May 7, 2010 -- A strange thing is happening today: Ballerinas are suddenly plie-ing across Google's homepage, and the top trending topic on Twitter is none other than Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

(SOUNDBITE OF PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY SONG, "MARCH OF THE TOY SOLDIERS") MONTAGNE: Though here we are with the "March Of The Toy Soldiers." That's pretty convincing. HOFFMAN: (Laughter).

Somehow, over the past half-century and with hardly anyone noticing, the 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has become as integral to the Fourth of July as George Washington ...

Almost 140 years ago, Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote a solo piano piece for every month of the year called The Seasons. Now saxophonist Ben Wendel has taken this famous body of ...

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a famous Russian composer of symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber and song is celebrating his 170th birthday today and Google has a special logo up for it.

Orchestral instrumental arrangements for The Nutcracker – Waltz of the Flowers; Russian Dance by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

In February 1877, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky claimed that he could compose only "weak and rotten little themelets." The next year he composed the brave and cheerful tunes of his Violin Concerto in D ...

In May of 1891, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was on his way to Niagara Falls when, changing trains in Utica, he composed a letter to his brother, Modest, that read in part: 'ginger bread and toy ...

In today's Qwiki, we will make our way from Thomas Edison to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, stopping in between at phonograph (above) and gramophone record. Photo: K. Ananthan ...

With Ken Russell’s madly over-the-top The Music Lovers reassuringly tucked in dusty attic corners after 52 years, a fresh and notably inspired take on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s fraught ...