The Celesta

A Unique Keyboard Instrument

The celesta, meaning “heavenly” in French, was invented in 1886 by French instrument maker Auguste Mustel. Resembling a small upright piano, it produces a delicate, bell-like sound when hammers strike metal plates above wooden resonators.

The instrument became famous through Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (1892), particularly the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” Other composers who featured it include Ernest Chausson, Gustav Mahler, Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, and George Gershwin.

The celesta’s heyday arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as composers explored its enchanting sound in ballets, symphonies, operas, and chamber music. Later, it found a home in film scores, jazz, pop, and rock.

Still in use and production today, the celesta remains a distinctive orchestral instrument, with Germany’s Schiedmayer the sole manufacturer producing traditional celestas.

CELESTRA RESTORATION

Performing “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” on a celesta that is not playing correctly?

We can help! We have joined with the Toledo Symphony and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and restored their celestas to play like new. Call us to describe your instrument’s problems.