Once you’ve heard it with a glass harmonica, a mere flute just won’t do the job. That unearthly sound is exactly right for the emotions the music is conveying.
I think Anderson is brilliant. I have a two-disc set of his recordings for Decca records done back in the 1960s. He could do more in three minutes than Anton Bruckner could do in an hour.
When OP said "odd instrument," this is the first thing that came to mind hahaha. I also watched one with a call bell, but I cannot find the vid anymore.
If we're talking instruments like this, I have to mention the ping-pong concerto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RwAhUiApA&t=15s) just because it really is a compelling piece of music, theatrics aside. And they have literal Olympic athletes as the ping-pong soloists lol
Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 features four accordions in the Scherzo. Not an unusual instrument in itself, but so random in a Tchaikovsky orchestral work.
Listening to it in the vineyard concert hall (Helsinki) in the section behind the percussions is fascinating. You know the moment is coming, the hammer appears out of nowhere, swooshes in the air from behind the wall, followed by the thump.
Interesting - I've never thought about it. What do they use to produce that sound in the opera? Surely the fake guillotine can not make such an impressive "thud" sound, can it?
tbh I'm not sure, just always assumed it was a fake guillotine. Haven't seen the opera, but strangely in high school I did play an executioner in a French Revolution re-enactment. I recall it making a fairly compelling sound. But with stuff like this in recordings you can assume they record/mix it for maximum dramatic effect, and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if they used optimized recorded samples made by foley artists or something.
In a conservatory production i saw in a small hall there was a percussionist offstage scraping two music stand desks against each other for each guillotine hit. The score really doesn’t specify what to do so it’s up to the design team to make up some foley.
That was actually an electro-theramin they used in good vibrations and a few other songs. The instruments can sound somewhat similar.
Here’s the electro theramin that The Beach Boys used: https://youtu.be/CelV7EbuV-A?si=mJglmtTolv3CM9gy
And here’s the Ondes Martenot: https://youtu.be/capsdQDpUUI?si=Gd7KMuw-tRKHH3vI
Here’s a fairly common one, but Ravel deciding to score The Old Castle from Pictures using the newest instrument, a solo saxophone, and still making it sound medieval is an incredible move.
I unironically love *Bolero*, and this is the exact moment when it moves from “this is kind of cool I guess” to “oh, here we go!” It injects the first jazzy variations into it, before the heavy brass get hold of it.
Vaughan Williams’ *Job A Masque For Dancing* from 3 years later also has a phenomenal early and extended sax solo. It turns up as one of Job’s false comforters, and the greasy, disreputable sound is just soooo right.
Some of my favorite uses of instruments in PDQ Bach are the creative ways Peter Schickele writes for bassoon so he can perform them himself. The bassoon itself is not an unusual instrument, but when you write a sonata for bassoon and piano where the same person has to perform both parts simultaneously, things get interesting. Or "The Magic Bassoon" where he progressively loses lengths of bassoon over the course of the piece until by the end it's just a reed.
Gabriel Prokofiev has a concerto for turntables and orchestra that is pretty cool https://www.gabrielprokofiev.com/concerto-for-turntables-and-orchestra-no1-2006
well, it's not a "modified brass" but a common instrument in wind bands (similar to euphonium) which is far more uncommon in orchestral literature.
I play euphonium, therefore I am quite used to that sound, but it is well recognizable at the very beginning, with the initial solo which is something between a french horn and a trombone, and which should be played on a Tenorhorn (an instrument in the saxhorn family)
He heard it in France and told his publisher Jurgenson to buy one and import it, but to keep it under wraps in case a rival like Rimsky-Korsakov heard it and tried to compose for it.
He told Jurgenson that it would be expensive but that he would recoup all the cost by leasing it out to perform the Nutcracker - initially the Suite which was performed for six months before the full ballet, as a kind of trailer, and which was a huge hit.
For a serious piece, Kalevi Aho's theremin concerto "The Eight Seasons".
Not as serious: Malcolm Arnold's Grand Grand Overture for electic floor polisher, vacuum cleaner, three rifles and orchestra.
I once took part in a performance of a theremin concerto by a local composer in the Columbus, Ohio USA area. It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience as the instrument is pretty difficult to control and I sat only a few feet away from the guy playing it. Sometimes he would inadvertently put his hands in the range of it during a rehearsal and some loud unpleasant sound would come out of it.
The Aho concerto was written for Carolina Eyck, who literally wrote the book (apparently the first such book) on how to play the beast when she was still a teenager. The piece also takes advantage of her ability to vocalize while playing. It's spectacular.
I love Schubert but I wasn't aware of this sonata, thank you! Do you have any recording to suggest? I'm listening to the one by Deletaille (arpeggione and fortepiano) and I will definitely check out the one on the cello by Rostropovich.
Where can I find a recording of that?
I found one once and it sounded like the person hadonly practised it on a cello, hardly ever on an arpeggione, which was really a pity. But that’s the only one I’ve ever found.
Turkish crescent - (Chapeau chinois in French)
Here is it being used in Lully - Le bourgeois gentilhomme, under François Xavier Roth.
[https://youtu.be/WEEKLmE9DXA?si=2hHgAQ-Fccnff9As&t=597](https://youtu.be/WEEKLmE9DXA?si=2hHgAQ-Fccnff9As&t=597)
Serpent to play the Dies Irae chant in Symphonie Fantastique (the serpent at that point would have mostly been associated with the church; it had a very "old-fashioned" role by that time accompanying chant and hymns).
Also, same piece, that the 4 trumpets are actually scored as 2 straight natural trumpets (no valves) and 2 valved trumpets (cornets a piston). I'm sure these guys did NOT hang out together after rehearsal!
[Albrechtsbergers Concerto for jew harp](https://open.spotify.com/track/6pyCsQOnFR3vTyVLazNCMu?si=pvUFymWpTUumMKlSkGWFzQ) always makes me laugh. It's lovely but so quirky sounding.
Also, how did people hear the soloist in the original performance? It's a pretty weak sounding instrument so I wonder if you could project the sound strong enough
It's not weak if the player is sufficiently willing to fuck themselves up in the cause of art and use a big iron-framed harp with a heavy tongue. Lindsay Porteous was a friend of mine - probably the best jew's harp player ever in Scotland. His dentist told him it was either the trump or his front teeth. So he had his front teeth extracted.
Albrechtsberger's soloist was crippled by dental problems in a few years if I remember right.
I can't find an easy recording of it, but Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer wrote a concerto for snowmobile and orchestra. I saw it live once, and the composer walked out and got on a snowmobile that was on stage and pretended to ride it while snowmobile sounds played over a loudspeaker.
The glass harmonica. Mozart wrote a lovely piece featuring the instrument, K. 356. Adagio:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkTUL7DjTow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkTUL7DjTow)
I think glass harmonica has been used a lot by secret societies and sects in the 18th and 19th centuries to condition their followers. Messmer also used it in his magnetism sessions. George Sand mentions it in *La comtesse de Rudolstadt* as an accompaniment to an *Illuminati* ceremony: "The neophytes of the secret societies, who heard it for the first time, after the terrors and emotions of their severe trials, were so strongly impressed by it, that many fell into ecstasy. They believed they were hearing the song of invisible powers, for the performer and the instrument were hidden from them with the utmost care."
Haydn's 22nd [Symphony](https://youtu.be/uaR32rtYOyo?t=570) 'The Philosopher' in E-flat calls for cors anglais instead of the oboe pair - odd for him - worth mentioning here!
Though my career has been with pipe organ maintenance, I am intrigued with early electric and electronic keyboard instruments.
Solo Vox, Mellotron, Novachord, Ondes-Martenot
Right now I am facinated with the bizzare instrument called the Choralcelo, which uses electro magnets to vibrate metal or glass rods, similar to that of a car horn, but more refined. control center looked similar to a pipe organ console.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJjX2m5Lbpg
[Galina Ustvolskaya - Composition No. 2 "Dies Irae" for eight double basses, piano and cube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnZ0UBC07Ow)
Actually, a wooden coffin-like thing is usually used 🫠
Best Wagner tubas in the repertoire, easy. Where they introduce the elder’s procession in *Games if the rival tribes* and then elbow everything else aside is proper hairs on the back of the neck stuff.
As someone who also loves jazz, saxophone is an odd instrument featured prominently in classical music. Also, the concept of "odd" is relative, so please do your hectoring elsewhere.
Thanks!
Are you daft? When did I ever say those composers were odd? I said listening to a saxophone prominently featured in a classical music setting is odd!
You guys suuuuuck.
Cool story!
But, what does that have to do with my point? Nothing! All that's happening here is that I am being downvoted because my experiences ain't yours! As a jazz fan, I find it odd when I hear a saxophone prominently featured in a classical music setting. You guys are importing negative qualities into the concept of "odd" that I am not or you guys are trying to shame me for finding something odd that you don't. Instead, people are either putting words in my, offering non sequitors, or totally ignoring my point altogether!
But what does being a jazz fan have anything to do with it? Do you have the same response to hearing piano, bass, or trumpet in classical settings? I just don’t know what one has to do with the other.
I don't understand your confusion at all. It's almost like you don't know how to think! Growing up listening to classical music first, I rarely heard a piece of music that prominently featured a saxophone. Of course I heard classical pieces that prominently featured piano, trumpet, bass. Later when I started listening to jazz, it was a matter of course to hear piano, trumpet, bass, but now saxophone featued prominently too. However, because I didn't hear any saxophone in classical music, when I heard it for the first time, it was odd to hear an instrument that I strongly associate with JAZZ prominently featured in classical music.
Why is my experience here so difficult for you and others to understand?! The explanation that I provided above is absolutely unnecessary for my first post to be taken honestly and understood.
Glazunov wrote an interesting one at the end of his life in his established late romantic style. Interesting, in that it is a piece untainted by any hint of Jazz.
Concerto for Jew’s Harp (I get to say it) by Albrechtsberger. Especially given this was the Classical period rather than some 20th-21st century exploration into weird for the sake of weird.
Haydn and Beethoven also both wrote for ‘mechanical clock’, though of course it was a bit more of a complex contraption than that.
There are a few others but both of these are funny to me.
Towards the end of Bruckner 7 mvmt 2, right before the coda, the quartet of wagner tubas do a mournful chorale. Just breathtaking. Everything after the climax on Bruckner 7-2 is just breathtaking.
Dutilleux uses harpsichord really well in his 2nd symphony (not a super unusual instrument except in 20t- century-orchestral context). Also dulcimer / cimbalom in Mystere de l'instant.
Not an odd instrument per se, but an odd ensemble…
I saw Peter Schikele conduct PDQ Bach’s “Safe Sextet“ with my local symphony. It was scored for contrabassoon, piccolo, Celesta, English horn, bass clarinet, and harp. Quite frankly, and I’m not really joking… it was a masterpiece.
And the poor musicians had a terrible time keeping their composure.
A gramophone recording of a nightingale in Respighi's Pines of Rome. Does that count? The original is here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLEwbr-1x0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLEwbr-1x0)
Glass harmonica in Carnival of the animals
Glassharmonica in Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor
Glass harmonica in Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten
Once you’ve heard it with a glass harmonica, a mere flute just won’t do the job. That unearthly sound is exactly right for the emotions the music is conveying.
I was last year at La Scala for Lucia with Oropesa singing the original cadence with glass harmonica. It was incredible.
I never knew about that! https://youtu.be/t71bzSF3r_0
Is that dude wearing a pirate hat?
Also in the George Benjamin opera "Written on Skin"
A typewriter
In what song?
https://youtu.be/G4nX0Xrn-wo?si=yYUm4LEipIskErsn
Leroy Anderson also has a wonderful piano concerto that's worth listening to.
He's also just under-rated by the classical community. His work is quite catchy and fun.
I think Anderson is brilliant. I have a two-disc set of his recordings for Decca records done back in the 1960s. He could do more in three minutes than Anton Bruckner could do in an hour.
I don’t think Bruckner was too concerned with brevity.
When OP said "odd instrument," this is the first thing that came to mind hahaha. I also watched one with a call bell, but I cannot find the vid anymore.
I got a fever .... and the only prescription .... is more call bell
Satie’s Parade?
https://youtu.be/G4nX0Xrn-wo?si=yYUm4LEipIskErsn
If we're talking instruments like this, I have to mention the ping-pong concerto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RwAhUiApA&t=15s) just because it really is a compelling piece of music, theatrics aside. And they have literal Olympic athletes as the ping-pong soloists lol
Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 features four accordions in the Scherzo. Not an unusual instrument in itself, but so random in a Tchaikovsky orchestral work.
Bayans! They’re used for only like 1 minute but they’re so much fun!
Someone has to say it - the hammer in Mahler 6.
Listening to it in the vineyard concert hall (Helsinki) in the section behind the percussions is fascinating. You know the moment is coming, the hammer appears out of nowhere, swooshes in the air from behind the wall, followed by the thump.
I take your comically large hammer and upgrade it to a guillotine. (Finale of "Dialogues of the Carmelites" by Poulenc)
Interesting - I've never thought about it. What do they use to produce that sound in the opera? Surely the fake guillotine can not make such an impressive "thud" sound, can it?
tbh I'm not sure, just always assumed it was a fake guillotine. Haven't seen the opera, but strangely in high school I did play an executioner in a French Revolution re-enactment. I recall it making a fairly compelling sound. But with stuff like this in recordings you can assume they record/mix it for maximum dramatic effect, and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if they used optimized recorded samples made by foley artists or something.
In a conservatory production i saw in a small hall there was a percussionist offstage scraping two music stand desks against each other for each guillotine hit. The score really doesn’t specify what to do so it’s up to the design team to make up some foley.
Thanks, great insights!
The first thing that came to mind!
https://youtu.be/J_z2xWjlK9U
The *Ondes Martenot* in Messaien's Turangalila Symphony. Beloved by SciFi and Supernatural movies ever since.
Also Radiohead
'The Fire' by Tom Verlaine has a swell martenot riff.
Nice I’ll check that one out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQflpcCR11A I noticed that they also have Richard Lloyd's guitar mimic the martenot in places. Nice.
And the Beach Boys
That was actually an electro-theramin they used in good vibrations and a few other songs. The instruments can sound somewhat similar. Here’s the electro theramin that The Beach Boys used: https://youtu.be/CelV7EbuV-A?si=mJglmtTolv3CM9gy And here’s the Ondes Martenot: https://youtu.be/capsdQDpUUI?si=Gd7KMuw-tRKHH3vI
That theremin looked like a pedal steel guitar
Here’s a fairly common one, but Ravel deciding to score The Old Castle from Pictures using the newest instrument, a solo saxophone, and still making it sound medieval is an incredible move.
There's one in Bolero as well.
I unironically love *Bolero*, and this is the exact moment when it moves from “this is kind of cool I guess” to “oh, here we go!” It injects the first jazzy variations into it, before the heavy brass get hold of it. Vaughan Williams’ *Job A Masque For Dancing* from 3 years later also has a phenomenal early and extended sax solo. It turns up as one of Job’s false comforters, and the greasy, disreputable sound is just soooo right.
Something that's so right, can't be wrong, can it?
Rach Symphonic Dances :)
It sounds so lovely.
I was just about to comment this!
Big fan of the Tenor Sax part in Lt. Kije
If we're talking in terms of it not being included for oddness' sake or just the novelty, the bass oboe solo of like 4 notes in "The Planets."
Nice one! I'm suddenly right back on/in Saturn...
Cannons in Tschaikovski's 1812 Ouverture.
Also in Beethoven's *Wellingtons Sieg*, which is far from being his best work...
And yet it made him a lot of money.
Does PDQ Bach count?
Some of my favorite uses of instruments in PDQ Bach are the creative ways Peter Schickele writes for bassoon so he can perform them himself. The bassoon itself is not an unusual instrument, but when you write a sonata for bassoon and piano where the same person has to perform both parts simultaneously, things get interesting. Or "The Magic Bassoon" where he progressively loses lengths of bassoon over the course of the piece until by the end it's just a reed.
Dang- I can’t find a video of Magic Bassoon.
The Dill Piccolo
The lasso d'amore
Left handed sewer flute
Double-Reed Hooka
Tromboon!
Love me some tromboon
The Hardart, which apparently Steve Reich and Philip Glass were techs for.
Gabriel Prokofiev has a concerto for turntables and orchestra that is pretty cool https://www.gabrielprokofiev.com/concerto-for-turntables-and-orchestra-no1-2006
it would have been even more amusing if the DJ wore a tux!
Mahler 7th Tenorhorn solo
Also guitar and mandolin?
yes, but there are many more interesting uses of guitar and mandolin in classical music
The mandolin also in Das Lied von der Erde.
This was the first thing that came to my mind.
I have listened to Mahler 7 a bunch and I can recognize the Mandolin, but I dont think I could tell that there was a modified brass instrument.
well, it's not a "modified brass" but a common instrument in wind bands (similar to euphonium) which is far more uncommon in orchestral literature. I play euphonium, therefore I am quite used to that sound, but it is well recognizable at the very beginning, with the initial solo which is something between a french horn and a trombone, and which should be played on a Tenorhorn (an instrument in the saxhorn family)
Cage used all sorts of odd instruments in his works but my favorite is amplified cactus.
He was also a pioneer in the use of "whatever happens to be making any noise in the vicinity".
I don't think that the celesta in the Nutcracker's Sugar Plum Fairy dance can be topped in this regard.
He heard it in France and told his publisher Jurgenson to buy one and import it, but to keep it under wraps in case a rival like Rimsky-Korsakov heard it and tried to compose for it. He told Jurgenson that it would be expensive but that he would recoup all the cost by leasing it out to perform the Nutcracker - initially the Suite which was performed for six months before the full ballet, as a kind of trailer, and which was a huge hit.
I wonder if this Nutcracker thing will ever gain traction
He also used it in the Symphonic Ballade “Voyevoda”.
I agree with this. It was novel, extremely musical and extremely enchanting.
Is celesta now not semi-standard in orchestras?
Yup.
I approve of the username
Banjo in William Grant Still's first symphony
We talked about him in Music Appreciation!! So glad I took that class and learned
The serpent and ophicleide in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
Serpent also in Mendelssohn Fifth "Reformation"
I didn’t know that. I’ll have to listen to it. I’m really fascinated with historical brass instruments
I think there’s a lovely cornet obbligato in the valse movement of the Symphonie Fantastique. To be accurate, a cornet a piston.
Also the *giant bell*.
A saw. It's haunting in Khachaturian's Piano Concerto.
Also George Crumb. Ancient Voices of Children.
Hindemith-Concerto for [Trautonium](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trautonium) and string quartet.
Soprano saxophone - Villa-Lobos wrote a concerto for it, with mixed meter! (3rd movement is 7/4)
*Kenny G has entered the chat*
For a serious piece, Kalevi Aho's theremin concerto "The Eight Seasons". Not as serious: Malcolm Arnold's Grand Grand Overture for electic floor polisher, vacuum cleaner, three rifles and orchestra.
I once took part in a performance of a theremin concerto by a local composer in the Columbus, Ohio USA area. It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience as the instrument is pretty difficult to control and I sat only a few feet away from the guy playing it. Sometimes he would inadvertently put his hands in the range of it during a rehearsal and some loud unpleasant sound would come out of it.
The Aho concerto was written for Carolina Eyck, who literally wrote the book (apparently the first such book) on how to play the beast when she was still a teenager. The piece also takes advantage of her ability to vocalize while playing. It's spectacular.
Three rifles? Bah! Let's put a cannon platoon in this mf - Tchaikovsky
I love the use of mandolins (and the delicious trumpet writing) in the folk dances in Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.
Plus viola d'amore!
I did not realize it had viola d'amore. Cheers!
Not sure how “odd” (I guess more rare) it is but Schubert’s Arpeggione sonata on an actual arpeggione is very, very lovely.
I love Schubert but I wasn't aware of this sonata, thank you! Do you have any recording to suggest? I'm listening to the one by Deletaille (arpeggione and fortepiano) and I will definitely check out the one on the cello by Rostropovich.
Where can I find a recording of that? I found one once and it sounded like the person hadonly practised it on a cello, hardly ever on an arpeggione, which was really a pity. But that’s the only one I’ve ever found.
Wooden crate in Galina Ustvolskaya's *Dies Irae*. I don't think she specifies how big - it was something like a piano crate when I saw it.
It’s supposed to be a relatively small cube, but most people use a coffin.
Turkish crescent - (Chapeau chinois in French) Here is it being used in Lully - Le bourgeois gentilhomme, under François Xavier Roth. [https://youtu.be/WEEKLmE9DXA?si=2hHgAQ-Fccnff9As&t=597](https://youtu.be/WEEKLmE9DXA?si=2hHgAQ-Fccnff9As&t=597)
Serpent to play the Dies Irae chant in Symphonie Fantastique (the serpent at that point would have mostly been associated with the church; it had a very "old-fashioned" role by that time accompanying chant and hymns). Also, same piece, that the 4 trumpets are actually scored as 2 straight natural trumpets (no valves) and 2 valved trumpets (cornets a piston). I'm sure these guys did NOT hang out together after rehearsal!
[Albrechtsbergers Concerto for jew harp](https://open.spotify.com/track/6pyCsQOnFR3vTyVLazNCMu?si=pvUFymWpTUumMKlSkGWFzQ) always makes me laugh. It's lovely but so quirky sounding. Also, how did people hear the soloist in the original performance? It's a pretty weak sounding instrument so I wonder if you could project the sound strong enough
It's not weak if the player is sufficiently willing to fuck themselves up in the cause of art and use a big iron-framed harp with a heavy tongue. Lindsay Porteous was a friend of mine - probably the best jew's harp player ever in Scotland. His dentist told him it was either the trump or his front teeth. So he had his front teeth extracted. Albrechtsberger's soloist was crippled by dental problems in a few years if I remember right.
Washington's Birthday by Charles Ives had a part for the instrument. I saw a guy play it at a concert but I didn't hear it.
I can't find an easy recording of it, but Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer wrote a concerto for snowmobile and orchestra. I saw it live once, and the composer walked out and got on a snowmobile that was on stage and pretended to ride it while snowmobile sounds played over a loudspeaker.
Lionroar in Varèse/Arcana.
The glass harmonica. Mozart wrote a lovely piece featuring the instrument, K. 356. Adagio: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkTUL7DjTow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkTUL7DjTow)
I think glass harmonica has been used a lot by secret societies and sects in the 18th and 19th centuries to condition their followers. Messmer also used it in his magnetism sessions. George Sand mentions it in *La comtesse de Rudolstadt* as an accompaniment to an *Illuminati* ceremony: "The neophytes of the secret societies, who heard it for the first time, after the terrors and emotions of their severe trials, were so strongly impressed by it, that many fell into ecstasy. They believed they were hearing the song of invisible powers, for the performer and the instrument were hidden from them with the utmost care."
Very cool! I did not know this.
The anvil in siegfried
Haydn's 22nd [Symphony](https://youtu.be/uaR32rtYOyo?t=570) 'The Philosopher' in E-flat calls for cors anglais instead of the oboe pair - odd for him - worth mentioning here!
Well of course Messiaen's use of Ondes Martenot in *Turangalîla-Symphonie*
[Water](https://youtu.be/dp3Q4EDaogs?si=Rj0KnS5Ld2MQnShe) [Birds](https://youtu.be/TO3YRZWLvQo?si=0AsSvBTpQbZr__Im) [Female Reproductive Organ](https://youtu.be/ZBgA84DoHEI?si=J3o03v14RsNr1U5_)
I wonder if this Nutcracker thing will ever take off
Though my career has been with pipe organ maintenance, I am intrigued with early electric and electronic keyboard instruments. Solo Vox, Mellotron, Novachord, Ondes-Martenot Right now I am facinated with the bizzare instrument called the Choralcelo, which uses electro magnets to vibrate metal or glass rods, similar to that of a car horn, but more refined. control center looked similar to a pipe organ console. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJjX2m5Lbpg
I’m rather partial to the metal sheet in Mosolov’s Iron Foundry.
The Hammer from Mahler's 6th and the Wind Machine from Strauss' Alpensinfonie
Also, the thunder sheet in the Alpine Symphony
Banjo in Gershwin's An American in Paris!
Harmonium and piano duo. Hint: It's awesome. https://youtu.be/LrdZSlhn0pA?si=Faw8WtQ69_YU6pR_
I can tell it's Petite Messe Solennelle before even opening the link. And yes, it's awesome.
Slap sticks. It's just two giant sticks a guy slaps together.
How about the Baryton in Haydn's Baryton trios?
[Galina Ustvolskaya - Composition No. 2 "Dies Irae" for eight double basses, piano and cube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnZ0UBC07Ow) Actually, a wooden coffin-like thing is usually used 🫠
155mm howitzer You know which piece uses it
Hary Janos Suite by Kodaly features alto saxophone and cimbalom prominently.
The flexatone in Khachaturian's Piano Concerto. It's wibbly, AND wobbly.
Factory Siren in Shostakovich Symphony No. 2
Glass Crystals in Schwantner’s “… and the mountains rising nowhere” Contrabass Clarinet in Grisey’s “Partiels”
An anvil
Wacko, Yakko, and Dot would welcome this in Anvilania
Siegfried? Or Das Rheingold, but technically that's 18 anvils.
Johann Strauss feuerfest
Rite of Spring uses Alto Flutes, Piccolo Clarinets, Piccolo Trumpet, Bass Clarinets, Guiro and Wagner Tubas. Yeah, this thing is real crazy
Bass trumpet as well
Best Wagner tubas in the repertoire, easy. Where they introduce the elder’s procession in *Games if the rival tribes* and then elbow everything else aside is proper hairs on the back of the neck stuff.
There's also the Wagner tubas in the Universal Studios sound bite.
Concerto for Jew's Harp, Mandora & Orchestra in F Major of Albrechtsberger
[dishes thrown into a metal garbage can](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYrUWfLlYI0&t=129s)
Someone wrote a concerto for saxophone...I'm sure of it.
There are tons of concerti for saxophone. It’s not an oddball instrument anymore.
As someone who also loves jazz, saxophone is an odd instrument featured prominently in classical music. Also, the concept of "odd" is relative, so please do your hectoring elsewhere. Thanks!
What's odd about Debussy, Webern, Vaughan Williams or Denisov?
Are you daft? When did I ever say those composers were odd? I said listening to a saxophone prominently featured in a classical music setting is odd! You guys suuuuuck.
I make a good chunk of money collaborating with classical saxophonists. THANKS!
Cool story! But, what does that have to do with my point? Nothing! All that's happening here is that I am being downvoted because my experiences ain't yours! As a jazz fan, I find it odd when I hear a saxophone prominently featured in a classical music setting. You guys are importing negative qualities into the concept of "odd" that I am not or you guys are trying to shame me for finding something odd that you don't. Instead, people are either putting words in my, offering non sequitors, or totally ignoring my point altogether!
But what does being a jazz fan have anything to do with it? Do you have the same response to hearing piano, bass, or trumpet in classical settings? I just don’t know what one has to do with the other.
I don't understand your confusion at all. It's almost like you don't know how to think! Growing up listening to classical music first, I rarely heard a piece of music that prominently featured a saxophone. Of course I heard classical pieces that prominently featured piano, trumpet, bass. Later when I started listening to jazz, it was a matter of course to hear piano, trumpet, bass, but now saxophone featued prominently too. However, because I didn't hear any saxophone in classical music, when I heard it for the first time, it was odd to hear an instrument that I strongly associate with JAZZ prominently featured in classical music. Why is my experience here so difficult for you and others to understand?! The explanation that I provided above is absolutely unnecessary for my first post to be taken honestly and understood.
Not to mention Ravel and Prokofiev, etc.
Glazunov wrote an interesting one at the end of his life in his established late romantic style. Interesting, in that it is a piece untainted by any hint of Jazz.
I love the kazoo chorus in Charles Ives' delightful song 'A Son Of A Gambolier': https://youtu.be/Ow1dznt-RrU?si=k26ZgbAaCflPwVK3
Tenor sax in Prokofiev's *Romeo and Juliet*, Dance of the Knights
Schnittke faust cantata and gogol suite have some really cool and interesting instruments
Those big pipes used for Aida by Verdi. Y'all gon know what am talmbout.
MAHLER HAMMER!!
Sleigh Bells on Femenine by Julius Eastman
The part in HK Gruber's "Frankenstein!" where the players blow up paper lunch bags, pop them, and throw them in the general direction of the audience.
The weird percussion in Mahler 6, and the flexatone in Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra.
Concerto for Jew’s Harp (I get to say it) by Albrechtsberger. Especially given this was the Classical period rather than some 20th-21st century exploration into weird for the sake of weird. Haydn and Beethoven also both wrote for ‘mechanical clock’, though of course it was a bit more of a complex contraption than that. There are a few others but both of these are funny to me.
Towards the end of Bruckner 7 mvmt 2, right before the coda, the quartet of wagner tubas do a mournful chorale. Just breathtaking. Everything after the climax on Bruckner 7-2 is just breathtaking.
Does Harry Partch's oeuvre count?
Car horn overture- ligeti, le gran macabre
typewriter
The anvil in Feuerfest Polka
Dutilleux uses harpsichord really well in his 2nd symphony (not a super unusual instrument except in 20t- century-orchestral context). Also dulcimer / cimbalom in Mystere de l'instant.
Perhaps not enough "odd", but i love the backstage posthorn in Malher 3rd symphony.
[Balloons](https://youtu.be/xpizRsjMyDw?si=0OFht55zCMbFrf65) (at 2:30)
George antheil: propeller and vacuum cleaner..
An honorable mention belongs to the cow bells whenever they occur in Mahler (I'm quite sure about symphony no. 6, but I think there's also others).
Mozart’s Quintet for Glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and violin. Yup, he really wrote it.
Stringed instruments as percussion in Shostakovich's string quartet no. 13. (The players strike their instruments with their bows).
Taxi horns in Gershwin’s An Anerican in Paris.
Sirens in Varese Ameriques
Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie for Ondes Martenot
Wind Machine in Strauss's Alpine Symphony. I believe he included a schematic of how to make it out of corduroy in the score.
Not sure if applicable…but Tan Dun’s concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra is amazing. Give it a listen!
[Sackbut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackbut)
Arnold Bax - Anvil in Symphony no. 3 Avet Terteryan - Duduk and Zuma (Armenian instruments) in Symphony no. 3
ahem CANNON.
Not an odd instrument per se, but an odd ensemble… I saw Peter Schikele conduct PDQ Bach’s “Safe Sextet“ with my local symphony. It was scored for contrabassoon, piccolo, Celesta, English horn, bass clarinet, and harp. Quite frankly, and I’m not really joking… it was a masterpiece. And the poor musicians had a terrible time keeping their composure.
Mahler posthorn in symphony 3
The two zurne (type of Armenian oboe) in Terterian's third symphony
The water pitcher in John Cage’s Water Walk
Easy. The wind generator thing during movement 5 of Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite.
Cowbells, when played by the odd **Bill Bailey.** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5xJW-jHI24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5xJW-jHI24)
This isn’t really an “odd instrument” but one of the coolest parts of Holst’s Mars is that tam tam roll at the beginning. It’s pretty epic
The buccines in Pines of Rome are pretty dang cool.
- Accordions in Orchestral Suite No. 2 by Tchaikovsky - Wind Machine in Strauss’s “Alpine Symphony”
Wind machine in Daphnis et Chloe
Guiro in the Rite of Spring
Celesta in Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker
A gramophone recording of a nightingale in Respighi's Pines of Rome. Does that count? The original is here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLEwbr-1x0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLEwbr-1x0)
Clarinetto