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The Nutcracker ballet is an essential part of the holiday season. The story and the music never change from year to year but people are always enchanted by it. This year I attended a performance of The Nutcracker by the American Repertory Ballet at McCarter Theater. The music for the ballet was composed by Peter Tchaikovsky during the Romantic era. Tchaikovsky was asked to compose music for a ballet based on a story called “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” However, at this performance there was not a live orchestra, the music was recorded but still sounded professional. While most people in attendance focused on the dancers on stage, my main focus was on the music coming out of the speakers. I’ve heard the music from the Nutcracker Suite before while watching the ballet but had never given much thought to the music that the dance is derived from. The instruments I could recognize consisted of flute/piccolo, oboe/bassoon, trumpets, castanets, tambourine, triangle, harp, and a xylophone (which I later