Celesta
From AudioLexic
The Celesta is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates suspended over wooden resonators. There is a pedal to sustain or dampen the sound.
The sound of the celesta is akin to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer timbre. This quality gave rise to the instrument's name, celeste meaning "heavenly" in French.
The celesta is a transposing instrument, sounding one octave higher than written. The original French instrument had a five-octave range, but as the lowest octave was considered somewhat unsatisfactory, it was omitted from later models. Interestingly 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 usually played by a pianist, the part being normally written on two bracketed staves.
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[edit] History
The celesta was invented in 1889 by the Paris is an 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.
[edit] Works featuring the celesta
The celesta, as with most orchestral instruments, is mainly found in classical music, as well as in many film scores. The following is a list of major and minor works that feature the instrument:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) (1791) (the celesta is often used instead of the glockenspiel for the opera)
- Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina (1872) (the celesta is used in the orcestration by Dimitri Shostakovich of 1959)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (1892) (Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy most well known work for the celesta) and The Voyevoda (1891)
- Ernest Chausson: La tempête (1888)
- Charles Widor: La Korrigane (1880)
- Richard Strauss: Salome (1904), Der Rosenkavalier (1911) and Ariadne auf Naxos (Ariadne of Naxos) (1912)
- Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (1906) and Symphony No. 8 'Symphony of a Thousand' (1907)
- Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911)
- Claude Debussy: Jeux (1913)
- Giacomo Puccini: Tosca (1900) and Turandot (1926)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: Flos Campi (1925)
- Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé (1912), Bolero (1928) and Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) (1911-1912)
- Gustav Holst: Venus and Neptune, from The Planets (1917)
- Arthur Honegger: Le Roi David (1921)
- Alban Berg: Wozzeck (1922)
- Ottorino Respighi: Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome) (1924)
- Gottfried Huppertz: Metropolis (film score) (1927)
- George Gershwin: An American in Paris (1928)
- Ferde Grofe: "On the Trail" from the Grand Canyon Suite (1931)
- Leos Janacek: Káťa Kabanová (1921)
- Heitor Villa-Lobos: Toccata, from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2 (1933)
- Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (1936), Symphony No. 11 (1957), Symphony No. 15 (1972), and Cello Concerto No. 1 (1959)
- Béla Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1937)
- Olivier Messian: Trois Petites liturgies de la Présence Divine (1943-44) and Turangalila Symphony (2 celesta are required) (1949)
- Sergei Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kije (either celesta or piano) (1933), Symphony No. 6 (1947) and Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1952)
- Leonard Bernstein: Symphony No. 2, 'The Age of Anxiety', (after W. H. Auden) (1949 and revised in 1965)
- Jonathan Dove: Flight (1998)
- John Williams: Hedwig's Theme, from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
- Guto Puw: Dawns y Sêr (Dance of Stars) (2007)
[edit] In popular music
The celesta has also featured in popular music here and there since the mid twentieth century:
- Thelonious Monk: "Pannonica", from Brilliant Corners (1957)
- Buddy Holly: "Everyday" (1958)
- The Beach Boys" "Girl Don't Tell Me" (1965)
- Mimi & Richard Fariña: "Children of Darkness" from Reflections in a Crystal Wind (1965)
- Herbie Hancock: on Freddie Hubbard's "True Colors", from Blue Spirits (1966)
- The Velvet Underground: "Sunday Morning", from The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
- The Mothers Of Invention: " Absolutely Free", from We're Only In It For The Money (1968)
- Pink Floyd "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (1968)
- Nick Drake: "Northern Sky", from "Bryter Layter" (1970)
- U2: "Bad" from 1984's The Unforgettable Fire
- The Stooges: "Gimmie Danger" and "Penetration" from Raw Power (1973)
- McCoy Tyner: "Once I Loved, Land of the Lonely" from Trident (1975)
- The Beatles: "Real Love" (1977, 1996)
- Eels: "Flyswatter" from Daisies of the Galaxy (2000); "Trouble With Dreams" from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005)
- Björk: "Scatterheart" from Selmasongs (2000); "Sun In My Mouth", "Harm Of Will" and It's Not Up To You" from Vespertine (2001); "Mother Heroic" from Family Tree (2002)
- Death Cab for Cutie: "Title and Registration" from Transatlanticism (2003)
- The Polyphonic Spree: "Hold Me Now", "Lithium" (Nirvana cover) (2004)
- Sigur Rós: "Sé Lest" and "Heysátan" from Takk (2005)
[edit] See also
- Rhodes piano, an electric instrument similar to the celesta
- Dulcitone
[edit] External links
- NPR - The Celesta: The Sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy
- Comprehensive article with photos, history etc.
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