Ⅰ Finding Buried Voices - The Wave of Nationalism

01 Music transcends borders
02 Containing Russian national consciousness

Ⅱ At the Fork in the Road - Tchaikovsky's Growth and Challenges

01 Glass Child
02 The rise of a late-blooming musician
03 Soar like a swan

III Parallel Lines of Despair and Hope - New Relationships and Slumps

01 Irresistible Fate
02 Leap in the Dark

Ⅳ Like a Burning Flame - At the Top

01 Finishing the wandering
02 Days of Brilliant Creation

V Captivating the World - Russian Musicians

01 A fairy tale created in sorrow
02 Sudden breakup
03 Masters Born from the Conservatory
04 Revolution and Music

★ Listen to music through books! The eighth lecture in "The Awkward Classical Music Class," which raises the quality of knowledge and lowers the threshold for learning.
★ A journey to Russia, a country so far away yet so close! The name may be unfamiliar, but it's time to listen to the classical music again, properly familiarized with its music.
Meet Tchaikovsky, a fantastic melody that blossomed in the classical periphery.
★ Enjoy a personalized classical music lecture anytime, anywhere with a QR code! Experience classical music more vividly with 116 music resources that you can listen to while reading the text.

Tchaikovsky, a musician who dreamed of an eternal fairy tale with his feet firmly on the ground.

“Please purchase an instrument called ‘Celesta Mustel’ instead.
…please take care that no one sees this instrument.
“I’m worried that someone will use the celesta’s incredible effects before I do.”
In June 1891, Tchaikovsky sent a letter to an acquaintance.
The request was to purchase a recently invented musical instrument as quickly as possible.
One can sense the excitement of being able to incorporate new sounds into music, as well as the anxiety of who might be the first to utilize this instrument.
Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, The Nutcracker, was born from this passion.
The Nutcracker, which unravels mysterious events that occur in the middle of the night with colorful choreography and fantastic production, is a popular performance that returns without fail every year-end.
Among them, Tchaikovsky's ballet music, which drives the entire play, is loved for its melody alone.

But there is a hidden story behind the heavenly sound that leads to the fantastic festival.
At the time he composed The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky was suffering from anxiety, having just lost his younger sister to heaven.
The melody that the composer created when he was at his most unhappy still brings happiness to people all over the world.
In this way, Tchaikovsky's life, works, and the evaluations surrounding him are full of twists and turns.
Tchaikovsky was not only the most recognized musician in Russia, to the point of being commissioned to compose the Tsar's coronation march, but his fame spread throughout Europe and the United States, bringing him both fame and fortune.
However, due to his sensitive nature, he suffered from nervous breakdowns and struggled with his sexual identity throughout his life.
Tchaikovsky's duality, a man with a successful outward appearance but a dark inner self, overlaps with the portrait of a modern person who lives a busy life but is always lonely.
In this way, the prejudice that Tchaikovsky's music is just 'pretty music' that is easy to listen to is shattered the moment you learn about his life.
Through his music, which did not give up on creation even in times of anxiety, we reflect on the loneliness and wounds within us and are comforted again.

An era of reading through music

Just as music appears differently when you know the life of a musician, music can be heard more deeply when you understand the spirit of the times.
Just as learning about Tchaikovsky's life allows us to experience his world of work in a three-dimensional way, understanding the times in which Tchaikovsky lived allows us to appreciate another value of music.
The late 19th century, when Tchaikovsky lived, was the so-called 'age of nationalistic music.'
In the era of nationalism, which called for independence based on national and ethnic pride, nationalist music, which sought to express national identity through music, was also an important task for Tchaikovsky.
Until the 19th century, the center of culture and art was Western Europe, and Russia was merely on the periphery.
Musicians from the periphery wanted to present 'their own music, the music of our people,' and the country's nature, folk music, and mythology were good materials.
Tchaikovsky also made great efforts to express the emotions and natural scenery of the country of Russia through melody.
For example, his representative work, Symphony No. 1, was titled “Winter Dream” and was created to evoke the image of a Russian winter landscape.
These Russian characteristics made Tchaikovsky's music even more special.

This book explores Tchaikovsky's life and works, while also broadly examining the careers of contemporary musicians.
From Norway's Grieg and Czech Smetana, who expressed their nation's unique emotions through diverse music, to the five-member "Mighty Few" who pioneered Russian nationalist music, we delve into the world of contemporary musicians who enriched the music of the late 19th century.
This not only serves as another guide to reading Tchaikovsky's music, but also helps us understand that classical music has also been influenced by historical developments.
The attempt to read the times through music has continued beyond the 19th century to the present.
Today, Russian classical music enjoys a high reputation.
This book recommends that after meeting the most popular Russian musician, Tchaikovsky, you should then meet later Russian musicians, such as Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich.
The author particularly notes that their lives and works changed in their respective ways as they encountered war and revolution.
The intertwining of individual choices and the flow of the times has created a completely different kind of music.
In this way, music is constantly reinterpreted and given new meaning when encountered in historical, social, and cultural contexts.
Listening to classical music is also an act of confronting the harsh realities of that era.
Now, at that starting point, this book will be waiting for you.

For “familiar” classical music

"Awkward Classical Music Class" is a series that was first released in late 2018 after extensive preparation by Professor Min Eun-ki and Social Criticism Publishing, who shared the same concern that there was a lack of accessible introductory classical music books for music-interested readers.
"The Awkward Classical Lesson," presented in lecture format by a classical music expert, does not skimp on explanations of fundamental musical concepts or historical events.
It serves as the most friendly guide to the world of classical music, step by step, transcending time, space, and genre.
This is the reason why it was able to establish itself as a 'bible' for beginners, with favorable reviews such as "a classical music class book that is easy to read" and "a friendly introduction to classical music that explains it step by step so that even those who have built a wall around music can understand it."
Professor Min Eun-ki, the first female professor of composition at Seoul National University, is not only a first-generation Korean musicologist, but also a social intellectual who has reached people outside of the university through numerous public lectures and writings.
There is probably no other scholar who has worked as hard as Professor Min Eun-ki to introduce the wonderful world of classical music.
“Classical music is a type of music that moves you more deeply the more you listen to it.
You can listen to it for a long time without getting tired of it.
As is often the case with other things that bear the name of classic.”
The author explained why the classics were important at the beginning of Volume 1:
Classics are the result of the pursuit of ultimate beauty, and they are a shared cultural heritage of humanity created in an era that will never return.
If we are beings who have to listen to something to survive, wouldn't timeless classics be the music genre we can listen to for the longest time?

While 『The Story of Studying Art for the First Time in My Life』, which opened the 'Embarrassing Series' with unprecedented success as a domestically planned art textbook, arranged the illustrations and explanations on one page for easy viewing, 『Embarrassing Classical Music Class』 allows readers to listen to music directly with a QR code without having to search for the music themselves.
The unique structure of the 'Embarrassing Series', that is, the dialogue format in which the professor lectures and the student responds, provides a vivid feeling of receiving one-on-one tutoring, and the illustrator Kang Han's sensory illustrations placed throughout add to the fun of viewing.
It can be said that the composition was designed with the generation in mind who is more familiar with colloquial language than written language and with images than with print.
In particular, the recently published 8th volume of 『Embarrassing Classical Music Class』 provides a sense of presence through live photos of various ballet and opera performances, and 116 music links allow you to access classical music spanning from the late 19th century to the 20th century.
This will be an opportunity for melodies you've likely heard before to no longer feel unfamiliar, but rather to come across in a deeper and richer way.