Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in Vyatka, Russia in 1840 and was a Romantic Era composer. Around this time in Russia was a time of great change and reform. Russia was ruled by czars with complete power and life was hard - Russia was a strict place to live and it was very hierarchical. Uprisings were a regular occurrence. You could say his music was his way of expressing himself and showing his emotions in these tough times. It's said Tchaikovsky was also homosexual, which would not have been accepted in Russia. This made life especially hard for him.      

Tchaikovsky studied in the St. Petersburg Conservatory and graduated with a silver medal in 1865. As St. Petersburg is quite close to Europe, it's said a western style of music was taught there. This explains the western style heard in Tchaikovsky's music, which is quite varied from the music of other Russian composers at the time. It's said this is a good thing as he became very popular amongst people in the West. This made his music spread very far. However, his music still had a distinctive Russian style and it's clear he loved the folk music of his country. An example of this would be his 50 Russian Folk Songs for Piano Duet. In his Symphony no. 2 he also used a lot of folk music, this time from his neighbouring country, Ukraine. It was nicknamed the 'Little Russian' as he used three folk songs from Ukraine in the work.