Editing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (section)

===Aesthetic impact===
Maes maintains that, regardless of what he was writing, Tchaikovsky's main concern was how his music affected his listeners on an aesthetic level, at specific moments in the piece, and on a cumulative level once the music had finished. What his listeners experienced on an emotional or visceral level became an end in itself.<ref>Maes, 138.</ref> Tchaikovsky's focus on pleasing his audience might be considered closer to that of Mendelssohn or Mozart. Considering that he lived and worked in what was probably the last 19th-century feudal nation, the statement is not actually that surprising.<ref>Figes, 274; Maes, 139–141.</ref>

And yet, even when writing so-called 'programme' music, for example, his Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture, he cast it in sonata form. His use of stylized 18th-century melodies and patriotic themes was geared toward the values of Russian aristocracy.<ref name="maes137">Maes, 137.</ref> He was aided in this by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who commissioned ''The Sleeping Beauty'' from Tchaikovsky and the libretto for ''The Queen of Spades'' from Modest with their use of 18th-century settings stipulated firmly.<ref>Maes, 146, 152.</ref>{{refn|Vsevolozhsky originally intended the libretto for a now-unknown composer named Nikolai Klenovsky, not Tchaikovsky (Maes, 152).|group=n}} Tchaikovsky also used the [[polonaise]] frequently, the dance being a musical code for the [[Romanov dynasty]] and a symbol of Russian patriotism. Using it in the finale of a work could assure its success with Russian listeners.<ref>Figes, 274; Maes, 78–79, 137.</ref>