Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy By Tchaikovsky Analysis

Even though the ballet is popular now, especially during the holiday season, its initial production was not a success—aside from the suite that Tchaikovsky took from the ballet for concert purposes. This suite, known as The Nutcracker Suit, was an instant hit and it includes eight pieces from the ballet, including The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy . Of the eight pieces The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is the most famous piece in the whole ballet . The reason the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy became instantaneously famous was due to the way it showcased the newly invented instrument the celesta . In the first section of this assignment a bell sound was often mentioned, this sound was actually from the celesta, a keyboard percussion instrument . The celesta was invented in 1886 in Paris, which was where Tchaikovsky was introduced to the sound . The name of the instrument came from its “celestial” sound and it is because of this distinct tinkling noise Tchaikovsky chose it to represent the sugar plum fairy in his piece . He described this instrument to have a “heavenly sweet sound” and because of its timbre, he found it befitting for the solo piece that focused on a sweet character such as the sugar plum fairy . In the ballet the sugar plum fairy is the kind ruler of the Land of Sweet, who also glitters with sugar; the details of this character are what inspired Tchaikovsky to use the

Orchestrally, it is scored for strings, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, two flutes, one piccolo, two oboes, one English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four French horns, two trumpets, three trombones, two harps, and one cimbasso. Musically, this opera is very directly vigorous. It sticks to the widely used concepts of arias, duets, finales, and choruses. His fine music often excused the glaring faults in character and plot lines.

WTO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PS8-_5UFw) begins as a pastoral piece, with flutes, clarinets and oboes taking turns with the melody, embellished by trills. A triangle provides an almost imperceptible ringing, reminiscent of dew shimmering on grass. Suddenly, at about 2:40, the orchestra erupts with the familiar "Lone Ranger" theme. Brass, woodwinds, strings and percussion convey a sense of drama and urgency. At about four minutes, the strings carry the melody and the volume drops, building again within the next minute as all instruments of the orchestra contribute to the sound and excitement. The piece continues to building in volume and tempo until its conclusion. It is very similar in this way to the Overture 1812, creating a military mood with tempo, rhythms and instrumentation.

While observing this dance ballet, there were many things that caught my attention. First, the theater itself was extremely large, and the stage itself was big, and the dancers had plenty of room to move across the stage and perform their routines. There were many dancers, and they all played various roles that ranged from Clara, Fritz, Herr Drosselmeyer, the Rat King, the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and many more. All of the performers wore vivid costumes

The music played throughout all of the concerts adhered to be diverse. The instruments, the individuals performing, and the conductor all proved to be outstanding. The concerts proved to be interesting as I witnessed them, first hand.

Some of the movements executed by the dancers are similar to those executed by dancers in a stepping performance and also in a tap dance presentation. This presentation falls into the group of the new trends of modern dance, in which the choreographer are taking more and more liberty with various dance combinations, and including strong messages in their work. I would definitely attend other dance performance, not only from this company, but also by other companies; and would also recommend this performance, especially to people going through a dark period in their life. This performance finished convincing me that dance is surely the most communicative of the art forms, and that a single presentation can convey more than one

“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ is the most well-known piece from The Nutcracker. The music starts out very slowly and softly, but gets louder so that the song is crescendo and decrescendo constantly repeating the main melody throughout the piece. The music is both homophonic and polyphonic and has varied dynamic with a lot of expression. Tchaikovsky does a wonderful job of constructing the piece to match the gentle and delicate Sugar Plum Fairy and the dreamlike state of the ballet. The dance that accompanies the piece is one of the most technically challenging dances of the ballet and is always danced by the prima ballerina, principal female dancer. I think the musical piece became as popular it is due to Tchaikovsky using it to introduce the celesta that creates the enchanting, trickling sound of the piece and because the dance to it is very difficult and is often a main feature of the ballet. It is understandable why there are so many transcriptions of it

In my opinion, that is the reason why we listened to this piece of music. To try and be exposed to a work that has a large supply of instruments and a choir at the same time. From listening to it, they did a very good job of incorporating the choir with the music. The choir was also very synchronized as well. They did not get too high or too low as a group. One of the differences with this piece of music is they incorporate different types of music and the choir sings from the very beginning. One thing that was very enjoyable was how strong and powerful the choir sang at the end of the piece. Once, again, the most difficult thing about listening to this piece was the lack of understanding any of the

Overall I actually enjoyed the piece more than I thought I would. It had a nice tempo that allowed listeners to be engaged and even when the volume dropped the violins played a softer texture as if they were inviting you to listen closer and pay more attention. Generally, the theme was also joyful which I took notice of and enjoyed. Lastly, I didn’t notice any musical mistakes, and thought the piece was well played.

Rudolpho begins to walk away, but Mimi beckons him with an out of place Ascolta, ascolta, or wait, wait and gives instructions of trinkets she would like him to gather. These trinkets include a gold ring and prayer book she has left in a drawer, that she wishes Rudolpho to wrap up and she will send someone to gather them. The score has a dissonant sense at the beginning of each phrase to show Mimi’s sadness, but in a curious contrast staccato arpeggios occur at the end of each phrase once more reminding all that

Cinderella’s story is undoubtedly the most popular fairy tale all over the world. Her fairy tale is one of the best read and emotion filled story that we all enjoyed as young and adults. In Elizabeth Pantajja’s analysis, Cinderella’s story still continues to evoke emotions but not as a love story but a contradiction of what we some of us believe. Pantajja chose Cinderella’s story to enlighten the readers that being good and piety are not the reason for Cinderella’s envious fairy tale. The author’s criticism and forthright analysis through her use of pathos, ethos, and logos made the readers doubt Cinderella’s character and question the real reason behind her marrying the prince. Pantajja claims that

I feel that the fourteen members of chamber orchestra and the two vocalists did an outstanding job. This piece was well put together. I loved the harmony that was brought forth between the orchestra and the vocalists. The two vocalists a tenor known as Paul Groves and a soprano known as Anna Larson, did a beautiful job staying in tune. The way that their voices went back and forth in harmony was just beautiful.

To begin, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Going into it I didn’t expect it to be as entertaining as it was.

5. The concert environment was quite new to my experience than movie theaters and other modern concert (the ones with no seats). The room was as big as the theatre, yet it doesn’t stink like spilled drinks and snacks. I find the concert when it plays the intro very nostalgic as if I was able to afford the seat in the 1800s. The musical instruments in the concert, of course, were more realistic than the speakers because I can hear the true work. If I can, I should go to the concert like this more often and maybe the ones where I can feel “classy”.

This past weekend I attended The Nutcracker by The Richmond Ballet. I actually enjoyed it a lot. The show over all was very entertaining and probably the best Nutcracker performance I have ever seen compared to the ones I’ve been to in the past. This was also my first time seeing anything performed by The Richmond Ballet. The music was very nice and the stage was very bright and lively. The costumes that the dancers wore were amazing, some were elaborate and detailed while others were as simple as dresses. The dancers definitely used the stage to its entirety. There were a number of leaps and lifts along with a lot of group pieces. There was a great use of levels throughout the entire show. This was a huge universal dance experience due to