ussia from the United States. He had not heard from Mme. Von Meck in eight months when he received a letter from a mutual friend. She wrote that Mme. Von Meck was very ill and terribly upset and that she could no longer communicate as they had before.15 This event broke Tchaikovsky=s spirit and was a strain on his already deteriorating health.16 The remainder of his life was filled with sadness and depression. Tchaikovsky was never the same after that. His greatest distinctions came during this time of sadness and despair. He was elected a member of the Academie Francaise and he received an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge. He composed his final work during this time of his greatest grief. It was his Sixth Symphony entitled Symphonie Pathetique, the Pathetic Symphony, in B minor. This symphony was a funeral dirge. He was saying goodbye to a dead friendship as well as, in essence, writing his own requiem for it was widely felt that he intended to commit suicide. The symphony premiered while he was still alive and his hundreds of worshipers wondered what the real thoughts of so sad a person were. ABut two weeks later when the Symphony Pathetique was performed in all its glory those who listened bowed their heads and wept for then they knew.@17Five days after the premier Tchaikovsky drank a glass of unboiled water during a time when another cholera epidemic was raging through Russia. He contracted the disease and died shortly thereafter. His carelessness combined with the fact that his mother died of the same disease leads one to believe that he committed suicide. Igor Stravinsky said, A[Tchaikovsky=s] works represent the essence of the Russian land and its people.@18 Tchaikovsky=s life was a mixture of fantasy and reality. His reality was full of depression and despair so he used a fantasy life, which he engaged in his music, to have happiness, contentment, and enjoyment. AHis music translates him into an entirely differen...
