tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post3670548978000021857..comments2022-11-04T14:45:10.109+02:00Comments on No Official Umbrella - Glyn Jones: Glyn Idris Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01276455675793289410noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170660707641572171.post-7791962772187598842010-02-26T14:46:16.273+02:002010-02-26T14:46:16.273+02:00Tschaikovsky was apparently ordered to commit suic...Tschaikovsky was apparently ordered to commit suicide by his brother "officers", i.e. fellow graduates of the law school where he had studied. Being of the lesser nobility, he would have had to choose between a military career or one in the civil service, or lose his nobility. He chose the latter and held a post in the civil service, which carried an honorary military rank.<br />This suicide theory is old. I first came across it in an old book I read in the Bloemfontein public library, while waiting to change trains. That was in the late 1940s. The book was much older, 1930s at the latest.<br />I was struck by the fact that, in quoting his letters to his nephew, the book mentions a stay in Hamburg, where he says there was a lot of "the" at the opera house. It explained this was their word for homosexuality, but in French, thus "la". Bad translation. "The" sounds weird, but "that" is what it should have been: "a lot of that".<br />The Russian titles were formalised by Peter the Great and meant that even civilians wore military uniform above certain levels. There is a report of Goethe, having been granted the rank of Privy Councillor by the Grand Duke of Weimar-Eisenach, being ennobled by the Tsar at the same level, thus enabling him to wear the uniform of a Major General, which he actually did from time to time!<br />These fragments have I shored ...John in Brightonnoreply@blogger.com