"Tchaikovsky is not only one of the corner stones of Russian musical culture and world music.... It's at the same time creative and technical encyclopedia to which every Russian has reference in the course of his own work" (Cross and Ewen, 1025), said Dimitri Shostakovich. Peter Iltich Tchaikovsky is considered one of the best composers of all time. In this paper you will see how Tchaikovsky's life was difficult and memorable.
             Peter Tchaikovsky was born in Votinsk, in the district of Viatka, Russia on May 1, 1840. "His father, Lieutenant colonel Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky (a well-to-do engineer who was the principle inspector of Government Mines and Metallurgical works), and mother, Alexandra Andreuevna (of French ancestry) had seven children, of whom Peter was third" (Cross and Ewen, 1027). Peter's first musical expression came whine he was three, upon hearing one of Mozart's great aria's, Don Giovanni. He demonstrated extaordinary sensitivity for music early in life. As a child he was fascinated y a little mechanical instrument called an "orchestrion". When he was five he took piano lessons form Kundnges. Life passed and when he was ten he and his family moved to St. Petersburg where he was enrolled in preparatory classes for the school of jurisprudence. Nicholas Zaremba was a big inspiration, helping him to over come his natural tendencies toward indolence. And he worked hard and well. Another of Tchaikovsky's teachers was Gabriel Lomankin. Tchaikovsky's mother died of cholera when he was 14. He finished school when he was 19. For a year he worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice a job he hated, but devoted himself to completely. Tchaikovsky's first 20 years were very hard. Working to survive in a world was there is no help. (Scionti, 375, Cross and Ewen, 1027-1028, Ewen, 375).
             Tchaikovsky's early works were technically sound, but unappreciated. I always thought that his music was always greatly apprec...