Electronic Demo:
Live 2018 Demo Recording by Arizona State Wind Ensemble (Dr. Jason Caslor, conductor):
The tale, comprised of seven stories, was first
published December 1844. The seventh
story opens in the Palace of the Snow Queen, where two young children defeat
the evil Queen through the power of love and friendship.
Hans Christian Anderson describes the Snow Queen’s
Palace, writing…
The
walls of the palace were of driving snow, and the windows and doors of cutting
winds. There were more than a hundred halls there, according as the snow was
driven by the winds. The largest was many miles in extent; all were lighted up
by the powerful Aurora Borealis, and all were so large, so empty, so icy cold,
and so resplendent! Mirth never reigned there; there was never even a little
bear–ball, with the storm for music, while the polar bears went on their
hindlegs and showed off their steps. Never a little tea–party of white young
lady foxes; vast, cold, and empty were the halls of the Snow Queen. The
northern–lights shone with such precision that one could tell exactly when they
were at their highest or lowest degree of brightness. In the middle of the
empty, endless hall of snow, was a frozen lake; it was cracked in a thousand
pieces, but each piece was so like the other, that it seemed the work of a
cunning artificer. In the middle of this lake sat the Snow Queen when she was
at home; and then she said she was sitting in the Mirror of Understanding, and
that this was the only one and the best thing in the world. (Hans Christian
Anderson, 1844).
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