I had always regarded Tchaikovsky as a good composer in his own way, but not to be compared with Mozart, and Schubert, and the composers I considered 'The Greats'.
Now, you all know about the band I play in. I had to learn an instrument from scratch, and attend rehearsals and all that sort of thing, and presently I was learning all about about music from the inside.
One piece we're playing is a number from The Nutcracker ballet suite, and I'm learning what an amazing composer Tchaik was. Now, because ours is a very humble band, in many ways, the music we play is far removed from the Nutcracker music played by a concert Orchestra. The arrangement itself is ingenious; it contains all the melodic lines that would catch the ear, and leave out as much as possible, so that we can play it with the few players we have—around 14 of us. Even with that stripped-down version, the music is brilliant!
It was quite some time until I began to pay attention; I was preoccupied with fingering, and just getting the notes. But one day, I noticed: wow, this is amazing writing!
The man was not universally admired in his lifetime, which was tragic. I'm not familiar with his life story, but I'm going to read up on it when I can. If you didn't know, Tchaikovsky wrote several symphonies as well, at least some of which are considered masterpieces.
Archie
