Decorating The Song 'Nutcracker' By Tchaikovsky

As a group we have chosen to dissect the work from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. The single movement we have chosen is Tableau, Bild 1- Scene: Decorating the Christmas Tree. The Nutcracker work as a whole is very uplifting and has a lot of energy. The tones of this piece are bright and cheerful and engage the audience through the powerful injections from different instrumental groups. The Nutcracker is accompanied by a ballet that performs to the music. Doing this gives the audience a way to see and feel the story the music is telling. Decorating the Christmas Tree gives a light and happy feel to it, so that when you hear it you are instantly drawn in and have a smile on your face. The mood of the song is light hearted. The title ‘Decorating the
As the melody changes it reminds you of placing ornaments on the tree. As the movement progresses we imagined the star being placed on top of the tree finishing the decorating and ending the song. The scenery imagined is that of family and friends joining in the celebration of decoration. The setting is not a single house but the town square, fresh snow on the ground as night approaches. This particular piece has this feeling of wonder as you listen to it, you are trying to imagine what they mean by “decorating the Christmas tree”, at each part of the song you begin to wonder what is supposed to happen on stage and what is being placed where and in what order. This piece gives waves of intensity accompanied by a light and fluttery background in many areas. With parts having only a few instruments playing at once you can tell that it is giving those instruments their time to showcase their sounds. When the orchestra plays together it becomes this beautiful piece where even though there are multiple instruments playing at once you can pick out each part and it feels perfectly
The strings are using this effect to simulate the twinkling lights being strung on the tree. During this piece, three types of notes are repeated and thrown in throughout the piece. There is a sequence of notes that are written as ‘short short long” played by the lighter strings that gives the piece a light and happy feel. While there is this light and airy feel on top, it is contrasted by the lower notes giving the main beat but feeling as though it wants to rush the sweet sounds produced by the lighter strings. At about nineteen seconds into the song a lovely harmony is introduced into the background by an oboe that is hard to hear but if it was not there that part would be lacking greatly. Towards the middle of the piece the clarinet and the bassoon have a back and forth conversation that interrupts each other with help from the piccolos. When it reaches the end of the song it has this darker feel to it, at some points almost sounding scary. If you close your eyes and listen to it, you could think of it as going through your Christmas decorations when suddenly you cannot seem to find an important decoration. Maybe it is a tree topper or a precious ornament given to you by a family member but it becomes dark and gives and feeling of worry. Then, shortly later it is resolved and goes back to the light upbeat song that it once