The industrial revolution and the change to the urban city middle class preferences changed the music during the romantic period. People were now looking to be more entertained with visual music such as operas. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a Russian composer, was an important composer of this period that specialized in the works within opera and drama. Tchaikovsky the second oldest of six surviving children, began playing the piano at the young age of five. Tchaikovsky was not raised in a musical family but by the age of 21 years his love for music led him to take music lessons and eventually a professor of harmony and tutor for music students (biography.com).

Tchaikovsky developed his composition skills and technique during the romanticism period and he composed ballets and operas that grew popularity in this era. “His collective body of work constitutes 169 pieces, including symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos, cantatas and songs. Among his most famed late works are the ballets The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The Nutcracker (1892)” (biography.com).

(Play the “Nutcracker” composition by clicking on the picture.)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky