THE ROLE OF TURKISH PERCUSSION IN THE HISTORY AND ...

Smaller triangles were used to achieve a higher, brighter tone; larger triangles produced a
lower, heartier resonance. The greater the thickness of the metal, the higher and more
distinguishable are its overtones. The thickness and force of the steel beater that strikes the
triangle determines its volume.
When the triangle was first used as part of the orchestral percussion section, it served a
“time-keeping” function as it had done for years in military bands. Gluck’s experimental use
of the triangle as the single Turkish percussion instrument scored in combination with strings,
bassoon, and horns in Iphigénia en Aulide (1774) called only for the playing of a
characteristically steady eighth-note rhythm. Although the implementation of the triangle
remained limited, nineteenth-century composers such as Robert Schumann in his Symphony
No. 1 (1841) chose the triangle’s unique orchestral tone to introduce an unsteady, less-
traditional rhythm. This can be seen in Figure 30.
Figure 30. Symphony No. 1 by Schumann. Reprinted from Edgar Brand Gangware, Jr., “The
History and Use of Percussion Instruments in Orchestration,” Ph.D. diss., (Northwestern
University, 1962), 209a
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