Andrew Rong

The Nutcracker Act II No 13- Waltz of the Flowers

Tchaikovskys Waltz of the Flowers is a work which is part of The Nutcracker, a two act ballet
which first premiered on December 1892. Shortly before he began composing the ballet,
Tchaikovsky was going through a period of great emotional turmoil as his sister had just died. His
melancholy is reflected in the sad, haunting melodies in The Nutcracker. Like the name suggests,
Tchaikovsky drew his inspiration for Waltz of the Flowers from flowers and nature. The Waltz of
the Flowers is scored for:
Woodwinds- Flute I and II, Piccolo, Oboe, Clarinet in A, Bassoon
Brass- French Horns in F, Trumpet in A, Tuba, Tenor Trombone, Tuba
Percussion- Timpani, Triangle
Harp
Strings- Violins I and II, Viola, Cello, Double Bass

The piece begins in D major and is in rondo (ABABCAB) form. The woodwinds and the brass opens
softly with a call and response motif of four bars with the harp. The motif consists of a slow, gentle
chordal progression (A-Cdim-A) in the brass and woodwinds, followed by a broken up semiquaver of
an A chord in the harp. This motif repeated in the next 4 bars, where it is developed, moved higher
in pitch by three tones. The woodwinds and French horn then play the motif without the harp
answer. The French horns velvety tone colour moulds together with the earthy timbre of the
woodwinds, creating a warm and graceful atmosphere, accentuated by the diminishing dynamics
and descending melodic line.

The harp then has a short solo, consisting of quick semiquaver runs based on various chords (A, C, E,
etc.). The melodic line lies in the first note of each group of semiquavers. It first appears unsure,


moving up then down again, but towards the end of the solo, the melody starts to climb gradually,
then come down again with glissando chords in the dominant key, ending on a diminished 7
th
chord.
The French horns play the motif, accompanied by the lower
strings playing accompaniment typical of a waltz- .




This is followed by a flowing response by the clarinet, which slowly builds in both pitch and
dynamics which thickens the texture and creates tension, leading to the B theme, which is in the
violins.

The B theme is again one which involves a call and response between two instruments, this time
between flute + clarinet, and the strings. The accompaniment remains the same
but is now in the horns. The high pitch of the B theme brings out the
bright and penetrating tone colours of the violin, and the mystical tone colour of the flute, which
contrasts with the warm and earthly sound from the previous A section. These tone colours are
accentuated by the long notes used in the strings and the short, quick,
staccatos in the woodwinds .





The C section enters in the oboe, with contrasting descending scalic lines in the strings. The melody
in this section contains much larger
leaps and due to the resonant tone
colour of the oboe, the atmosphere is
again changed from warm to reminiscent. . The texture becomes polyphonic and is considerably
thinner due to the reduced amount of instruments and softer dynamics (pp) compared to the
previous section. This theme is repeated once, with the second repeat extended by a short bridge,
then a shift of the melody from the oboe to the strings, and the woodwinds playing the contrasting
line. The change of instrumentation is heard immediately, mainly due to the change in tone colour.
The melody becomes more focused and precise from the violins bright and penetrating tone colour,
and the contrasting runs in the flute are even more prominent due to its shrillness.
The A theme returns, played by the French Horns with the violins playing the flowing notes. The B
section also makes a reappearance but this time one octave higher, which increases the shrillness of
the section. The coda then begins softly, slowly starting to build as fragments of B theme is heard
.
Leading up to the conclusion, the dynamics suddenly become softer in a short passage which has a
two-beat metre feel, due to the note grouping-


Using this motif, the melody is played in unison with the strings and woodwinds and builds up
chromatically, with the dynamics gradually increasing as it does so. Instruments such as the
percussion and the harp are slowly added in as
the dynamics grow, increasing the overall
texture of this conclusion. A slight accelerando
is heard as the music becomes slightly more
frantic towards the end of the piece, ending
on a full sounding chorus.