Trepak (russian: Трепак; uk, Трoпак, Трiпак) is one of the

character dance Character dance is a specific subdivision of classical dance. It is the stylized representation of a traditional folk or national dance, mostly from European countries, and uses movements and music which have been adapted for the theater. Char ...

s from

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...

's famous 1892 ballet ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

''. It is based on the traditional

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and Ukrainian folk dance also called the trepak. In the Ukrainian language the trepak is known as

tropak Tropak ( uk, трoпак) or trepak (russian: трeпак) is a traditional Ukrainian folk dance that spread throughout the Russian Empire. ''Фраёнова Е. М.'' Трепак // Музыкальная энциклопедия / под р� ...

(or tripak).Humeniuk, Andriy (1962): Ukrainian Folk Dances (Українські Hароднi Танцi). Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. The piece is also referred to as the Russian dance and is part of the Divertissement in Act II, Tableau III. The other character dances in this divertissement are: Chocolate (Spanish dance), Coffee (Arabian dance) and Tea (Chinese dance). Tchaikovsky's Trepak is written in AABA form. Its

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

is molto vivace – prestissimo, the

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...

is , and the key is

G major G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable composi ...

In popular culture

* The Trepak is used in the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film ''Fantasia''. In the sequence, flowers take the place of the Cossack dancers, with

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves ...

s resembling men in fur hats and

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s as women with bonnets. * Different short arrangements of the first notes are used as the victory fanfare for the Game Boy version of the ''Tetris'' video game. * The Trepak is used in '' The Comeback'' as Valerie Cherish's ringtone. * The Trepak also remixed during the third stage of ''

Parodius Da! ''Parodius! From Myth to Laughter'', released in Japan as and outside Japan as ''Parodius'' (from "Parody Gradius"), is a shoot 'em up arcade video game and the second title in the ''Parodius'' series produced by Konami. The European SNES vers ...

'', alongside Trepak is followed by "

William Tell Overture The ''William Tell'' Overture is the overture to the opera '' William Tell'' (original French title ''Guillaume Tell''), whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. ''William Tell'' premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, a ...

". * The first beat of Trepak is remixed as a part of Tire & Ice theme from ''

Crash Tag Team Racing ''Crash Tag Team Racing'' is a 2005 kart racing game developed by Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games under the Sierra Entertainment label for the GameCube (NGC), PlayStation 2 (PS2), Xbox, and the P ...

'' beside Russian folk song "

Kalinka Kalinka may refer to: Places *Kalinka, Kardzhali Province, Kardzhali Municipality, Bulgaria *Kalinka Temple, a temple in northern India *Kalinka, Lublin Voivodeship, a village in the Lublin Voivodeship, Poland *Kalinka, Russia, the name of several ...

" and "

Hungarian Dance No. 5 The ''Hungarian Dances'' (german: Ungarische Tänze, links=no) by Johannes Brahms (WoO 1), are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes, completed in 1879. They vary from about a minute to five minutes in length. They ...

" by Johannes Brahms.

References

{{The Nutcracker Compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker

In popular culture

See also

References