had become very well off due to his music career and had even gained a life pension from the Czar of Russia), it hurt him emotionally very deeply.Driven by feelings of self-loathing and guilt over his homosexuality, Tchaikovsky attempted to "cure" himself by marrying Antonia Milyukova in 1877, a student at the Moscow Conservatory where he taught. Apparently she herself was mentally unstable, and this, combined with the complexities of Tchaikovsky's mental state, turned the marriage into an instant disaster that didn't even last three months. As a result, Tchaikovsky fled back to St. Petersburg, attempted suicide, and had another nervous breakdown. It took him several months before he was stable enough to again to compose, after which he resigned his post at the Moscow Conservatory in 1878. He maintained his St. Petersburg residence the remainder of his life.During this later part of his life, Tchaikovsky was able to travel through Europe and America, gaining in popularity and wealth. It was during these years that wrote almost all of his more well known music, including the 1812 Overture, the Sixth Symphony Pathetique, and probably the most famous ballet of all time, The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky died in St. Petersburg in 1893 of Cholera that he contracted from drinking some contaminated water. Some say that it was on purpose in order to commit suicide over the threat of exposure of his homosexuality, but that is perhaps something that the world will never know.During his lifetime, Tchaikovsky composed some of the most memorable music of all time. In my life, there were always three names that I would recognize when it came to classical music: Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. He is most famous for his two ballets The Nutcracker and Swan Lake and if I had to put him in a category, it would be in the ballet, but the music that Tchaikovsky loved the most had to be the symphony. This is evidenced most clearly in his comment on hi...
