Celesta

For the computer software, see Celestia.

Celesta

Celesta or celeste
Keyboard instrument
Inventor(s)	Victor Mustel, Auguste Mustel
Developed	1860, 1886

The celesta ( /sɨˈlɛstə/) or celeste ( /sɨˈlɛst/) 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. On four or five octave models one pedal is usually available to sustain or dampen the sound. The three-octave instruments do not have a pedal because of their small "table-top" design. One of the best-known works that makes use of the celesta is Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from The Nutcracker.

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

The celesta is a transposing instrument; it sounds an octave higher than the written pitch. The original French instrument had a five-octave range, but because 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 it is a member of the percussion family, in orchestral terms it is more properly considered as a member of the keyboard section and usually played by a keyboardist. The celesta part is normally written on two bracketed staves, called a grand staff.

History

The celesta was invented in 1886 by Parisian harmonium builder Auguste Mustel. His 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 usually cited as the first major composer to use this instrument in a work for full symphony orchestra. He first used it in his symphonic poem The Voyevoda, Op. posth. 78, premiered in November 1891. The following year, he used the celesta in passages in his ballet The Nutcracker (Op. 71, 1892), most notably in the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", which also appears in the derived Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a. However, Ernest Chausson preceded Tchaikovsky by employing the celesta in December 1888 in his incidental music, written for a small orchestra, for La tempête (a French translation by Maurice Bouchor of Shakespeare's The Tempest). The celesta is also notably used in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6, particularly in the 1st, 2nd and 4th movements, in his Symphony No.8 and Das Lied von der Erde. Gustav Holst employed the instrument in his 1918 orchestral work The Planets, particularly in the final movement, "Neptune, the Mystic". It also features prominently in Béla Bartók's 1936 Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. George Gershwin included a celesta solo in the score to An American in Paris.

The celesta is used in many 20th century opera scores, including Puccini's Tosca (1900),^{[citation needed]} Ravel's L'heure espagnole (1911),^{[citation needed]} Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (1912),^{[citation needed]} and Die Frau ohne Schatten (1918),^{[citation needed]} while "an excellent example of its beauty when well employed," is the Silver Rose scene in his Der Rosenkavalier (1911), Busoni's Arlecchino (1917) and Doktor Faust (1925),^{[citation needed]} Orff's Der Mond (1939),^{[citation needed]} Menotti's Amelia Goes to the Ball (1937),^{[citation needed]} Britten's The Turn of the Screw (1954) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960),^{[citation needed]} Susa's Transformations (1973),^{[citation needed]} and Philip Glass' Akhnaten (1984)^{[citation needed]}.

Use in other musical genres

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 1930s 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 Meade "Lux" Lewis, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra, and Herbie Hancock. A celesta provides the introduction to a song Louis Armstrong recorded for RCA entitled "Someday You'll Be Sorry", and is featured prominently throughout the song.^{[citation needed]} The instrument is used prominently in the introduction to the 1928 recording by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five of Basin Street Blues.^{[citation needed]}

Rock and pop

While the celesta is not overly common in popular music, it has been used now and again. A number of recordings made by Frank Sinatra for Columbia in the 1940s feature the instrument (namely "I'll Never Smile Again"), as do many of his albums recorded for Capitol in the 1950s (In the Wee Small Hours, Close to You and Songs for Swingin' Lovers). Others artists who have recorded with the instrument include Buddy Holly ("Everyday"), The Beatles ("Baby It's You"), The Beach Boys ("Girl Don't Tell Me"^{[citation needed]}), The Velvet Underground ("Sunday Morning"), The Stooges ("Penetration") and Pink Floyd ("The Gnome" and the re-recorded version of "Mother", used in the movie The Wall^{[citation needed]}). The Icelandic singer Björk commissioned an instrument, dubbed the 'Gameleste', a hybrid between a Gamelan and a Celeste for her 2011 album Biophilia.^{[citation needed]}

Soundtrack

The celesta has been commonplace in cinema for decades. In addition to supplementing numerous soundtrack orchestrations for films of the 30s, 40s and 50s, the celesta has occasionally been spotlighted to invoke a whimsical air. Celesta provides the signature opening of "Pure Imagination", a well-known song (sung by Gene Wilder) from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.^{[citation needed]} Composer John Williams's scores for the first three Harry Potter films make prominent use of the instrument, particularly in the first two films' frequent statements of "Hedwig's Theme."^{[citation needed]}

The theme song to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, "Won't You be My Neighbor?", begins with a dreamy sequence on celesta.^{[citation needed]} The song was written by Fred Rogers and played by Johnny Costa.

The original version of the familiar "Think!" theme from the popular game show Jeopardy! has a celesta lead in the first verse.^{[citation needed]} It was composed by Merv Griffin, and it was used during the Art Fleming era and the first thirteen seasons of the current Alex Trebek syndicated version.

See also

• Dulcitone
• Glockenspiel
• Electric Piano
• 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).

External links

• NPR - The Celesta: The Sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy
• "Songs for Celesta", by Marc Sanchez