The celesta for kids: the instrument behind the Sugar Plum Fairy

The celesta is a keyboard instrument that sounds like small, soft bells. It looks like a little upright piano. Its most famous music is the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker. Many children know its sound from the first notes of the Harry Potter films.

Quick facts

• Family: percussion, played from a keyboard
• Invented: in Paris, by Auguste Mustel, who patented it in 1886
• The name: from the French word for “heavenly”
• Who plays it: a pianist or a percussionist in the orchestra
• Best first piece: “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” by Tchaikovsky

How it works

Open the lid of a piano, and you find strings. Open a celesta, and you find a row of small steel bars.

Each key moves a soft hammer covered in felt. The hammer strikes one steel bar. Under each bar sits a wooden box that makes the sound fuller and rounder. Short bars play the high notes, and longer bars play the low ones.

The player uses a pedal to let the notes ring on, as a pianist does.

The celesta is quiet. It cannot be heard over a whole orchestra playing at full strength, so composers save it for soft, magical moments.

Is it a keyboard or a percussion instrument?

It is both. The sound comes from hammers hitting metal, so the celesta belongs to the percussion family. It has a keyboard, so a pianist often plays it. In the orchestra it sits at the back or the side, near the harp and the percussion.

A glockenspiel has metal bars too, and the player strikes them with mallets held in the hands. Its sound is brighter and sharper. The celesta’s felt hammers and wooden boxes make a softer tone.

Tchaikovsky’s secret

Tchaikovsky heard the new instrument in Paris in 1891, on his way to America. He was planning The Nutcracker at the time, and he wanted a sound for the Sugar Plum Fairy that nobody in Russia had heard.

He asked his publisher to buy a celesta and ship it to Russia. He also asked him to keep it hidden. He did not want other Russian composers to hear it and use it before he did.

The plan worked. Audiences in St. Petersburg first heard the celesta in his music in 1892.

Pieces to hear

“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” by Tchaikovsky. The celesta plays the tune over plucked strings. A bass clarinet slides down between the phrases.

“Hedwig’s Theme,” by John Williams. The opening tune of the Harry Potter films is a celesta sound, played alone before the orchestra joins.

“Neptune” from The Planets, by Holst. The celesta glitters with two harps in the last and strangest of the planets.

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, by Bartók. The instrument has its name in the title. The slow third movement is good spooky listening for older children.

Things to do together

Find the celesta. Play “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” Your child raises a hand each time the bell sound plays.

Celesta or glockenspiel? Play the Sugar Plum Fairy, and then play the start of the “Chinese Dance” from the same ballet, where a glockenspiel rings. Ask which sound is softer.

Spot it at the ballet. Before the show, walk to the front and look down into the orchestra pit. The celesta looks like a small upright piano, set near the harp.

Tap a glass. Tap a spoon on a glass, then on a metal pot lid. Each one rings in its own way. Metal bars ring too, which is how the celesta makes its sound.

Where it sits in the instrument families

The orchestra has four families: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. The celesta is in the percussion family, with the xylophone and the glockenspiel. Read percussion instruments for kids for the rest of that family. For other instruments with keys, see keyboard instruments for kids.

Print and play

Add the celesta to an instrument families listening chart. Hear it in its home ballet with the Nutcracker Suite listening guide and the Nutcracker listening map.

For the composer who made it famous, read Tchaikovsky for kids. For all the instruments, see instruments of the orchestra for kids.