Friends of PUL Small Talk: "Tchaikovsky-Imperial Composer" with Simon Morrison

From an inauspicious childhood in a Ural Mountain mining town, Tchaikovsky grew up to become one of the most known composers of the Russian Empire. How? And what made his career outstanding? In part, good fortune: interest in his music from civic officials, Slavophile ideologues, Tsar Alexander III and his court in St Petersburg. 

In this Friends of Princeton University Library Small Talk, Professor Simon Morrison details how Tchaikovsky became an imperial composer, borrowing from and contributing to the musical traditions of Ukraine, Poland and Georgia. But he wasn’t a nationalist: His “Russia” was cosmopolitan, encompassing the music and culture of France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. His “Russia” pursued the beautiful, while "the real Russia" – the Russia of conquests, subjugations, and expulsions – did not. The Russia of the composer existed only in his art.

Note: Speaker video unavailable.