# What are some pieces with unusual instrumentation?



## Prince Disarming (Jul 14, 2014)

Do you know of any pieces that feature instruments one wouldn't typically associate with classical music?

Here is one to start us off.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

The second movement of Mahler's fourth symphony has the concertmaster's violin tuned a whole tone higher. When I saw it performed last year, the concertmaster brought two violins to play.

Kurt Weill's Violin Concerto is for violin and wind band, no other strings in the orchestra.

Ligeti's Violin Concerto uses a few ocarinas, two orchestra stringed instruments are tuned differently.


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## rrudolph (Sep 15, 2011)

The flexatone part in the Khachaturian Piano Concerto has long been a favorite of mine.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2014)

*Messiaen - Des Canyons Aux Etoiles* (massive percussion ensemble, including a wind machine)
*Ligeti - Le Grand Macabre* (car horn preludes and what not)
*Ligeti - Poeme Symphonique* (for 100 metronomes)
*Dun - Water Passion* (soloist that uses various instruments with water, including...bowls of water)
*Stockhausen - Tierkreis* (music boxes)
*Barrett - Interference* (it's a kick drum from a standard rock drumkit, correct?)
*Penderecki - Partita* (includes both electric guitar and bass guitar)
*Kagel - String Quartets* (yes, string instruments...but played often with knitting needles, etc)
*Jolivet - Ondes Martenot Concerto* (not so abnormal, but in such a significant role?)
*Rautavaara - Symphony No. 6* (none of that magnetic tape nonsense...just pure synthesizers!)
*Partch - ...* (where to begin...the guy invented his entire ensembles!)
*Aho - Symphony No. 12* (standard instrumentation, but supposedly intended to be played outdoors with noticeable wind and such)

And the list goes on... I believe it was ArtRock who had a blog series on concerti for unusual instruments, including an iPad concerto. I can't recall if the catcerto was included...

Edit: Sort of the the reverse of the thread: I've made pitched electronica "beats" here and there using sound manipulation (delay for eighth/quarter notes, treble reductions, etc) on things like low notes from a harp.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Bartok: Music for strings, percussion and celesta

Mozart wrote some ditties for glass harmonica


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## SARDiver (Jan 6, 2014)

Gotta say cannon fire in the 1812 Overture would be number one on my list.


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## Prince Disarming (Jul 14, 2014)

arcaneholocaust said:


> *Messiaen - Des Canyons Aux Etoiles* (massive percussion ensemble, including a wind machine)
> *Ligeti - Le Grand Macabre* (car horn preludes and what not)
> *Ligeti - Poeme Symphonique* (for 100 metronomes)
> *Dun - Water Passion* (soloist that uses various instruments with water, including...bowls of water)
> ...


Nice list. Gershwin also used car horns in An American in Paris.

There is also Conlon Nancarrow whose most significant work was done using player pianos.


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

Villa-Lobos' Chôros No. 4 for 3 horns & trombone, No. 7 for winds, violin & cello and Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 for soprano and "orchestra of cellos"


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Arvo Part used rubber duckies in his Symphony #2. He didn't use them for his later religious works, however.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

arcaneholocaust said:


> *Dun - Water Passion* (soloist that uses various instruments with water, including...bowls of water)


I hate to be _that guy_, but Tan is actually his family name, rather than Dun. Chinese names still tend to be given in traditional order in Western contexts, unlike Japanese names, even though the latter are also culturally written with the family name before the given name.

Anyway, responding to the topic, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu used two Argentinian bandoneon (very like an accordion) in a piece including electronics.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2014)

Wait...you mean to tell me that Western interpretations are not always correct? 

...Sorry if I offended, Maestro Mahlerian 

Also, Gubaidulina and her bayan fetish.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

arcaneholocaust said:


> Wait...you mean to tell me that Western interpretations are not always correct?
> 
> ...Sorry if I offended, Maestro Mahlerian


Not at all.



arcaneholocaust said:


> Also, Gubaidulina and her bayan fetish.


Yes, I thought of that while mentioning Takemitsu's bandoneon and electronics piece (which is named _*Cross Talk*_, by the way).


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Prince Disarming said:


> Do you know of any pieces that feature instruments one wouldn't typically associate with classical music?
> 
> Here is one to start us off.


You should investigate the composer Harry Partch. And maybe Hans Joachim Hespos.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Salvatore Sciarrino's _La Bocca, i piedi, il suono _for saxophone quartet and 100 saxophones. Apart from the 4 saxophone soloists, 100 saxophone players are placed around the audience creating sound effects with breath, feet, and key clicking, and a ceaseless flow of saxophonists.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

schigolch said:


> Salvatore Sciarrino's _La Bocca, i piedi, il suono _for saxophone quartet and 100 saxophones. Apart from the 4 saxophone soloists, 100 saxophone players are placed around the audience creating sound effects with breath, feet, and key clicking, and a ceaseless flow of saxophonists.


Wow, 100 saxophones! That beats 76 trombones.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Respighi's Pines of Rome has buccini, some type of ancient trumpet. He also had a phonograph recording of a nightingale played with the orchestra.

Mahler's 4th has a nice part for a posthorn.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

One of Tchaikovsky's unjustly neglected orchestral suites features two accordians!

Vaughn Williams wrote a "Romance" for harmonica and orchestra. His bass tuba concerto is a rarity too.

Mahler's 6th symphony uses a hammer of some sort. Guitars (and mandolins?) appear in his 7th, and his 8th features mandolins, a harmonium, a piano, an organ, and probably other unusual instruments.

R. Strauss used a wind machine in _Don Quixote_ and _Ein Alpensimphonie_ (sp?). I think Ravel used one in _Daphnis et Chloe_, and Vaughn Williams used one in at least one symphony.

Nielsen used a male and female vocalist, singing wordless vowel sounds, in a movement of one of his symphonies (sorry, forgot which one).

I don't know if Verdi used actual anvils in his _Anvil Chorus_, but they don't sound like any standard percussion instrument, whatever they are.

R. Strauss's _Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche_ and _Symphonia Domestica_, and Respighi's _Feste Romane_, seem to contain some unusual percussion instruments.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

...one more: a Charles Ives work uses a Jew's harp. I think it's _Washington's Birthday_.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2014)

spradlig said:


> Nielsen used a male and female vocalist, singing wordless vowel sounds, in a movement of one of his symphonies (sorry, forgot which one).


Ah yes, the wordless soprano sounds especially haunting in Alfven's 4th


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

spradlig said:


> Nielsen used a male and female vocalist, singing wordless vowel sounds, in a movement of one of his symphonies (sorry, forgot which one).


Vaughan Williams also used a soprano in his Symphony No. 3.






My favourites by him are 3, 4 and 8; I don't know why No. 3 is so relatively unpopular, pretty much the only thing I don't like about it is some of the harmonic planing in the violins which I find excessive.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

The glass armonica is a pretty unusual instrument, and has been used infrequently by composers:

Mozart: Adagio and Rondo for Glass Harmonica, Flute, Oboe, Viola & Cello - K.617
Hasse, Johan Adolf: Cantate "L'armonica"
and more recently,
Eister, Garry: Quintet for Glass and Strings

Many of these works can be found on the album

Cristal : Glass Music Through the Ages - Dennis James (produced by John Boylan and Linda Ronstadt) Sony SK 89407


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## Whistler Fred (Feb 6, 2014)

David Jaffe wrote a large scale concerto for something called a Radio-Drum-Performed Disklavier Grand Piano (basically a drum-activated piano) and an ensemble of guitar, bass, mandolin, harp, harmonium, harpsichord and percussion called "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." Odd, but fun!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Beethoven wrote the incidental music to Leonore Prohaska, WoO 96, in 1815. "It includes a short little 'Melodrama' for [glass] armonica and narrator -- at the point in the play when the heroine Leonore is speaking to her true love from beyond the grave."


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Sorry for posting yet again, but I can't believe I forgot this one. Messaien's _Turangalila-Symphonie_ uses the ondes Martenot.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Walter Piston's _Incredible Flautist _features a dog barking. And I thought only John Cage did such things.

Of course birds are popular in music. The Respighi bird has been pointed out already. And Rautavaara has a concerto for birds. Apparently they are taped. Birds are tougher to get coordinated in a concert hall setting than are union musicians.









One of my favorite OLYMPIA albums presents Mikhail Nosyrev's Symphonies 3 and 4. Number 4 remains unique, as far as I know, in opening with a solo of four triangles.

I once heard of a Concerto (I believe it was for piano) that featured the smashing of a pane of glass during the music. I understand the pane of glass was to be of a certain dimension. (I don't have any more info on that. Maybe another poster will be able to bust in with an answer to what piece this is.) A lot of contemporary music features unique sounds.

Of course, there's always PDQ Bach's "Concerto for Horn and Hardart".


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

arcaneholocaust said:


> *Aho - Symphony No. 12* (standard instrumentation, but supposedly intended to be played outdoors with noticeable wind and such)


A recording of his *theremin concerto* has just appeared on BIS:


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

There's the Andre Jolivet Ondes Martenot Concerto - neat piece, I listened to it only out of curiosity and now it resides on my ipod -)


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> Mahler's 4th has a nice part for a posthorn.


Mahler 3 - usually played on Flugelhorn


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Hovhaness used recordings of whale song in one of his symphonies - can't remember now which one, and I'm too lazy to go look it up.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2014)

jtbell said:


> A recording of his *theremin concerto* has just appeared on BIS:
> 
> View attachment 46656


That disc looks delicious. The works aren't even on allmusic yet, so I would've never known!

Cheers


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

brianvds said:


> Hovhaness used recordings of whale song in one of his symphonies - can't remember now which one, and I'm too lazy to go look it up.


"And God Created Great Whales" I believe. Not a symphony.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony is interesting as it uses actual toy instruments in addition to strings and piano.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Antiquarian said:


> Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony is interesting as it uses actual toy instruments in addition to strings and piano.


Shostakovich used a toy piano in his Prelude to "Orango," at least as it has reached us. It is on the conductor's podium and is played from there. Not too complicated, I think, since the black keys are merely painted on.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

KenOC said:


> "And God Created Great Whales" I believe. Not a symphony.


Ah, yes, that's the one. But if I declare it's a symphony, then it's a symphony. Hovhaness wrote so many, one more or less wouldn't make a difference.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Paul Chihara utilizes an "amplified Hichi-Riki" in his Ceremony III. The Hichi-Riki or Hichiriki is a traditional Japanese double-reed flute-like instrument used in Gagaku (Court Music).


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

And then there is Concerto for three vacuum cleaners and floor polisher


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Let us not forget Concerto for Two Rifles and a Bird by Julien Pacaud, 2011.


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## musicrom (Dec 29, 2013)

Don't forget Leroy Anderson's _Typewriter Concerto_ (starts at 1:30):


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Tan Dun. Concerto for bowls of water.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

The piano is not a very exotic instrument... Really?. Well, it depends on how you play the piano:


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## jtbell (Oct 4, 2012)

arcaneholocaust said:


> That disc [Aho theremin concerto] looks delicious. The works aren't even on allmusic yet, so I would've never known!
> 
> Cheers


So far I've seen it only on eclassical.com, where it turned up last week:

http://www.eclassical.com/labels/bis/aho-theremin-and-horn-concertos.html


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

Typewriter also used in Satie's 'Parade' (1917) - although collaborator Jean Cocteau was said to be responsible for its inclusion, plus a siren, foghorn and other novelties.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Mozart Keyboard Concertos played by Jos van Immerseel on fortepiano with period orchestra.

To conservative listeners, this may be joltingly unusual instrumentation.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

Miklos Rosza used a theremin in his Spellbound Concerto.


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

I'd also add Khachaturian's Third Symphony, which 18 trumpets and an organ. Not unusual instruments, but a rather unusual combination.


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

There is also a piece by Louis Andreissen called the Nine Symphonies of Beethoven for Orchestra and Ice Cream Bell. Not a great work by any means, but it's fun to listen to.


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I thought of a few more:

sleighbells: Mahler's 6th symphony, Prokofiev's L_ieutenant Kije _
cimbalom: Kodaly's _Hary Janos_, the orchestral version of Debussy's_ La Plus que Lente _
vibraphone: Korngold's _Die tote stadt_, Walton's cello concerto
cowbells: Mahler's 7th symphony, R. Strauss's _Ein Alpensimphonie _


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## Guest (Jul 18, 2014)

The cimbalom is kinda neat. I would say the vibraphone hasn't been an abnormal instrumental choice for a long time, though.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

spradlig said:


> I thought of a few more:
> 
> sleighbells: Mahler's 6th symphony, Prokofiev's L_ieutenant Kije _
> cimbalom: Kodaly's _Hary Janos_, the orchestral version of Debussy's_ La Plus que Lente _
> ...


Sleighbells? Don't you mean Mahler's Fourth Symphony?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

spradlig said:


> ...one more: a Charles Ives work uses a Jew's harp. I think it's _Washington's Birthday_.


You are correct. Around my house, Washington's Birthday celebrations would be unthinkable without Uncle Amos playing the Jews' Harp.


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