction of the movement to recall the Russians prayers for saftey he uses Cellos and violans with a slow tempo to portray the Russian peoples emotions.

 Snare Drums were used to represent the approaching army, and the strings play back and forth just to give us the feelings of the military advancing  When the full orchestra participates it brings the besion of the full battle in its highes moments.  The brass instruments play the Powerful burst of French national anthem giving us the notions that the French are winning