composer have long pushed the boundary of classical music by writing part for novel and forward-looking instruments — but not all of them have stop up a permanent fixedness in the orchestra …
1. SARRUSOPHONE
The sarrusophone ( above ) was invented in 1856 and named in honor of the Gallic military bandleader Pierre - Auguste Sarrus . It was in the beginning develop as a surrogate for comparatively quieter woodwind instrument instruments in military bands : its deep , mystifying , saxophone - like tonewas strong and better suited to outdoor execution than that of small-scale woodwind instrument instrument , like the oboe .
Although never a particularly widely used tool , the sarrusophone enjoyed a fit of popularity in the former 1900s when a number of big - name composers — including Maurice Ravel , Frederick Delius and Igor Stravinsky — wrote part for it in a number of their compositions . But probably the most famous oeuvre to include a sarrusophone part isThe Sorcerer ’s Apprenticeby the French composer Paul Dukas , which was famously put to use in the 1940 Disney movie , Fantasia . Nowadays , however , the unfamiliarity and unpopularity of sarrusophones intend that these share are more often than not taken by the contrabasson .
2. GLASS ARMONICA
excogitate by Benjamin Franklin , the deoxyephedrine armonica ( or “ harmonica ” ) comprises a revolving set of chicken feed cups or ring whichproduce a shimmering soundwhen played with dampened fingerbreadth . Despite its comparative reconditeness , plenty of classical composer — among them several major name calling , including Mozartand Beethoven — have write works for the meth harmonica , although it seldom appears in big ensemble or orchestral configurations . One well known elision is Camille Saint - Saëns’Carnival of the beast : intheCarnival ’s famousAquariummovement , an sound reflection of the flute strain is played one shell later on the drinking glass harmonica .
3. HECKELPHONE
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The heckelphone is essentially a hybrid between a bassoon and an oboe that was invented by the German instrument maker Wilhelm Heckel — evidently at the request of Richard Wagner — in the late nineteenth hundred , although it did n’t make its first appearance in classical medicine repertory until the early 1900s .
In compositions of the meter , the heckelphonewas often listed under the title of respect of “ bass oboe , ” but that naming was also given to the similarhautbois baryton , another deeply - monger woodwind instrument , prepare it all but impossible to tell which legal document the composers in question want : Gustav Holst ’s famousPlanetssuite , for illustration , include a part for a bass hautboy , but it ’s ill-defined whether he had the heckelphone in mind or not . One composer who made his intentions clear , however , was Richard Strauss , whosingled out the heckelphonein the score for his enormousAlpine Symphonyin 1915 .
4. THEREMIN
cook up by Leon Theremin in the early 1920s , this bizarre electronic instrumental role is belike best have intercourse to modern audiences for providing the spooky , high - pitch drone sound used in classic sci - fi movie soundtracks like Bernard Herrmann’sThe Day The Earth Stood Still(1951 ) . But several more composer of the early - to - mid twentieth C compose parts for the theremin in their orchestral works , let in composer and melodic theorist Joseph Schillinger : hisFirst Airphonic Suite(1929 ) made superb usage of the theremin ’s singular sound alongside a full symphony orchestra . Here is a videoof a theremin being played by a computerized tomography .
5. WAGNER TUBA
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It ’s not strictly speaking a tuba , but it was at least invented at the postulation of Richard Wagner : Wagner tubas orWagnertubenfirst became popular in the mid-19th 100 and were first used by Wagner in his sexual conquest forDas Rheingold(1854 ) as arichly - toned instrumentintended to fill the tonal space between the tuba , the trombone and the Gallic horn . Since then , Wagner tubas have been used ( albeit relatively infrequently ) by a number of famous composers , including Igor Stravinsky , Richard Strauss , and Béla Bartók .
6. PREPARED PIANO
classic composers have been writing piano concerto since the late Romantic period ; Mozart compose his first piano concerto in the mid-1760s when he was just 11 years honest-to-goodness ( largely based on others ' works ) . Since then , the piano concerto has become one of the most popular of all orchestral arrangements , with Beethoven’sEmperor(1811 ) and Edward Grieg’sConcerto in A minor(1868 ) being among the most noted and most frequently perform .
Maverick American composer John Cage , of course , had to go one better bywriting a concerto for prepared forte-piano — namely , a piano with everything from drawing pins and rubber bands to corks , fork and cotton ball inserted among the strings and hammering to give the official document a eccentric range of percussive sounds and tones . Written forpiano and chamber orchestra , the concerto premiere in New York in 1952 .
7. CANNON
Admittedly , a cannon can hardly be classed as a melodic official document — but that did n’t stop Tchaikovsky from write “ a battery of cannon ” into the grade of his monumental1812 Overturein 1882 . Although actual cannon fervour is sometimes used in larger ( and , for obvious grounds , outside ) performances of the1812 , typically most modernistic performances replace the cannons with audio recordings or theatrical levelheaded effects , or else hand the 16 carom blasts the grade call for over to a likewise garish rhythm section instrument , like a basso drum or timpani . No matter how it ’s treat , however , the effect is a rousing conclusion to a piece of musicTchaikovsky himself dismissed as“very loud and noisy . ”
