There are two things under our tree this year that shouldn't have anything to do Christmas, but do. The snowman is representative of winter, which as everyone knows, begins a few days before Christmas. But how many people realize that the actual birth of Jesus didn't take place during the calendar month of December, or during the season of winter at all? I myself was surprised to learn that it does in fact snow in Jerusalem, but it probably didn't do so on the night that Christ was born. The nutcracker toy pictured above was a Christmas gift from my old college roommate and his wife, but it has no more to do with the true meaning of Christmas than the snowman does. It's great that both decorations are the same height and they're both equally cute. Now come to think of it, the cuteness factor must be why a nutcracker toy was the preferred Christmas gift for Marie (not Clara) in the
short story, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816), by German Romantic author, E.T.A. Hoffman. Having a Christmas party in the story was just a convenient way of getting a toy soldier into the hands of a little girl before he transformed into a human prince and took her on adventures in the Land of Sweets. But
The Nutcracker ballet (1892) and its music would never have become the holiday staples that they are without that Christmas party in Act I. Furthermore, if not for the success that Walt Disney had with his not very Christmasy
movie, Fantasia (1940), which included
The Nutcracker Suite, William Christensen might not have brought the first complete performance of the ballet to the U.S. four years later. I learned that last tidbit from my wife, who once danced with Ballet West, the company that William Christensen founded another four years after he premiered
The Nutcracker with the San Francisco Ballet. Anyway, my wife thinks my Kirov Orchestra CD is too fast to dance to, but the reason I bought it was because it was the only complete performance available on a single disc. You can easily fit
The Nutcracker Suite on one CD, but that's only the eight numbers that Tchaikovsky selected for an earlier concert performance: the "Miniature Overture" (Christmasy to me), "March" (even Christmasier), "Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy" (the Christmasiest, in my opinion), "Russian Dance" (Trepak), "Arabian Dance" (Coffee), "Chinese Dance" (Tea), "Dance of the Reed-Flutes" (Marzipan), and
"Waltz of the Flowers" (my favorite on the Suite). What's missing though are my absolute personal favorites: the grand Journey Through the Snow (Scene 8), the even grander "Arrival of Clara and the Prince" (Scene 11), the grandest "Pas de Deux" ever (Scene 14), Polichinelles ("Mother Ginger and Her Children"), and finally,
the favorite of my many favorites, "Spanish Dance" (Chocolate). If classical music's not your thing, check out Duke Ellington's jazz version of the "Overture" (1960), Trans-Siberian Orchestra's acoustic guitar on "The Silent Nutcracker" (1996), or D-Pulse's house remix, "Acid Dance of the Plum Fairy" (2005),
There are two things under our tree this year that shouldn't have anything to do Christmas, but do. The snowman is representative of winter, which as everyone knows, begins a few days before Christmas. But how many people realize that the actual birth of Jesus didn't take place during the calendar month of December, or during the season of winter at all? I myself was surprised to learn that it does in fact snow in Jerusalem, but it probably didn't do so on the night that Christ was born. The nutcracker toy pictured above was a Christmas gift from my old college roommate and his wife, but it has no more to do with the true meaning of Christmas than the snowman does. It's great that both decorations are the same height and they're both equally cute. Now come to think of it, the cuteness factor must be why a nutcracker toy was the preferred Christmas gift for Marie (not Clara) in the short story, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816), by German Romantic author, E.T.A. Hoffman. Having a Christmas party in the story was just a convenient way of getting a toy soldier into the hands of a little girl before he transformed into a human prince and took her on adventures in the Land of Sweets. But The Nutcracker ballet (1892) and its music would never have become the holiday staples that they are without that Christmas party in Act I. Furthermore, if not for the success that Walt Disney had with his not very Christmasy movie, Fantasia (1940), which included The Nutcracker Suite, William Christensen might not have brought the first complete performance of the ballet to the U.S. four years later. I learned that last tidbit from my wife, who once danced with Ballet West, the company that William Christensen founded another four years after he premiered The Nutcracker with the San Francisco Ballet. Anyway, my wife thinks my Kirov Orchestra CD is too fast to dance to, but the reason I bought it was because it was the only complete performance available on a single disc. You can easily fit The Nutcracker Suite on one CD, but that's only the eight numbers that Tchaikovsky selected for an earlier concert performance: the "Miniature Overture" (Christmasy to me), "March" (even Christmasier), "Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy" (the Christmasiest, in my opinion), "Russian Dance" (Trepak), "Arabian Dance" (Coffee), "Chinese Dance" (Tea), "Dance of the Reed-Flutes" (Marzipan), and "Waltz of the Flowers" (my favorite on the Suite). What's missing though are my absolute personal favorites: the grand Journey Through the Snow (Scene 8), the even grander "Arrival of Clara and the Prince" (Scene 11), the grandest "Pas de Deux" ever (Scene 14), Polichinelles ("Mother Ginger and Her Children"), and finally, the favorite of my many favorites, "Spanish Dance" (Chocolate). If classical music's not your thing, check out Duke Ellington's jazz version of the "Overture" (1960), Trans-Siberian Orchestra's acoustic guitar on "The Silent Nutcracker" (1996), or D-Pulse's house remix, "Acid Dance of the Plum Fairy" (2005),
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