Romantic · 1892
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
P. I. TchaikovskyOp. 71a (Nutcracker Suite)
- Key
- Em
- Time
- 2/4
- Tempo
- ♩=76
- AO focus
- AO3
Incipit
Form
Character piece from the Nutcracker ballet suite. Celesta solo over pizzicato strings. Tchaikovsky chose the celesta — newly invented — for its 'crystalline' timbre.
Teaching points
- Timbre study: celesta is the soloist — discuss why Tchaikovsky picked a then-unknown instrument
- Pizzicato bass — string players pluck rather than bow, creating a delicate, mechanical pulse
- AO3: orchestration as character-painting; the Sugar Plum Fairy is rendered through tone colour
Full score ↓Public domain
Score: IMSLP (Jurgenson Urtext, public domain).