Story Orchestra: the Nutcracker

Follow Clara on a magical Christmas adventure in this musical retelling of The Nutcracker ballet—push the button on each beautiful scene to hear the vivid sound of an orchestra playing from Tchaikovsky’s score.

Readers should press firmly on the pages to activate the sound board at the back of the book, encouraging interactive learning and introducing children to this beautiful piece of music. At the back of the book, find a short biography of the composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with details about his composition of The Nutcracker ballet. Next to this, you can replay the musical excerpts and, for each of them, read a discussion of the instruments, rhythms, and musical techniques that make them so powerful. A glossary defines musical terms. 

The Story Orchestra series brings classical music to life for children through gorgeously illustrated retellings of classic ballet, opera, and program music stories paired with 10-second sound clips of orchestras playing from their musical scores. With The Story Orchestra keyboard sound books, children can play the famous melodies themselves with the sound of a real grand piano.