# Instrument combinations



## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

Your favourite examples of composers trying to imitate the sound of a non-orchestral instrument by using the combined sound of other instruments.

For example, to me it sounds like there's a banjo playing at the start of the second movt. of Mahler 1. I can't remember right now what all the instruments are, but I know that a bassoon plays staccato in that passage.


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

What I wrote in "Current Listening":



> By the way, in John Adams' Slonimsky's Earbox there is a great imitation of a sitar (I suppose it is intentional!) - I believe it is a harp pluck combined with muted trumpet (trombone?). Listen here.


Best regards, Dr


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

Aaron Copland did a great imitation of a small church organ (harmonium) by using bassoons, clarinets, and flute (I think) with the notes spaced far apart, making some very open chords. I can't remember which Copland piece I heard it in, but it was remarkably like a reedy organ sound.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

While it's not two instruments (I don't think, although there might be harp involved) the cello is strummed like a guitar in Herbert Howells: Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra. This is not quite the same as pizzicato/ It sounds more like a strummed theorbo. It's not an effect I've heard elsewhere.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

piano imitating electric guitar.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

My favorite example of this ever. And yes, birds do count as instruments .






although the staging in that video kind of creeps me out...


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