Suite, 'The Nutcracker' Ballet
'I have discovered a new instrument in Paris,' wrote Tchaikovsky to his publisher when lie was writing his Nutcracker Ballet - 'a new instrument, something between a piano and a glockenspiel, with a divinely beautiful tone. I want to introduce this into the Ballet. The instrument is called the "Celesta Mustel."'

This instrument is now known simply as the Celesta, and is often to be seen on concert platforms. It looks rather like a harmonium, but it is really a kind of small piano, with little steel bars instead of wires. Its high-pitched tone is very silvery and liquid.

The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, in which Tchaikovsky introduced the Celesta, makes delightful use of the instrument.

The whole of the Movements are as follows:-
First comes the Overture - remarkable in that no 'Cellos or Double Basses are used in it.
Then comes a set of six short dances - 'Characteristic Dances,' Tchaikovsky calls them, and the title is very apt; they are all vivid, and some arc very amusing.
First of all there is a humorously-formal March.
Next we hear the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - the very essence of grace and daintiness.
The third Dance is a short whirling Russian Trepak.
Now we have a languorous, mysterious Arab Dance.
After the Arab Dance comes a very vivid suggestion of an odd, whimsical Chinese Dance.
The last of these Dances is a pleasant little Reed-Pipe Dance...
The Suite ends with a loud piece, the lively Valse of the Flowers.