Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer in the Romantic Period of music. His music, in the Nationalist style, had a wide range, though Tchaikovsky is most famous for his ballets "Swan Lake", "The Sleeping Beauty", and "The Nutcracker"(all of which have either been made into a Disney or Barbie movie, or both).

He was born into a middle class family, and went to school to be a civil servant, but took extreme pleasure in all things musical. When Tchaikovsky was 21, he engaged in many homosexual escapades, until the scandal became too great. A year later he enrolled in the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he began his musical career.

"The Nutcracker" ballet is based on the book "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E. T. A. Hoffman. Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write the music for the ballet in 1891, by the choreographer Marius Petipa. The most famous part of the ballet is the Nutcracker Suite, followed by the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The ballet is basically about a little German girl who falls asleep and dreams that her nutcracker and other Christmas toys and decorations come to life, and have to fight the Mouse King.

"Swan Lake" was fashioned by Tchaicovksy from Russian folktales. It tells the story of Princess Odette, who was turned into a swan by an evil witch's curse. The original production took place in Moscow 1877.

"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairytale about a girl who is trapped in a castle with a beast, and soon falls in love with him(much in the way Stockholm Syndrome affects kidnapping victims). But, unlike most kidnappers, the Beast turns into a prince. Tchaicovsky composed the music for this ballet.

The Reality of Amadeus

The movie "Amadeus" portrays Mozart's and Salieri's relationship as one of obsession and envy. Salieri is a court composer, a few years later older than Mozart; Mozart is a famous composer and performer, who is extremely immature. Salieri becomes so jealous of Mozart that he devises a plan to destroy Mozart: He dresses in all black, including a mask, and tells Mozart he must finish an opera, which winds up being "The Magic Flute", or he will not give him money to buy the alchohol that he is essentially addicted to. It ends up killing Mozart, and Salieri, many years later tries to kill himself, and is turned in to a mental institution until he dies.

In reality, however, Mozart and Salieri were aquaintances in good standing with one another, possibly even friends. Salieri was even a music teacher for one of Mozart's sons. Also, Mozart was ill for much of his life, and perished from, most scholars believe, a secondary flare up of an inflammatory disease, though he strongly believed he was poisoned in his last days. Salieri spent his final days still composing music for the court, and died peacefully.

Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"

The "Four Seasons" is the most well-known set of violin concertos written by Baroque composer and musician, Antonio Lucius Vivaldi. Each season's concerto has a sonnet that goes along with it. The sonnets were originally written in Italian, and were later translated to English.



The Four Seasons depicts moods and scenes from spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In the Baroque style, each concerto is built upon the sound of a solo violin, and other instruments come in and out to create drama, mood, and a forte/piano effect even though no volume is changed in any one instrument.

Vivaldi's inspiration for the concerti most likely came from the countryside near Mantua, where he was offered the position of Maestro di Cappella, basically a prestigious choir teacher, in the governor of Mantua's court.

The Medieval Period, also known as the Middle Ages or Dark Ages, is often thought of as a time of cultural and economic deterioration. However, this view is taken from a European view of world history, rather than a worldly view of world history. During the "Dark Ages" countries in Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East thrived.

The Golden Age of India, for example, began right around the same time the Middle Ages started in Europe. The Golden Age began when the Gupta Dynasty came to power, and Indian culture began to thrive. Trade, art, literature, religion, music, and science were all flourishing during the Gupta Period.Trade was booming almost everywhere near the equator during the Medieval Period, including India. Exports included items such as pearls, precious stones, perfumes, indigo, spices, drugs, clothing, coconuts, and ivory; imports included precious metals, dates, camphor, silk, and horses.

Most art and literature was based on the Hinduism or the Buddhist philosophy. Art was mainly composed of sculpture and architecture, and Sanskrit literature of the Medievil Period was comprised of The Vedas, Sutra literature, The Epics, and Classical Sanskrit literature.

*While searching for information about Medieval India, I found a few very interesting websites; among them was iloveindia.com, and was especially interested in the articles on yoga, which I try to do everyday, so the link is to the yoga area. However, if you are interested, you can explore the rest of the website. :)

And, yes, I do realize that there is nothing about Indian music during the Medieval Period on this post, but here is a link to some very amazing traditional Indian music.

Music History

In musical history, the six major eras of music were the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque period, Classical period, Romantic period, and the 20th Century. The history of music begins with the Gregorian Chant, which came about around 600BCE, and was named for Pope Gregory the Great. Since music is still developing and changing you can not really say that music history has met its end.

The two periods of music I am most interested in are the Baroque period and music of the 1930s-1940s. Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" sparked my interest in the Baroque period because I really enjoyed the fast-slow changes with each change of season and the terraced dynamics, in which, instead of the first violin getting louder to create a forte, more violins play at different times to create a more dynamic, polyphonic texture. Also, the first time I heard "The Four Seasons" I was reading a very interesting book called The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, and whose title is an allusion to Botticelli's painting. It was by remarkable coincidence that Vivaldi's music was written only one or two centuries after Botticelli painted "The Birth of Venus", the same time period in which the novel takes place.

I love Frank Sinatra. And Dean Martin. And Ella Fitzgerald. And Count Basie. So it's kind of natural for me to want to learn more about the period in which these great musicians did so much. The 1930s and 40s was host to big band and swing, two offshoots of jazz from the 1920s.
A big band usually consisted of 12-25 musicians, and had trumpets, saxophones, trombones, singers, and a piano. Big bands originally had very little improvisation, and included violins, but, in the mid-30s swing was introduced and became big bands' defining style. Swing music, also known as swing jazz, used a double bass and drums to create a strong rythmn for the lead section of brass and woodwinds. Swing often had a medium to fast tempo, and vocalists would often improvise a melody. A prime example of the merging of swing and big band was the collaboration of Frank Sinatra, one of the most amazing swing musicians, and Count Basie and his Orchestra. Together, they produced many hits, including: "Hello, Dolly!", "Come Fly With Me", and "The Best Is Yet To Come".

Links on Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology is the "study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts." The study pulls froms the theories and ideas of musicology, cultural anthropology, and sociology. It is a vitally important aspect of music appreciation.

1st Post

This blog serves to explore different aspects of music, focusing on music history and appreciation. I hope to encourage readers to listen to different kinds of music, even if they think they won't like it. Music is the prevalent form of artistic expression all over the world, and to become a more cultured person one must be ready to appreciate other cultures, whether you personally like them or not.