Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7th, 1840, in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia. He was the second eldest of his parents’ six children and of the six children Tchaikovsky found himself closest to his sister Alexandra and his twin brothers Anatoly and Modest. Tchaikovsky’s father, Ilya, worked as a mine inspector and a metal works manager. But with his mother, Alexandra, she was the second of Ilya’s three wives that he would have. At the age of five Tchaikovsky began taking piano lessons as he displayed an early passion for music. Although he loved music his parents wanted him to work in the civil service. Precocious, within three years he had become as adept to reading music as his teacher. His parents then became very supportive and …show more content…
Despite Tchaikovsky’s many popular successes he had to deal with depression, the death of his close friend Nikolai Rubinstein and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, which was his thirteen-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. And his homosexuality, which was kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor, though musicologists now downplay its importance. Tchaikovsky lived as a bachelor for most of his life. In 1868 he met Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt. They became infatuated with each other and were engaged to be married but due to Artôt's refusal to give up the stage or settle in Russia, the relationship ended. Eventually Tchaikovsky found Antonina Miliukova and married her and had three children although she out lived Tchaikovsky by 24 years she spent the last 20 of them in an insane asylum. Throughout Tchaikovsky’s career he composed may pieces of music but always composed pieces in a ballet, classical and concerto genres. Even though he was an amazing composer he seemed to struggle with sonata form which is a type of composition in three sections in which two themes or subjects are explored according to set key