Hey there! Just arrived? Check out the TCHAIK PROJECT Introduction here.
Readings of the week:
On The Tchaikovsky Papers I'm still reading the Introduction and there I already found some interesting information. For example, the fact that letters were considered a literary genre and that those in the book, specially from Piotr's parents and his early letters belong to the Sentimentalism era, where feelings were the important issue. The fashion of the letter's text excerpts they put on the Introduction give a glimpse of the relation between this kind of text and Tchaikovsky's music.
I read that not only his homosexuality was hidden from the public but also his preference to monarchy and Russian orthodox christian religion, and his musical heritage. For the atheist Soviet Regime it was important that one of the main Russian heroes was in line with the new beliefs.
When Tchaikovsky was young there was a governess in his house for 5 years, Fanny Dürbach, who introduced him to several educational books written by women, all of them european. "The information provided by Fanny Dürbach further illuminates the cultural landscape of Tchaikovsky's upbringing, which served as an aesthetic background throughout his entire creative life." (p. xvi) They kept writing letters to each other throughout his life and met once again in 1893, his final year.
On The Art of Possibility I'm on the 3rd chapter, Giving an A. The author explains it a lot better than I do: