Tchaikovsky gay
Celebrating Pride with Tchaikovsky
As Hamilton and the GTA ramp up for World Pride this week, we thought what better time to revisit the life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The shock that homosexuality has been inherent throughout history is slowly dissipating with the help of modern history dramas that favour queer narratives, yet our culture is still surprised to discover some of our most celebrated historical figures were gay. Nineteenth-century composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky surrounded himself with supportive friends and family members. These loved ones helped the composer navigate the social customs and sexual expectations of his era. His brother Modest, who was his openly gay, was his closest confidant and later biographer. Tchaikovsky came from a small household and desired to meet his father’s expectations. This meant confirming to the idealistic lifestyle of a prosperous adolescent man by becoming good educated, attaining good social standing and finding a suitable wife. The University of Jurisprudence, an all-boy school, is where historians suspect the Russian composer began to realize his sexual inclinations. His classmate Aleksey Apukhtin later introduced him to the hom
A young Tchaikovsky at age 23.
The first Russian to accomplish international renown as a composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is also often considered the most Passionate of composers. He was also a deeply tormented and sensitive soul.
By California Symphony
If Tchaikovsky felt it, it set up a way into his music.”—Prof Robert Greenberg
Growing Up Tchaikovsky
Born May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk in Russia, Tchaikovsky was a deeply sensitive and emotional youth who exceled in foreign languages and music from an early age. In an era when musicians were looked down on and considered in the same social class as peasants in Russia, the thought of a career in music was not an option, and so Tchaikovsky was sent away to boarding college to train for a respectable position in the Russian civil service. At 19, he completed his studies, united the Ministry of Justice, and embarked on a career which would confer status and a steady income.
West Meets East
Tchaikovsky continued to pursue his interest in music by attending lectures at the newly founded Russian Musical World, whose goal was to promote native Russian music talent. Three years later, despite the risks, he quit his mini
Gay Love-Letters from Tchaikovsky to his Nephew Bob Davidov
Gay men have taken to their hearts the music of Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) because it is perceived (rightly or wrongly) to enclose all the longing and despair of homosexual angst in a homophobic planet. Although he was one of the great musical thinkers, it is for the melodic lyricism and suffering so audible in his work, rather than its complexity or brilliance, that he will be remembered.
Tchaikovsky's homosexuality was denied by Soviet musicologists until fairly recently, and much material still remains to be retrieved from Russian archives and published in English. His lovers included Alexey Apukhtin in his melody student days 1867-70; Vladimir Shilovsky, a wealthy young lad whom he also met at the Moscow Conservatory, during 1868-72, and who financed several trips for the two of them; Alexei Sofronov his valet from 1872 to the end of his life; his pupil Eduard Zak, who killed himself in 1873 (he inspired the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture); Joseph Kotek in the mid-1870s; his nephew Vladimir Davidov (second son of his sister Alexandra) in the 1880s-1890s, to whom he dedicated the Symphonie P That Tchaikovsky was a homosexual is a myth based on publications of a few Western authors. If this is true, what are the publications, and how do they fail to offer a complete justification? If it isn't, what are the proofs based on, besides the letters and diaries of the composer? So far, I've failed to find any support for the notion of homosexuality reviewing the letters and diaries in original language, or any of the sources that claim his homosexuality that provide anything other than speculation based on those papers. If I've missed anything, I'd really appreciate to know. At the matching time there aren't any English sources in my search that would critically analyze the alleged 'proofs', and again, I don't know of any 'proofs' other than those found in his personal papers. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Milo Tchaikovsky's homosexuality is not a myth but a fully established fact of his private life. This fact was known by many of his contemporaries and is discussed explicitly and in detail in the unfinished autobiography by his brother Mod