Music is intriguing and requires artistic mastery of certain musical styles, instruments, melody, harmony and rhythm. The musical piece “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is very unique because of the romantic ideals and style used by Tchaikovsky. The piece uses classical music style that was an expression of a romantic musical evolution (Greskovic 508). Peter Tchaikovsky was one of the composers of romantic music during the early 18th century through to the 19th century.
“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” plays on a medium tempo that makes it possible to create a romantic atmosphere that is relaxed and soothing. Listening to the piece makes one feel warm inside because the music has woodwinds, strings, celesta and brass section as the instrumentals. The celesta produces an elfin sound that creates evocative moods that animate but also regulate the audience as well as the ballerina. The combination of these instrumentals creates a powerful aura of romance that convinces a listener that romance gives meaning to life. The piece creates the most amazing combination of moods from exotic, elegant, graceful, and innocent to whimsical, sweet, dreamy and buoyant. It has a flow that automatically creates a romantic atmosphere especially as one transcends from note to note with the rise and fall of the tone of the music. The movement from one mood to the next within the short duration of the pieces leaves a listener with the tingling sensation of the periphery of romance (Greskovic 247).
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A ballerina dances to the music and this reflects that it is music for the rich class of people. These people have a culture that appreciates the unique reconciliation of sounds that create beautiful romantic music. They pay attention to every detail in a music piece. “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is a ballet piece that tells the story of how she charms a prince in a Magic Castle. The story itself is a romantic one and thus brings out the romantic heart of its composer, Peter Tchaikovsky, and also reaches out to the audience.
A flute plays the melody for the piece then an English horn and clarinet join to add a counterpoint. The melody repeats with a counterpoint but changes to a minor code. The melody plays through the first minutes of the piece with alternations where the trumpets play it in the minor code, followed by the flute melody in the major code. The music begins with low pizzicato strings but soon sets the beat in duple meter then the celesta plays the melody with a bass clarinet playing the descending scale. The tempo of the music increases from the initial medium tempo together with the scale. Glissandos and harmony build the expectation to return to the opening melody and then the celesta returns to this opening melody and the piece ends. The dynamics of this piece are mind-blowing as they use crescendo and decrescendo to build expectations of the audience as well as bass to create timbre.
The musical piece expressed romanticism to the entire world. It brought out its important focus on freedom, emotion and imagination. Using ballet to express romantic ideals became acceptable among the elite of the 18th century. The piece “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” shows the same focal points in the rhythm of its music. The building crescendo and decrescendo create the feeling of freedom, especially as one rises with the scale of the music. The glissandos that build the expectations of the opening harmony as well as listening to the actual opening harmony towards the end of the piece engages ones emotions tremendously and creates the feeling of freedom as the piece comes to an end.
Romanticism marked an era of expression of love, emotion and imagination through literature and music as well. Other than poems and love stories, ballet music was a genre that introduced use of music to tell those stories. Despite being a luxury for the elite, ballet gradually travelled across the globe and individuals learnt how to use music and dance to tell love stories and express the strong emotions that came with it. “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is one of the pieces that told these stories and the costumes, paintings and actual ballerina brought out every aspect of romanticism. It is also a piece that showed the culture of the people at the time as well as romantic ideals and musical style (Greskovic 86).
The piece also shows the aspects of romanticism. Imagination is clear in the captivating rhythm of the music as well as the creation of one scene after the other. Emotion is in the shift from one mood to the other that leaves the listener reeling from the effect of these emotions and moving with the music even before one mood fades fully. Myth and symbolism is also very clear in this piece with the fairy representing the myth of beings with mystical powers. The whole story of the piece symbolizes love and romance and leaves room for curiosity and suspense about the eventuality of the couple
- Greskovic, Robert. Ballet 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving the Ballet. Pompton Plains, N.J: Limelight Editions, 2005. Print.
