The following was sent in by Doug Hart from a recent program guide for the Seattle Symphony – Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto Opus 35. Doug also added some personal comments. The purpose is to raise awareness and prevention and serves as a reminder that suicide is an issue we need to talk about.

AFSP Review and Recommendations on LGBT Suicide and Suicide Risk

Mary Baker Eddy:

“Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love – be it song, sermon, or Science – blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty” (Science and Health, 234).  ♥♪♫

Comments from Program Guide:

“With his growing success, came personal torment.  A homosexual at a time when this could mean only shame and punishment, the composer struggled desperately to curb his desires.  That effort led, and 1877, to a hasty and ill-considered marriage to a young conservatory student.  Their union was brief and disastrous:  within weeks, Tchaikovsky suffered an almost complete nervous collapse and attempted suicide.  He saved himself by fleeing to Switzerland but was badly shaken by what had been a harrowing emotional crisis.  He wrote his Violin Concerto in the spring of 1878 and he says of the work ‘From the day I began to write it a favorable mood has not left me.  In such a spiritual state composition loses all aspect of work – it is a continuous delight.” ♥♪♫

Additional  comments:

“What incredible musical talent this man shared with the world and for many future generations, even through he must have had such a tormented life because of cultural and political opinions and laws thrust on him during his life time.  Obviously his music brought him great comfort and spiritual strength. Have we made progress? – yes, but still have a long ways to go.”