Walter Meyer wrote:

>The passage at the end of Schumann's *Carnaval* sounds, at least to
>me, like the end of the "Christmas party scene" in the first act of
>Tchaikowsky's *Nutcracker* before the room is deserted and the Christmas
>tree starts growing.  I don't think either was lifting from the other but
>suspect that both were drawing on the same well-known theme.  Am I right?
>If so what theme, and why?

I can't recall to aural memory at the moment exactly what this passage in
the Nutcracker sounds like, but I recall reading on a record jacket when
I was much younger that the scene closed with "piano music of Schubert and
Schumann".  So it is quite plausible that it was borrowed by Tchaikovsky,
possibly having something to do with "Carnaval" being music that was
familiar to children at the time.  Or as Walter suggests perhaps they were
simply both well-known themes.  I don't know why Schubert was referred to
in the record jacket, or if my memory is simply mistaken.

Michael Cooper