7 May: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This date in 1840 saw the birth of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, celebrated for his ballets, including Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. 

1. He was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka, Russia. His father was a mine inspector and metal works manager.
2. He started Piano lessons when he was five years old, but his parents wanted him to enter the civil service as a career. His mother died of cholera when he was 14, and he decided at that point to honour his parents' wishes and became a bureau clerk with the Ministry of Justice.
3. Music was his passion even then. Soon after his mother died, he wrote a Waltz in her memory.
4. At 21 he decided to change careers and concentrate on music. He enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming one of the school's first composition students. While he was there, he gave music lessons to other students to earn money, although he wasn't particularly keen on teaching.
5. He was eventually able to give up teaching and become a composer full time thanks to a rich widow and businesswoman named Nadezhda von Meck. Impressed by Tchaikovsky's The Tempest she had made enquiries about him and eventually wrote to him, declaring herself a “fervent admirer.” They went on to exchange over 1200 letters and Nadezhda paid Tchaikovsky a monthly allowance for 14 years, until she claimed she was close to ruin and abruptly cut off payments and communication. She had never shown any desire to meet Tchaikovsky and even stipulated that they should never meet. They met once, by chance in 1879. In case you're wondering, her patronage continued until 1890, so their meeting wasn't the reason she stopped supporting him. While the claim of bankruptcy was not untrue, the suddenness of the break might have been due to the fact that she had become gravely ill and unable to write. Being extremely reclusive and private, never even attending her relatives' weddings, she probably didn't want to have to dictate her letters to anyone else.
6. Tchaikovsky was gay, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in Russia. He claimed to have loved one woman, Belgian soprano Desiree Artot. They became engaged but broke up over a disagreement about her career.
7. In 1877, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova, one of his music students, who'd fallen in love with him. She wrote to him declaring her love for him. Tchaikovsky went to see her, to explain that he could never love her in return. However, somewhere along the line, he worked out that if he married, it would put an end to the gossip and speculation about him being gay. The marriage lasted just six weeks. Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother “Only now, especially after the tale of my marriage, have I finally begun to understand that there is nothing more fruitless than not wanting to be that which I am by nature.”
8. He wasn't a fan of some of his most popular works, such as the Nutcracker Suite and the 1812 Overture. He was commissioned to write the latter to commemorate completion of the the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the coronation of Alexander II and the Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition. He described the work as “very loud and noisy,” and said he'd written it “with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it.”
9. He was a conductor as well as a composer, although he did suffer from debilitating stage fright. He visited America in 1891, where he conducted his Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall.
10. He suffered from depression for the last 15 years of his life, but it was during this time that he composed his greatest and best known works. He died in 1893. The official cause of death was cholera, contracted through drinking contaminated water. Some biographers believe he might have committed suicide by drinking the contaminated water on purpose but there is no actual proof of that.

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

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Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two