celesta

celesta, keyboard musical instrument patented in 1886 by Auguste Mustel of Paris. It consists of a set of steel bars fastened over wood resonators and struck by hammers operated from the keyboard. The compass is four octaves upward from middle C. Its tone is delicate and ethereal. Tchaikovsky, in his Nutcracker Suite, was one of the first composers to write for it.

The celesta (pronounced /səˈlɛstə/) or celeste (pronounced /səˈlɛst/) is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano (four- or five-octave) or of a large wooden music box (three-octave). The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates suspended over wooden resonators. One pedal is usually available to sustain or dampen the sound, on four or five octave models. The three-octave instruments do not have a pedal, due to their small "table-top" design. One of the most well-known works that makes use of the celesta is Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" from The Nutcracker.

The sound of the celesta is akin to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer and more subtle timbre. This quality gave rise to the instrument's name, celeste meaning "heavenly" in French.

The celesta is a transposing instrument; its parts are written an octave below concert pitch. The original French instrument had a five-octave range, but as the lowest octave was considered somewhat unsatisfactory, it was omitted from later models. The standard French four-octave instrument is now gradually being replaced in symphony orchestras by a larger, five-octave German model. Although treated as a member of the percussion section in orchestral terms, it is almost always played by a pianist, the part being normally written on two bracketed staves, called a grand staff.

History

The celesta was invented in 1886 by the Parisian harmonium builder Auguste Mustel. Mustel's father, Victor Mustel, had developed the forerunner of the celesta, the typophone or the dulcitone, in 1860. This consisted of struck tuning-forks instead of metal plates, but the sound produced was considered too small to be of use in an orchestral situation. Pyotr Tchaikovsky is cited as the first major composer to use this instrument in a symphonic work for full orchestra; it appears in his last symphonic poem The Voyevoda (Op. 78; 1891) and in passages from his last ballet The Nutcracker (Op. 71, 1892) and its derived Opus 71a, The Nutcracker Suite — most notably in the "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy." Ernest Chausson preceded him by employing the celesta in his incidental music for La tempête in 1888, written for a small orchestra. Bartók uses the instrument prominently in his 1936 Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. Gustav Holst also employed the instrument in his orchestral work "The Planets," with its most significant use in the final movement, "Neptune, The Mystic."

Use in jazz

Since its adoption by Earl Hines in 1928, the celesta has been used occasionally by jazz pianists as an alternative instrument. Fats Waller in the 1930's sometimes played the celesta with his right hand and the piano simultaneously with his left hand. Other notable jazz pianists who occasionally played the celesta include Willie "The Lion" Smith, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, and Herbie Hancock.

See also

• Dulcitone
• Glockenspiel, a mallet percussion instrument with a similar timbre
• Piano

References

• "Celesta", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001).
• "Celesta", The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, edited by Barry Kernfeld (London, 2002).

Notes

External links

• NPR - The Celesta: The Sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy