All about the celesta

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hi, I'm Amanda Sewell, and I'm one of the producers of Classical Sprouts.

If you love this podcast, please donate to help sprouts continue to grow. Go to classicalsprouts.org/donate. Thanks, and enjoy the episode.

Kate Botello (0:25)

Something about that sounds magical. Hmm, I wonder why. Maybe it's because it's being played on the Celesta? We're listening to music that features this bell-like keyboard instrument and learning all about it today on... Classical Sprouts!

Welcome to Classical Sprouts, I'm your host, Kate Botello. Let's start off with a Quizlet question. Since our episode is about the Celesta, our Quizlet is going to be Celestial, or something from the sky or from outer space. What is the biggest star in our solar system? What's the biggest star in our solar system? You gotta guess? Well, stick around to the end of the episode to find out the answer. Today we're going to be learning about and listening to some pieces that feature an instrument called the Celesta. It was invented in 1886 by an organ maker in Paris, and it looks like a small upright piano. It's shaped like an organ, and it sounds like a glockenspiel. But it's the Celesta. Its name comes from the French word Celeste, which means heavenly. This keyboard's instrument's sound is light and twinkly, soft and dainty, but also loud and piercing enough to be heard from pretty far away, which would be super important when it's played with a full orchestra and all of those other instruments.

It has keys and is played just like a piano, but what's going on inside the instrument is a bit different. In traditional pianos, fingers press keys that trigger little hammers inside to hit strings at different strengths, helping create both nice soft notes and really loud notes.

Inside a Celesta, however, these little hammers hit little metal bars, kind of like a xylophone. And these bell-like sounds are perfect for music that feels a bit magical or dreamlike or otherworldly. One composer in particular helped get the Celesta to be super popular. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky first used the Celesta in his ballet, The Nutcracker. Now, the Celesta had just been invented a couple of years before, so he was using a super new instrument and helping make it popular. When The Nutcracker started getting famous and other ballet companies wanted to perform it, orchestras and opera houses started ordering Celestas, too. It's featured in the super famous dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. This twinkly, magical sounding instrument was perfect for depicting the magical ballerina fairy.

There's also a Celesta in one of the most famous and most memorable musical themes from the whole Harry Potter film series.

Pretty magical, huh? It's not just the Harry Potter theme, it's actually called Hedwig's theme. Hedwig is a beautiful white snowy owl that's Harry's companion throughout most of the series. She's loyal and kind and sticks by Harry even in the toughest of times. The opening melody of Hedwig's theme is played by a solo Celesta. After the Celesta solo, a flurry of violins enter, sounding almost like a flying owl before the brass section plays the main melody.

This theme is used throughout all eight movies in the series and feels quintessentially Harry Potter, capturing all of the magic and wonder, especially because of the Celesta's bell-like sound.

Okay, Sprouts, at the beginning of this episode, I asked you what the biggest star in our solar system is. It's a bit of a trick question because, desk roll, please, it's the sun. Our solar system only has one star, and it's the sun. All of the stars we can see in the night sky are actually in our Milky Way galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies in the whole universe, wow. Hey, do you know of any other pieces of music that feature the Celesta? Listen for it and send us a message at Classical Sprouts on Instagram when you hear one that features this magical instrument.

We also have a whole week of Interlochen Public Radio's weekday radio show, Kids Commute, that features the Celesta. If you ever want more amazing Classical music content for kids, I'm there five days a week, morning and afternoon. And our episodes can be found online too. Have an adult help you head to our website, classicalsprouts.org, where we have photos and videos of the Celesta, as well as a link to our Kids Commute Week, all about it. Also, be sure to follow Classical Sprouts wherever you find your podcasts, and find and follow us on Instagram, at ClassicalSprouts. Until next time, I'm your host, Kate Botello. Classical Sprouts is produced by Emily Duncan Wilson, with support from Amanda Sewell, and is produced by Interlochen Public Radio as a part of the NPR Podcast Network. Okay, I'm gonna fly on out of here like a ballerina fairy. Bye, Zs.