Kate's Blog

 In this blog post, I chose to discuss Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy  as it was performed in The Nutcracker.  This piece of music was originally written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and originally performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia. This song was written to be performed by the lead female ballerina in The Nutcracker , which premiered at the same time. This piece of music is known as the most well known song performed in The Nutcracker musical, often being played in advertisements around Christmas time. During its conception the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy was designed to sound like "drops of water shooting from a fountain." Because of this, Tchaikovsky was in search of an instrument that could create such a sound. In 1891, he was introduced to the celesta and decided it was the exact sound he was looking for. A celesta is similar to a piano however its sound is much different. The instrument produces a chime-like sound, produced by hammers striking different met...

 This week's blog post is about Britney Spears, an extremely popular and talented performer and singer who was most popular during the early 2000s. Born in 1981 in McComb, Mississippi, Britney began singing at age two and throughout the early years of her childhood began performing in talent shows, auditioning for tv shows such as The All New Mickey Mouse Club, and developing her singing voice. When she was a teenager, she began working with Jive Records and soon released her first hit song, Hit Me Baby One More Time, which was produced in 1998. Throughout the next 10 years of her career, she released nine albums as well as other singles, many of which quickly became popular in the pop music world.  Britney Spears faced criticism throughout her career for her rocky personal life and possible mental health issues. In 2008, her father was granted conservatorship over her. This would effectively allow him to control her finances and decisions while she was still performing and re...