# Fists, hammers, anvils and other unusual instances in classical music



## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

I'd like to ask everyone to contribute to a list of classical works featuring unusual occurrences in terms of instrumentation or score.
I guess we can leave out modern/contemporary works from composers whose focus explicitly includes innovating/disrupting traditional styles. Prepared pianos, taped bird songs, helicopters etc are nice but should not be the object of this list.
The list should include works that are "normally" scored, except for that one, unexpected element.
E.g. the keyboard punching in Prokofiev's Piano sonata 6, the hammer blows in Mahler's 6th, the anvils in Verdi's Trovatore.

Thanks.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Mahler's Fourth Symphony uses sleigh bells.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Anvils in Il Trovatore and several places in the Ring. 
Rute (bunch of sticks) in Mahler 5th and 6th. 
Hammerschlag in Mahler 6th. 
Chains on timpani in Rzewski's "Long Time Man."


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Malcolm Arnold wrote a Grand Grand Overture for vacuum cleaners, floor polisher, and rifles. Spectacular stuff including on stage murders.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Thunder machines in Strauss's_ Don Quixote_ and _Alpine Symphony_, Wagner's _Ring_ and _Parsifal_, and Verdi's _Otello_ (I'm sure there are others).


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Ravel's piano concerto opens with a whip.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

The bird recording in Respighi's Pines of Rome.

Barking dog in Piston's The Incredible Flutist.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Cannon fire in Tchaikovsky's 1812? And a typewriter in one of Leroy Anderson's pieces, the title of which has now escaped me. 

I also once saw video of a piece for solo flute by Takemitsu, in which the flutist made all manner of weird noises in between. It was actually a pretty nice piece and I wish I can remember the title.

Also, I heard a recorder concerto in which, at one point, the player hums through the recorder, creating an interesting polyphonic texture of hummed melody versus what was being played on the instrument. Can't remember the composer now though.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Donizetti used the glass harp/ harmonica for his oprea Lucia di Lammermoor not the kind of thing one hears everyday.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

The symphonic suite _Cantibile_ composed by Frederik Magle uses a giraffe's thigh bone as a percussion instrument in the Cortege & Danse Macabre movement. He had to obtain unusual and special permission to borrow the bones from a museum in Denmark for the performance and recording.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Wind machine in Vaughan Willliams' 7th and Tippet 4th


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## Funny (Nov 30, 2013)

Bettina said:


> Mahler's Fourth Symphony uses sleigh bells.


And William Henry Fry used sleigh bells in his Santa Claus Symphony (1853). The symphony is also remarkable for introducing into the ensemble a newly invented instrument called the saxophone.


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## Funny (Nov 30, 2013)

Also, not to slight my main man, Haydn's Military Symphony (#100) was remarkable for its time in including triangle, cymbals and bass drum - now standard - and the finale of his #60 has violins re-tune their G strings to F before starting so they can make that distinctive "tuning up" sound when the whole orchestra "accidentally" has to stop playing to tune.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Is it necessary to mention Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony? Or his Alphorn Concerto? Or Albrechtsberger's several concerti for Jew's harp?

Even Beethoven used the glass harmonica once. Anybody know where?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

The Johan Strauss feast albums from Telarc, ( Kunzel) you hear all sorts, try the Explosions Polka.


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Erik Satie using a typewriter in "Parade"


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

cwarchc said:


> Erik Satie using a typewriter in "Parade"


Looking at the score, the percussion instruments also include a pistol, a foghorn, a high and low siren, a wheel of chance, and tuned bottles.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Along with the strings and brass, Balada's Steel Symphony also contains......

"a formidable battery of forty-eight percussion instruments (including automobile brake drums, garbage-can lid, thunder sheet, siren, and "a big piece of wood")".


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## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

Thanks everyone for the contributions!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Rodion Shchedrin's_ Carmen Suite_ which calls for strings and 47 percussion instruments...

Player 1: marimba, vibraphone, castanets, three cowbells, four bongos, bells, snare drum, guiro
Player 2: vibraphone, marimba, snare drum, tambourine, two woodblocks, claves, triangle, guiro
Player 3: hand bells, crotales, maracas, whip, snare drum, choclo, guiro, three temple blocks, bass drum, tam-tam, snare drum, triangle
Player 4: cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, hi-hat, triangle, tambourine, tom-tom, timpani


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Even Beethoven used the glass harmonica once. Anybody know where?


He hit Schindler over the head with one?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

A wooden spoon hitting coffee mugs slung on a string to recreate the sound of raindrops on Britten's _Noye's Fludde_.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

KenOC said:


> Is it necessary to mention Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony? Or his Alphorn Concerto? Or Albrechtsberger's several concerti for Jew's harp?
> 
> Even Beethoven used the glass harmonica once. Anybody know where?


Wasn't it used briefly in Egmont Incidental Music? A bit of an aberration because I don't think LVB ever used it again. I only remember this because it was mentioned on the jacket back notes of my old LP (one of the only recordings of the work at the time) -one of the things I missed when CDs took over.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Sir Arnold Bax calls for an anvil in the climax of the Third Symphony's first movement.
I think Myaskovsky calls for an anvil in his Slavonic Rhapsody on Ancient Russian Themes.


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## scott777 (Oct 9, 2016)

I think Varese has a lions roar in his Ionisation (1931).

God know how they manage to get the lion to sit quietly during the performance and roar at just the right moment. Perhaps the timpanist pokes it with a stick.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Plenty of concertos for unusual instruments, including i-Pads, turntables, various Chinese instruments etc. (link).


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

What about Sabre Dance - Khachaturian? Very fiery, everything and anything is used to perform this amazing piece of music!!


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

scott777 said:


> I think Varese has a lions roar in his Ionisation (1931).
> 
> God know how they manage to get the lion to sit quietly during the performance and roar at just the right moment. Perhaps the timpanist pokes it with a stick.


LOL! That reminds me of something I read about Verdi's Aida. Apparently when it was premiered in Cairo, the Triumphal March featured elephants, camels and zebras walking across the stage. I don't think they were supposed to make any sounds, though.

Maybe this could be a topic for a new thread...the use of live animals in musical performances.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

scott777 said:


> I think Varese has a lions roar in his Ionisation (1931).
> 
> God know how they manage to get the lion to sit quietly during the performance and roar at just the right moment. Perhaps the timpanist pokes it with a stick.


Isn't that the one that has two otters fighting?


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Clavier à lumières / color organ in Scriabin's Prometheus: The Poem of Fire.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Gershwin: An American in Paris - Honk, honk!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

TxllxT said:


> Gershwin: An American in Paris - Honk, honk!


Regarding the car horns ... "Have We Been Playing Gershwin Wrong for 70 Years?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/theater/have-we-been-playing-gershwin-wrong-for-70-years.html


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## jcofer (Jan 23, 2016)

I mentioned this before in another thread; Jón Leifs Sögusinfónía (Saga Symphony), Op. 26. Instrumentation includes anvils, Bronze Age horns, wooden drums and iron shields struck with stone hammers.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

Ives asks the pianist to press a long piece of wood on the keyboard to create large cluster chords in his Concord Sonata. He also wrote optional flute and viola parts for the work, which obviously aren't unusual instruments, but they don't normally show up in a piano sonata.

And Shostakovich calls for a factory whistle in his 2nd Symphony.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

SuperTonic said:


> And Shostakovich calls for a factory whistle in his 2nd Symphony.


I wonder if any classical composers called for someone to just whistle, i.e. without an instrument...


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## Autocrat (Nov 14, 2014)

Ligeti, violin concerto. Four ocarinas and some recorders.

Also his opera _Le Grand Macabre_, 12 pitched car horns and half a dozen door bells. Guns, alarm clocks, various bits of crockery and cookware and what may also be a lion's roar. Oh, and a bass trumpet.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

"Poème symphonique is a 1962 composition by György Ligeti for 100 metronomes."


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

*Malcolm Arnold* : A Grand, Grand Overture (1956)

_For 3 Vacuum Cleaners, 1 Floor Polisher, 4 Rifles and Orchestra/Large Orchestra_


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

mmsbls said:


> Malcolm Arnold wrote a Grand Grand Overture for vacuum cleaners, floor polisher, and rifles. Spectacular stuff including on stage murders.


...................................


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Hector Berlioz insisted that his _Symphonie Fantastique_ feature an ophicleide for its low bass woodwind. This is an instrument with a deep buzzy sound that had reached the limited peak of its popularity in the 1600's. I think John Eliot Gardiner used it in his recording with the ORR, but most everyone else uses a contrabassoon.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> ...................................


Things happens, no harm done I guess.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Einojuhani Rautavaara uses recordings of birds in his, "Cantus Arcticus".


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Certain versions of Aaron Copland's "Rodeo Hoedown" feature a voiceover of actor Sam Elliot saying "Beef: It's What's for Dinner."


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

I remember having listened once to a kind of medieval music with strange instruments that made me think of farting.  Does that count too?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bettina said:


> Mahler's Fourth Symphony uses sleigh bells.


Yes and I love that effect. It always reminds me, nostalgically, of winters and snow in New York as a kid.


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