- Tchaikovsky: ``Nutcracker'' Suite
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
1840-1893. Suite from the ballet The
Nutcracker, Op. 71a. Completed 1892, first performance
March 19,
in St. Petersburg. Scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling
piccolo, 2
oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2
bassoons, 4
horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba,
cymbals,
triangle, tambourine, glockenspiel, tympani, harp,
celesta, and
strings.
It may come as a surprise to many to learn that Pyotr
(Peter)
Tchaikovsky, one of the best-loved composers of all time,
began
his adult life in one of the least glamorous occupations
known
to man: government clerk. History has not recorded his
exact
assignments, however, for the man was so indifferent to
his job
that he later forgot exactly what it was that he had
done! The
young official had continued his youthful interest in
music, but
declared at the age of 21 that ``even if I actually had
any talent,
it can hardly be developed now.'' It is indeed fortunate
for
posterity that he turned out to be wrong! Only a year
after he
wrote these words, he became disillusioned by an
``unjust''
promotion over his head and entered the new Conservatory
of the
Russian Society of Music.
Some thirty years later, in December of 1891, the
now-successful
composer's new opera Pique Dame ( The Queen of Spades) so
impressed
the Imperial Opera Directorate that he was promptly given
a commission
to write both a one-act opera and a ballet for the
following season.
The ballet was to be based on E.T.A. Hoffman's story
``The Nutcracker
and the Mouse King,'' a selection which Tchaikovsky
disliked (the
subject had been forced upon him). Nevertheless, he began
work in
early 1892 before departing on a successful tour of the
United States,
and completed the music later that summer, though he
disparaged it as
``infinitely poorer than The Sleeping Beauty,'' a verdict
with which
- subsequent ballet-goers have most
emphatically and consistently
disagreed.
An interesting footnote to the score of The Nutcracker is
the famous
use of the celesta in the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy.
Tchaikovsky
had discovered the newly-invented instrument just before
departing
for the U.S., and was immediately captivated by its
``divinely
beautiful tone.'' He arranged to have one sent to Russia
secretly,
because he was ``afraid Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov may
get hold of
it and use the unusual effect before me.'' He needn't
have worried,
though, for although many other composers have written
for Auguste
Mustel's uniquely beautiful creation, none has been able
to duplicate
the magic achieved by this most passionate of all
composers in his
most popular work.
© 1995, Geoff Kuenning
Claremont, CA