The celeste was invented by Auguste Mustel in Paris in 1886. Externally it resembles a small upright piano: keyboard, pedals, wooden case. Inside, metal bars with wooden resonators are struck by hammers under the player's light touch.
The celeste's chief purpose is magic. The French composer Ernest Chausson was among the first to use it in the orchestra (1888), and its bell-like, crystalline timbre soon became the symbol of magical, fairy-tale scenes. Later Mahler, Bartók, and Holst (The Planets — Neptune's theme) expanded the celeste palette. In film, the celeste is indispensable whenever wonder is needed: so rings the motif of Harry Potter by John Williams.
