célesta

The celesta was invented in 1886 by Auguste Mustel, a Parisian harmonium maker, and he named it célesta from the French céleste, meaning 'heavenly.' The instrument uses felt hammers to strike metal plates suspended over wooden resonators, producing a bell-like tone that is softer and more ethereal than a glockenspiel. Mustel patented it and began selling it from his workshop on the Rue du Faubourg-du-Temple.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky encountered the celesta during a visit to Paris in 1891 and was immediately captivated. He wrote to his publisher Pyotr Jurgenson, asking him to acquire one, and specifically requested secrecy: he wanted to use the instrument in his ballet The Nutcracker before other composers discovered it. His letter read, in part, 'I do not want to show it to anyone, for I am afraid that Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov might get wind of it and use the unusual effect before me.'

The Nutcracker premiered on December 18, 1892, at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. The celesta's first major orchestral appearance was the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy—a solo so perfectly matched to the instrument that the two have been inseparable ever since. The sound is recognizable to anyone who has heard it: crystalline, chiming, slightly mysterious.

After Tchaikovsky, the celesta entered the standard orchestra. Béla Bartók used it in Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta in 1936. Gustav Holst scored it in The Planets. John Williams used it in the Harry Potter film scores to create the sound of magic. The instrument Mustel named 'heavenly' has lived up to its name for over a century—it is the sound films and ballets reach for when they need wonder.