Even if you aren’t a classical music fan or actively listen to Tchaikovsky’s music, you’ve absolutely heard his compositions. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky really made a name for himself in his shortened life. According to Classicals.de, he was the first Russian composer to actually make a lasting impact worldwide. He took the Russian style of music and used his Western European musical training to make it his own, resulting in infinitely famous compositions like the 1812 Overture (especially popular around the 4th of July), the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy (a personal favorite of mine), the opera Eugene Onegin, and the insanely famous ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. With such a talent for classical compositions, it makes sense that our quote of the day by Tchaikovsky has to do with how powerful music can be.
Born in 1840 in Russia, Tchaikovsky came from a large family and expressed an interest in music from a young age. He was naturally good at it, too; he tried making his first composition at age four and started piano lessons at age five. Despite this, music education wasn’t a thing in Russia at the time, per Britannica, so a music career wasn’t in the cards for him, at least not in his parents’ eyes. However, his father did come around, seeing how talented and in love with music his son was, and continued to get him piano lessons through his teenage years. He was one of the first students to attend the St. Petersburg Conservatory and graduated in 1865.
The composer’s life was filled with tragic losses—such as his mother—and depression, possibly exacerbated by his sexuality, which was censored in Russia until somewhat recently, even though it’s long been a known fact in the Western world, according to The Guardian. Tchaikovsky was also married to a woman named Antonina Miliukova, but the marriage failed, most likely because he did it just to please his family and to potentially dispel rumblings about his homosexuality, per BBC’s Classical Music site. He died of cholera from drinking unboiled water at a restaurant in 1893, and to this day, people debate whether it was a tragic accident or if he purposely drank it (or was forced to).
Like many artists, Tchaikovsky had a life full of extreme lows and highs, but he saw success while he was still alive (which some other artists cannot say the same). And today’s quote really encapsulates how he felt about music and why he was so passionate about it. It might also really hit hard with other musicians or music lovers out there.
Related: Quote of the Day by Lou Gehrig: ‘I Love the Thrill of Victory, and I Also Love the Challenge of Defeat’
Quote of the Day by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
CanvaPro/Parade
“Music possesses incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for the articulation of the thousand different moments of the soul’s moods.”
This quote appears in Tchaikovsky, a biography written by John Hamilton Warrack in 1973. It is an in-depth recounting of his life, from childhood onward and includes Tchaikovsky’s own words from letters and more. It details his “unhappy, restless life” and his “prodigious talent, his methods of work and the gradual genesis of his greatest large-scale works,” per the book’s description.
In the chapter called “New Mastery, 1877-1878,” Warrack writes about one correspondence in particular, between Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy woman who funded Tchaikovsky for 13 years and was his close friend, per Tchaikovsky Research. She had asked about a program he was composing and whether he was finished with it; he wrote back about his work process:
“It is a purely lyrical process. It is a musical confession of the soul, which is full to the brim and which, true to its essential nature, pours itself out in sound, just as the lyric poet expresses himself in verse. The difference is that music possesses incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for the articulation of the thousand different moments of the soul’s moods.”
He then compares it to planting a seed: if the “seed of a future work appears” and the “soil” you put it in is receptive, then you have something that takes root and grows into a full program. Again, saying that it takes on a mind of its own, but that it still needs good conditions to do so. He’s the vessel through which music comes from, but he’s a good gardener, so to speak.
Related: Writer Mary Renault on How Hate Can Consume Us Like Love: ‘What We Loathe, We Graft Into Our Very Soul’
Deeper Meaning of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Quote—the Power of Music
It is interesting to read the full quote, because it makes this sentence make a little more sense. After all, he is comparing music to poets, saying that even though sound and verses both “pour” out of the artists involved, music is different. Music is more powerful than just words (in Tchaikovsky’s opinion here), and it’s a “subtler” way to express a “thousand different moments of the soul’s moods.”
Whether you agree with that comparison or not—or don’t want to compare music to poetry at all—what Tchaikovsky says about music rings true. It can be a very powerful form of art, and it does a great job at expressing soul-bearing honesty, even without words. Especially looking at classical music, the emotions that cascade out from symphonies, especially Tchaikovsky’s, are so palpable. There’s a reason many people cry at operas, or even ballets (in my personal experience, at least).
From one of the most famous composers in the world, it makes sense that those were his feelings about music. And even if you don’t understand or agree with his explanation of how his work process goes, you can’t deny that he was so moved and in tune (pun intended) with composing and music; he spoke about it so reverently. And if you’ve ever experienced frisson when listening to a moving classical piece or even cried when your favorite artist puts out a heart-wrenching song, you can easily understand Tchaikovsky’s point of view.
Related: Quote of the Day: Psychotherapist Viktor Frankl on Choosing Your ‘Attitude in Any Given Set of Circumstances’
More Quotes from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- “What I need is to believe in myself again—for my faith has been greatly undermined; it seems to me my role is over.”
- “Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.”
- “To regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present—this is my life.”
- On music: “It is a faithful friend, protector and comforter, and for its sake alone life in this world is worth living. Who knows, perhaps in heaven there will be no music. So let us live on the earth while we still have life!”
- “The difference is that music possesses much richer means of expression and is a more subtle medium for translating the thousand shifting moments of the feelings of the soul.”
Up Next:
Related: Quote of the Day by Karen Horney, Psychoanalyst: ‘If You Want To Be Proud of Yourself, Then Do Things in Which You Can Take Pride’
