Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Difference between revisions

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And yet, even when writing so-called 'programme' music, for example his Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, he cast it in sonata form. His use of stylized 18th-century melodies and patriotic themes was geared toward the values of Russian aristocracy.<ref name="maes137">Maes, 137.</ref> He was aided in this by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who commissioned ''The Sleeping Beauty'' from Tchaikovsky and the libretto for ''The Queen of Spades'' from Modest with their use of 18th century settings stipulated firmly.<ref>Maes, 146, 152.</ref><ref group="a">Vsevolozhsky originally intended the libretto for a now-unknown composer named Nikolai Klenovsky, not Tchaikovsky (Maes, 152).</ref> Tchaikovsky also used the [[polonaise (dance)|polonaise]] frequently, the dance being a musical code for the [[House of Romanov|Romanov dynasty]] and a symbol of Russian patriotism. Using it in the finale of a work could assure its success with Russian listeners.<ref>Figes, 274; Maes, 78–79, 137.</ref>

~~===Reception===~~

~~====Critics====~~

~~[[File:Hanslick.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Eduard Hanslick]]~~

Critical reception to Tchaikovsky's music was also varied but also improved over time. Even after 1880, some inside Russia held it suspect for not being nationalistic enough and thought Western European critics lauded it for exactly that reason.<ref name="botstein99">{{harvnb|Botstein|loc=99}}</ref> There might have been a grain of truth in the latter, according to musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein, as German critics especially wrote of the "indeterminacy of [Tchaikovsky's] artistic character ... being truly at home in the non-Russian".<ref>As quoted in {{harvnb|Botstein|loc=100}}</ref> Of the foreign critics who did not care for his music, [[Eduard Hanslick]] lambasted the Violin Concerto as a musical composition "whose stink one can hear"<ref>[[Eduard Hanslick|Hanslick, Eduard]], ''Music Criticisms 1850–1900'', ed. and trans. [[Henry Pleasants (music critic)|Henry Pleasants]] (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963). As quoted in Steinberg, ''Concerto'', 487.</ref> and William Forster Abtrop wrote of the Fifth Symphony, "The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, [[delirium tremens]], raving, and above all, noise worse confounded!"<ref>''Boston Evening Transcript'', 23 October 1892. As quoted in Steinberg, ''Symphony'', 631</ref>

The division between Russian and Western critics remained through much of the 20th century but for a different reason. According to Brown and Wiley, the prevailing view of Western critics was that the same qualities in Tchaikovsky's music that appealed to audiences—its strong emotions, directness and eloquence and colorful orchestration—added up to compositional shallowness.<ref>Brown, ''New Grove (1980)'', 18:628; Wiley, ''New Grove (2001)'', 25:169.</ref> The music's use in popular and film music, Brown says, lowered its esteem in their eyes still further.<ref name="brown_ng18628"/> There was also the fact, pointed out earlier, that Tchaikovsky's music demanded active engagement from the listener and, as Botstein phrases it, "spoke to the listener's imaginative interior life, regardless of nationality". Conservative critics, he adds, may have felt threatened by the "violence and 'hysteria' " they detected and felt such emotive displays "attacked the boundaries of conventional aesthetic appreciation—the cultured reception of art as an act of formalist discernment—and the polite engagement of art as an act of amusement".<ref name="Botstein, 101"/>

There has also been the fact that the composer did not follow sonata form strictly, relying instead on juxtaposing blocks of tonalities and thematic groups. Maes states this point has been seen at times as a weakness rather than a sign of originality.<ref name="Maes161"/> Even with what Schonberg termed "a professional reevaluation" of Tchaikovsky's work,<ref name="schonberg367">Schonberg, 367.</ref> the practice of faulting Tchaikovsky for not following in the steps of the Viennese masters has not gone away entirely, while his intent of writing music that would please his audiences is also sometimes taken to task. In a 1992 article, ''New York Times'' critic [[Allan Kozinn]] writes, "It is Tchaikovsky's flexibility, after all, that has given us a sense of his variability.... Tchaikovsky was capable of turning out music—entertaining and widely beloved though it is—that seems superficial, manipulative and trivial when regarded in the context of the whole literature. The First Piano Concerto is a case in point. It makes a joyful noise, it swims in pretty tunes and its dramatic rhetoric allows (or even requires) a soloist to make a grand, swashbuckling impression. But it is entirely hollow".{{sfn|Kozinn|1992}}

In the 21st century, however, critics are reacting more positively to Tchaikovsky's tunefulness, originality, and craftsmanship.<ref name="schonberg367"/> "Tchaikovsky is being viewed again as a composer of the first rank, writing music of depth, innovation and influence," according to [[Cultural history|cultural historian]] and author [[Joseph Horowitz]].<ref name="horowitz"/> Important in this reevaluation is a shift in attitude away from the disdain for overt emotionalism that marked half of the 20th century.<ref name="wiley_ng25169">Wiley, ''New Grove (2001), 25:169.</ref> "We have acquired a different view of Romantic 'excess,'" Horowitz says. "Tchaikovsky is today more admired than deplored for his emotional frankness; if his music seems harried and insecure, so are we all".<ref name="horowitz">{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11030/1121245-388.stm |last=Druckenbrod|first=Andrew|title=Festival to explore Tchaikovsky's changing reputation|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=30 January 2011 |accessdate=18 August 2013}}</ref>

~~====Public====~~

~~{{see also|Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in popular media}}~~

Horowitz maintains that, while the standing of Tchaikovsky's music has fluctuated among critics, for the public, "it never went out of style, and his most popular works have yielded iconic [[Sound bite|sound-bytes]] {{sic}}, such as the love theme from ''Romeo and Juliet''".<ref name="horowitz"/> Along with those tunes, Botstein adds, "Tchaikovsky appealed to audiences outside of Russia with an immediacy and directness that were startling even for music, an art form often associated with emotion".{{sfn|Botstein|loc=100}} Tchaikovsky's melodies, stated with eloquence and matched by his inventive use of harmony and orchestration, have always ensured audience appeal.<ref>Brown, ''New Grove'', 18:606–07, 628.</ref> His popularity is considered secure, with his following in many countries, including Great Britain and the United States, second only to that of Beethoven. His music has also been used frequently in popular music and film.<ref>Steinberg, ''The Symphony'', 611.</ref>

==Notes==