Answer the questions.

1. Who was the exhibition devoted to?

2. What is the bond between Timiryazev and Turner?

3. What did Timiryazev decide to translate?

4. Which book is important from the scientific point of view?

5. When was the translation published in Russia?

6. When and where was the translation reprinted?

7. What did Timiryazev try to solve?

8. What did Timiryazev do all his life?

9. What was important for Timiryazev in biology what they are for a painter in art?

TCHAIKOVSKY

Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich (1840-1893), Russian composer, the foremost of the 19th century.Tchaikovsky was born in Votkinsk, in the western Ural area of the country. He studied law in Saint Petersburg and took music classes at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. There his teachers included Russian composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein, from whom Tchaikovsky subsequently took advanced instruction in orchestration. In 1866 composer-pianist Nicholas Rubinstein, Anton's brother, obtained for Tchaikovsky the post of teacher of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. There the young composer met dramatist Aleksandr Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, who wrote the libretto for Tchaikovsky's first opera, The Voyevoda (1868). From this period also date Tchaikovsky’s operas Undine (1869) and The Oprichnik (1872); the Piano Concerto no. 1 in B-flat Minor (1875); the symphonies no. 1 (called “Winter Daydreams,”1868); and the overture Romeo and Juliet (1869; revised in 1870 and 1880).

1812 As a composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was greatly influenced by the prevailing sentiment of nationalism among top Russian composers. From 1876 to 1890 Tchaikovsky was supported by a wealthy patron, which allowed him the opportunity to produce a great deal of work, especially operas. He was a supreme master of orchestral colour and used traditional Russian material, although it is shrouded in Western art music tradition. His 1812 overture, composed in 1880, is a graphic musical description of the forced retreat of Napoleon’s armies from Moscow.

In 1876 Tchaikovsky became acquainted with Madam Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow, whose enthusiasm for the composer's music led her to give him an annual allowance. Fourteen years later, however, Madame von Meck, believing herself financially ruined, abruptly terminated the subsidy. Although Tchaikovsky's other sources of income were by then adequate to sustain him, he was wounded by the sudden defection of his patron without apparent cause, and he never forgave her. The period of his connection with Madame von Meck was one of rich productivity for Tchaikovsky. To this time belong the operas Eugene Onegin (1879), Mazeppa (1883), and The Sorceress (1887); the ballets Swan Lake (1876) and The Sleeping Beauty (1889); the orchestral works Marche Slave (1876), Capriccio Italien (1880), Serenade (1880), Manfred symphony (1885), the fantasy overture Hamlet (1888); and numerous songs. Meanwhile, in 1877,Tchaikovsky had married Antonina Milyukova, a music student at the Moscow Conservatory who had written to the composer declaring her love for him. The marriage was unhappy from the outset, and the couple soon separated.

From 1887 to 1891 Tchaikovsky made several highly successful concert tours,conducting his own works before large, enthusiastic audiences in the major cities of Europe and the United States.

His most popular works are characterized by richly melodic passages in which sections suggestive of profound melancholy frequently alternate with dancelike movements derived from folk music. Like his contemporary, Russian composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky was an exceptionally gifted orchestrator; his ballet scores in particular contain many striking effects of orchestral coloration. His symphonic works, popular for their melodic content, are also strong (and often unappreciated) in their abstract thematic development. In his best operas, such as Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, he used highly suggestive melodic passages to depict a dramatic situation concisely and with poignant effect. His ballets, notably Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, have never been surpassed for their melodic intensity and instrumental brilliance. Tchaikovsky also extended the range of the symphonic poem, and his works in this genre, including Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, are notable for their richly melodic evocation of the moods of the literary works on which they are based.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s work combined Russian and European influences. His music was the first by a Russian to be included regularly in concert programs in Europe. Tchaikovsky’s music for the ballets The Nutcracker (1891-1892) and Swan Lake (1876) is some of the best-known classical music of all time.

1. Answer the following questions:

1. Where was Tchaikovsky born?

2. What did Tchaikovsky study in Saint Petersburg?

3. What was his first opera?

4. From 1876 to 1890 who supported Tchaikovsky in producing a great deal of work?

5. What role did Madam Nadezhda von Meck play in Tchaikovky’s life?

6. Which period of life was one of rich productivity for Tchaikovsky?

7. Did he make the concert tours abroad?

8. What features are his most popular works characterized by?

9. Have you ever listened to Tchaikovsky’s works? What is your favourite one?

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 827