How Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Conquered Christmas

[@ScoreCircuit]

This is barely scratching the surface! We didn't even look at "Mother ginger and the polichinelles". I highly recommend anyone interested in orchestration listen to the whole thing with a score sometime!

[@zdzislawmeglicki2262]

Like Xmas pudding, I can't get enough of "The Nutcracker." Everything about it, music, choreography, dancers, stage and costumes, the magic storyline… it's all brilliant.

[@arthurfunk3104]

8:47 the stereo effect wasn't small. In Tchaikovsky's orchestra, the first and second violins were on opposite sides of the stage with violas and cellos in the middle. The stereo effect was quite pronounced back then. Tchaikovsky does the same thing in the fourth movement of his 6th symphony, giving first and second violins every other note of the theme.

[@AnyOldMusic]

The Nutcracker is loaded with certified bangers.

[@agustinresendiz5745]

Real

[@jackaguirre8576]

It's unfortunate that because this ballet made such a significant cultural impact, it became... mundane. We've ended up desensitized to the magic. Pretty much all of us grew up with this music repeated every year in every kind of context; in fact, I will always think of Tom and Jerry whenever I listen to anything Nutcracker-related. Thanks for giving us all a closer look into what made this piece so magical in the first place!

[@ScoreCircuit]

Absolutely! To be honest I didn't realize how amazing the Nutcracker was until a couple of years ago when one of my students asked if we could take a look at it in our orchestration classes. When we began looking at it in depth I was totally blown away by how sophisticated it was.

[@-MomentsMusicaux-]

This channel is so great. Keep them coming Alex! 🙌

[@benjaminwehtje7354]

I'm always impressed that's with his love for color Tchaikovsky never wrote for contrabassoon

[@tomaswestholm4993]

Do add on this idea of him using orchestration in this manner to create very memorable ideas. His ballets all have this quality, unlike his symphonic works. Personally I think it's because the scale of the ballets, they are much much longer than any of his symphonies and contain SO many little pieces. A symphony has 4 movements, with sometimes as little as 4-8 themes. The ballets on the other hand contain as you mention a lot of very memorable themes. I suspect that maybe his approach in instrumentation also made it possible to have such a long work of music be enjoyable and varied. if he applied his symphonic approach it would get dull. Maybe it even helped him compose the music by saying "This is the pizziccato and celesta piece" and he was more quickly able to work with this huge amount of music by setting clear limitations on the pieces. Atleast as a composer that is how I would go about it.

[@ScoreCircuit]

Absolutely! And you see this kind of thing quite regularly in the 20th century, but I think that Tchaikovsky was one of the first composers to truly understand the benefit of that sort of instrumentation approach.

[@MrHestichs]

​@@ScoreCircuit for sure. When you think about it it's really the same idea as creating a "hook" in a pop song. I've even seen studies saying timbre trumps harmony in importance for the audience to create something memorable. This kinda follows that idea.

[@teododorek]

Are you going to make an analysis of some Ravel's pieces?

[@N-JKoordt]

What a nice video you've made here. Lucky for me, I didn't year much Tchaikovsky growing up - so it's still quite sparkly to me.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

When it's presented in a suitable context, i.e. not a commercial, it keeps its enduring and endearing charm. Blame Western consumerist capitalism for turning the Nutcracker into trite garbage.

[@user-ji5yc4ii2f]

thank you, really great video, merry christmas!

[@valentinzwerschke]

I love your videos!

[@GreenTeaViewer]

Tchaikovsky is kind of not cool because he's so popular. If that makes sense. But he was definitely one of the greats, not just one of the popular greats.