Tag: Waltz of the Flowers

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Tchaikovsky to the rescue

I had been thinking about the Nutcracker for about a week without actually doing anything about it. But then I was feeling so out of sorts the other day — just really having a hard time getting myself going — and I realized that an infusion of Tchaikovsky’s glorious music was what I needed to shift my energy.

Of course, I then stayed up way too late binge-watching Nutcracker videos, so it kind of backfired on me. But I think it was ultimately worth it to stumble on this wonderful video of the Waltz of the Flowers. The dancing is astral but I also want to applaud the costume designer(s): I don’t know that I’ve ever seen dresses that enhance the movements of the dance as well as these do. They’re absolutely magical!

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The magic of a waltz

So, I wrote about a delightful video yesterday, which — of course, I had to view a few more times today, in company with spouse and friends who I roped in to enjoy it with me.

And it got me to thinking about the magic of 3/4 time, also known as “waltz time”. There’s just something so uplifting about it…

I was recalling a Christmas season many years ago when I still lived in San Francisco. I’ve never been a big fan of large shopping centers and try to avoid them entirely at Christmas time. But for some reason, I was in the Stonestown Galleria and feeling a little frazzled.

Well, as I walked out of Macy’s I realized that Tschaikovsky’s the Waltz of the Flowers was playing over the sound system and immediately started feeling better. Then, as I came down the escalator, two things happened: one, I overheard people humming along to the music, and two, I saw a couple laughing as they danced a few steps together to the music.

Even after all these years I really can’t find the words to describe just how wonderful I felt in that moment — united in joyous harmony with complete strangers through the power of uplifting music!

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Absolutely brilliant!

There really are no words to describe how wonderful this is to me. It’s beyond satisfying. I laughed out loud in pure delight a number of times and — while sitting by myself in front of the computer — applauded widely at the end.

It helps that they’ve used one of my absolute most favorite pieces of music — the Waltz of the Flowers from Tschaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite ballet. It’s hard not to feel wonderful while listening to this piece of music.

But I think the thing that just makes me want to cry cause I love it so much is the visual representation of the rhythmic precision. This guy gets it! And because he does, it resonates with me and makes something in me feel validated on a very deep and subtle level.

I especially love the moment of rhythmic perfection with the orange ball (start here at 2:33 and be ready for it!)

And the twelve seconds starting at 0:40 (and lasting until about 0:52) make the flutist in me very happy. Someone explained it quite well in the video comments: “I also like how you kept the flute mordents (twiddly bits like at 0:43!) with the circular magnets.”

The creator, DoodleChaos, has a number of fascinating videos like this that I look forward to sharing in future. In the meantime, I dare you to watch this and not smile. 😂