The Secret Rewrite Behind Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker

[@MarkWladika]

Thanks David, this was highly informative and entertaining. Don't hesitate talking about your own music, in fact we want more David David Bruuce!

[@cometsmith]

The quality on this video was so good! I appreciate the lack of AI Visuals/art :)

[@Tantacrul]

Very nice video my man. Very entertaining and well paced!

[@emilrostad9720]

Christmas came early, another David Bruce video just dropped!

[@hoangkimviet8545]

Tchaikovsky is the GOAT ballet composer.

[@laurajhball]

Wonderful to see Danielle Kuntz represented in this video. She is a true gift to composers aspiring to write for that magnificent instrument. Great video, David!

[@RileyMcGreevy]

After watching this I looked back at an unperformed orchestral piece I wrote over the summer that included a harp part. I made a few mistakes. While never having directly repeated notes, I for a lot of it had a pattern where they go back and forth between a note and then a new note. This is often in 16th notes and at some points it gets to be pretty fast tempos. I also have prolonged sections of writing a lot of notes in the low range, while using the previously mentioned pattern. I also have a few runs where they go one direct then and then go in the other direction leading to the same sort of problem without directly repeating the note. This would probably work better if I used the zigzagging glissando. I also have some big chords written all in one staff, but probably wound be ok if I split them up between the staves, to indicate that the hands should switch. Thanks for the informative video. Now I'll be able to write harp parts that the player will like, If I ever get them preformed.

[@wiesorix]

Always interesting to hear about the imperfections in the music of famous composers. Way too often the old composers are pictured as gods who just wrote perfect music, so this video is very refreshing!

[@jejunemoon]

David, this was enormously helpful and entertaining! Thanks so much for your cogent and thorough exploration of harp technique and writing. Very useful in my own writing!

[@OphatTaerattanachai]

"The Crescent Moon is a Dangerous Lunatic" from The North Wind was a Woman is one of my favorites from your album, North Wind was a Woman. It has a very good example of how to use the singer's voice in an unusual way as well. IV. from The Consolation of Rain in the same album is also awesome.

[@garyhoffman1]

This reminds me of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” that was re-arranged by Rimsky-Korsakov. I was familiar with the ubiquitous and famous R-K version when my music history teacher played a recording of Mussorgsky’s original that reappeared in the ‘60’s. MUCH darker.

[@sveinungnygaard1505]

Great video!

[@anthonyscolaro1044]

While the dual-action pedal harp was not "new" in the 1890s, its melodic and technical capabilities had only begun to be explored and developed at the time Tchaikovsky was writing his ballets. It's not surprising that he had a dim view of the harp's potential. Harpist-composers like Alphonse Hasselmans and his students such as Henriette Renie, Marcel Tournier, Carlos Salzedo, Marcel Grandjany, and Lily Laskine, as well as others, went so much further with the harp than anyone during Tchaikovsky's time could have imagined!

[@sashakindel3600]

I wish cross-strung harps were still common alongside double action pedal ones. Use the pedal harps for enharmonic effects and access to a wider variety of glissandos, and the cross-strung harps for high chromaticism.

[@noneyabid]

As a harpist, I feel SEEN!! One of the weirdest things about that cadenza is how out of character it is with the rest of the ballet (which, for the most part, lies very well under the fingers). To me, it's a big WTF!?! moment. It's like he momentarily forgot how to write for the harp. Dear composers, please don't be intimidated by the harp. Just reach out to a harpist and we will gladly offer assistance. If you don't know any, there are several Facebook groups you can join to post questions and a harem of harpists will leap in to assist...one of these groups is even moderated by the fabulous Danielle Kuntz (yes, the same one you just saw in the video). Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go sit in the corner and await that David Bruce harp concerto. {hint, hint}

[@felicity1877]

Well, this was interesting, but not a surprise actually. There are so many changes with ballet scores . Just like the pas d'action (13.V) in Swan Lake, the original ending of the piece is rarely heard in stage productions, but traditionally cut. Ballet music is such a complicated thing, and same music sometimes used for different situations. But interesting to learn this detail!

[@traviswichtendahl5648]

Mistakes with harp writing? Saint-Saens would never! But on a serious note, as someone who studied violin as a kid, I always found Tchaikovsky's writing for _that_ instrument to be natural to play, even when "difficult." Obviously, composers had much better resources for writing for violin than harp. But even compared to his contemporaries, Tchaikovsky's violin writing feels nice to play.

[@alessandropalazzani]

Non dimentichiamo che il suono delicato dell'arpa viene facilmente coperto in situazioni orchestrali dense e dal volume importante. Quindi evitiamo di scrivere passaggi difficili in punti in cui non verranno mai uditi.

[@N-JKoordt]

Harpocalypse - oh the horror!! 😧

[@andjamin]

A harpogynist would be a seizer of women. A hater of harps would be a misolyrist or misocitharist.

[@ginemginem]

15:16 wouldn't a "harpogynist" be a person that harps on women?

[@DBruce]

Yeah sorry I am dumb

[@CalendulaF]

Harpogynist 😂

[@jonadabtheunsightly]

Obviously, that's someone who believes the harp is a women's instrument.

[@Physwe]

But I like the original phrases better :c

[@HunterTheCat1812]

Did you really have to use ChatGPT? Really?

[@kjdude8765]

To translate a passage of Russian? What other option would you suggest?

[@jonadabtheunsightly]

Translation is actually one of the most suitable tasks you can assign to an LLM. They're actively worse at most of the things people ask them to do.

[@HunterTheCat1812]

@@kjdude8765 Do better at researching

[@CloneHat]

All this AI crap. Get me out of here!