Born May 7, 1840 He was born in Votkinsk, Russia -Came from a middle-class family Adored his mother, Father was an engineer.

Tchaikovsky began playing the piano at the age of 5. His parents decided to send him to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg. In 1855 he began studying music with a private tutor named Rudolph Kundinguer.

Tchaikovsky’s mother died early in his life, he was only 14. He also faced a lot of criticism as he began to compose his own work. His marriage failed, leading him to later question his sexuality.

Tchaikovsky wrote music for different genres including: symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber song and dance. He used a lot of repetition in his melodies. He also used a wide range of harmony. Tchaikovsky is known as one of the most influential composers of the romantic era.

Swan Lake

The Nutcracker A fairytale ballet composed of two acts. Composed The Nutcracker Ballet is based on the story “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice.” by Hoffman. It is still being performed on stages all over the world.

:02 Song opens with french horns :06 a harp begins to play softly the music is ascending and the horns continue to play. :07-:13 the harp repeats and plays a soft rising cord while the horns continue to play :24 the harps plays again but this time more slowly and softly.

:46 The harp begins to play a series of very fast notes going up. :58 The harp stops playing and there is silence. 1:02 Horns begin to play once again. The horns sound strong. 1:07 The horns continue to play as voilins are being introduced to the melody. 1:14 A clarinet then begins to play.

1:23 You can no longer hear the clarinet playing but the horns and violins are still playing 1:30 This time the clarinet begins to play but much louder. 1:40 The music picks up its pace and as the instruments begin to play louder the beat speeds up and the tone becomes happy. 1:42 A flute now come in and the pitch is higher.

1:52 The music begins to get dramatically louder. 1:54 The melody begins again. 1:58 Flutes begin to play the melody once again 2:08 All of the instruments are playing together and becoming increasingly loud. The pitch and tone are high and the theme is happy.

2:10 violins stand out with more dramatic and long notes. 2:14 Flutes begin to play again at a high pitch and fast pace. 2:35 The flute plays again and is accompanied by another woodwind instrument. They play together and gradually get louder and louder.

2:52 flute comes in and play same increasing melody 2:56 flute comes in and play same increasing melody 3:02 second melody starts over violins begin again violins get louder violins seem to be the main instrument 3:45 Instruments continue to play in unison and get louder and louder until they read a climax

4:12 Instruments reach a climax and immediately end together all on the same note. 4:16 Song is over instruments no longer play. The End

0:00 When I first listened to Symphony No 6, you immediately heard a bassoon playing the introducition. It starts of very slow with gives a calm feeling. *Noticed the tone of the piece would go up and then descend smoothly. *When the violins and flute begin to play you heard the pitch go up and they accompanied each other nicely.

 2:00 violins and a clarinette join in and the tone and speed start to get faster and the music continues. Violins and flutes increase the speed. Horns begin to sound and dorwn out the music in the background. 4:30 the violins play a very loud note all at once.

5:00 as the orchestra plays all together the mood becomes extremely romantic and it sound beautiful. *This movement is played in the minor scale. The romantic feeling continues to play throughout the rest of the movement and the music gradually fades out as a clarinette plays like the bassoon did in the introduction.

2:00 the tone still sounds a lot like the first movement only it feels a little bit more dramatic. 4:00 Noticed a lot of repetition in the notes being played and I recognized it repeating parts of the piece I had heard earlier. This movement was played with a lot of passion and emotion which again represents the Romantic Era.

 5:00 Noticed a lot of scales going up and down between all of the instruments.  5:23 the piccolo stand out over everything else with its high pitch and distinct tones.

 This movement is a march and it begins on the oboe after about 13 seconds. (The oboe is a wind instrument on the front row of the wood wind section. The wood wind section is in the middle of the orchestra at the back.) *The movement is one gradual build towards a huge march played by the whole orchestra. 6:48 and toward the end the tuba played and loud and really emphasized the emotion in the piece.

Movement the strings being playing the introduction” String melody, hear the change to the major key. 1:30 The music begins to speeds up and gets louder but it doesn’t stay that way for long, it goes back down again.

2:15 the music takes a dramatic turn and feels very dark. The string continue to play but the mood is sad and slow. 3:05 the music almost disappears entirely but then a French horn slowly brings it back. The tone is still very dark. 5:17 the entire orchestra speeds up and the intensity picks up. It gradually gets louder and louder until it peaks with the horns playing very loud. 

The stings continue to play but help bring the tone back down to a softer level. 8:30 A couple symbols play and the music begins to pick up quickly.

8:40 feels almost like the climax of the enite piece because the music is louder that it has been the whole time and as I watched the conductor, I could see the intensity on his face.” As the symphony finishes the piece it once again drifts off into silence, just as the piece started.

 "Classic Cat - the free classical music directory." Classic Cat - the free classical music directory. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb  "Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky biography - 8notes.com." Free sheet music on 8notes.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb  "musicappreciation: Web Search Results from Answers.com." Answers.com: Wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb