With its sparkling celesta and dreamlike rhythm, “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” has become a sonic hallmark of Christmas. But its festive identity is a modern invention. Born in a 19th-century ...

In the 1890s, when the Russian composer Tchaikovsky was preparing to write the music for the ballet that would become his holiday classic, “The Nutcracker,” he encountered a brand-new instrument: the ...