1. Megan Pfeiffer
Corey Brann
And
Ashley Blunkall

2. What To Expect
• Tchaikovsky’s Life
• Compositional Style
• Romeo and Juliet Overture

3. Tchaikovsky’s Life
• Born: May 7, 1840 in
Votkisnk, Russia
• Died: Nov. 6, 1893 in St.
Petersburg, Russia
• Son of successful
engineer
• Like Bach and
Beethoven, his father
discovered his talent

4. Tchaikovsky’s Life cont.
• At age 4, he wrote his
first piece with his
sister for his mother
• He and his mother
were very close

5. Tchaikovsky’s Life cont.
• Received an • Became a bureau
education from the clerk but hated it.
French Governess • Quit to compose
• Attended Law School music
in St. Petersburg
• Also took music
lessons
• Graduated at 19
years of age

6. Compositional Style
• Typically used regular meter, which can be
heard in his dance pieces
• Occasionally played with an unusual meter
• Melodies range from Western- to
Folksong-styles
• Repetition
• Elegant and graceful

7. Compositional Style cont.
• Harmony variations
– From Western to unorthodox progressions
– Typically used conventional harmonic
progressions
• Wrote for the orchestra
– Liked to make use of the modern symphony
orchestra

8. Compositional Style cont.
• Instrumentation
– He liked to use the treble instruments for their
more delicate sounds and would balance
them out with the deeper, more gloomy
sounds of the bass instruments.

9. Romeo and Juliet Overture
• Written in 1870
• Genre: Concert
Overture
• Form: Sonata with
and introduction

10. Romeo and Juliet Overture

11. Works Cited
• Charlton, Katherine, and Robert Hickok.
Experience Music. New York: McGraw
Hill, 2009. Print.
• “Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Biography.”
Notablebiographies.com. Advameg,
Inc., 2011. Web. 22 March 2011.