Music TheoryPrint

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Danse des petits cygnes

Danse des petits cygnes is a dance from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, from the ballet's second act, the fourth movement of No. 13. It is written in the key of F♯ minor. Translated from French, it means

The segment is widely referenced and parodied in popular culture. A few instances: * A 1960s black-and-white film of the Danse was played on Soviet state television and radio during the 1980s upon the deaths of Leonid Brezhnev, Konstantin Chernenko and Yuri Andropov, and again during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt. Since it came to signify a change in political leadership, it was later used as a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. * The first episode of Dexter’s Laboratory has a parody involving Dexter and two DeeDees. * In a scene in episode 26 (“Guilty or Not Guilty”) of the British television sitcom Mind Your Language. * The Taiwanese film The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon features Lin Lu-ho playing it as his favorite music.

Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky