Tchaikovsky wrote his last ballet, ‘The Nutcracker’, in 1893 just prior to his death. This wasn’t one of his favorites, but it became the standard of music lovers around the world for Christmas Season. This is an electronic performance, using some of the best sampled orchestra and customized sounds (many of my design) money can buy. There is much more that I could improve, but without adequate capital and time, these are regrettably presented as-is. Your generous support can help make them better! I’d like to turn these into animated music videos, as a “new twist” for MTV and VH1.

Right after the Nutcracker Suite, I feature some of my own works akin to Tchaikovsky because I too am a born Romantic. The Romantic Style has long been prevalent in film for its wide emotional pallet and fiery passions. The end has excerpts of a work in progress, Holst’s Planets.

Walt Disney featured some of the Nutcracker works in his film, ‘Fantasia’, a huge gamble for the studio. Like their earlier attempt, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (also based on another Tchaikovsky ballet), it did not do well in the box office, perhaps due to a “pop” American populace not ready for sophisticated music. However, these two animated films later went on to become celebrated classics, setting the standard for all animated feature films to come.

Even today, MTV kids love his “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”. Such universal appeal was achieved by few composers. Tchaikovsky’s sound has a distinct richness in color which comes from his unsurpassed skill in orchestration—combining different voices, bowings, articulations and instruments of the orchestra to create sonic contrast and vivid imaginative scenery. The “Russian sound” we hear in Tchaikovsky, Igor Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov can be said to have been established firstly by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857).

Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) was initially a Lawyer who dabbled in piano. He found his true calling when enrolling at the Moscow Conservatory studying under the brothers Anton and Nicholas Rubenstein. In the 1860’s, the twenty-something year old Tchaikovsky labored hard at the Conservatory. At harmony exercises, his teachers noticed originality, and invited him to eventually become an instructor, then Professor. Later, Tchaikovsky lamented for wont of time to compose, wanting to quit teaching. He desperately sought patrons, by composing small “String Quartets”. (As I am doing now--hear my works on Tracks 8-10 of this CD. Two were finalists in Turner Classic Movies score competition).

Eventually he found one in Madame Nadejda von Meck, widower of a wealthy railroad Baron. Nadejda was absolutely floored by the string quartets, and wrote to Tchaikovsky, that she’d provide for his income, [paraphrasing:] “but we shall never meet, for your godly status might be diminished, and I shall never be a happy admirer again.” Thus began their years of collaboration

only through letters, staying distant from each other in public. One time their horse carriages crossed paths along the road, and they merely tipped hats off to one another without a word.

A revealing book on this topic, ‘Beloved Friend’ (The Letters of Madame Nadejda von Meck), shows the process whereby a composer is influenced by his patron. One simply cannot compose great works at the level of a Beethoven or Bach or Mozart, without steady patrons. The importance is inestimable when genius is identified and allowed to flourish; because entire nations benefit. They advance themselves technologically and economically from the mysterious creative and intellectual juices inspired on a massive scale by great composers. Such music stimulates education, science, lawfulness (read Plato, Confucius, Aquinas) and invention, which benefits the economy. What you earn, then, was helped by music such as this!

I point this out for a reason: I too am a young composer, perhaps in the similar stage of an early Tchaikovsky in the maturation phase. My own works have topped the on-line charts at #1 several times, so it is clear there is “substance”. However, my income from 1.5 million downloads was destroyed by users of Kazaa and Napster, so now I need to seek support for this elsewhere. All great art requires patrons, to allow concentration on important work. In return, our world will grow better and advance. Some of my new works are at www.MuSeeks.com/ArthurSulit www.MuSeeks.com/ArthurSulit, and Tracks 8-10 on this CD. I am also co-inventor of sophisticated technology at www.SnipNSend.com.

Kindly recognize how great music came about, which helped enable the standard of living and incomes you enjoy today. It happened through the “giving back” of grateful patrons; so consider also becoming a patron! Think of the joy that ‘The Nutcracker Suite’ has brought you and our world every Christmas, and of the rare few living today who can create the Nutcracker’s of tomorrow. Think where it really came from—the foresight of Nadejda von Meck, whom we should thank for recognizing rare talent. It came also from God, whose colorful churches, bells and chant choirs of Moscow inspired Tchaikovsky’s music. Without your tithes, there is no advancement of composers & public education, and so society regresses to gangsta rap.

It is to Nadejda von Meck whom I dedicate this CD. The best gratitude you can show to Nadejda is to emulate her. I similarly seek your generous support in return. Give the gift of music, so that more people might find inspiration, and new works can be commissioned to capture the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s children and inventors. Become a patron, or buy more CD’s now!

Arthur David Sulit, Palo Alto, CA - October 12, 2004
www.MuSeeks.com/ArthurSulit

BIO: Arthur Sulit is an ex-Navy engineer. He is co-inventor of SnipNSend.com and MuSeeks.com.