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

While still accenting the strong beats of the texture shared by flute, violin, viola, and cello, its
use was no longer predictable. The first composer to utilize the triangle in a solo capacity was
Franz Listz, as seen in his Piano Concerto No. 1 (1855). Often subtitled “The Triangle
Concerto” because of the instrument’s soloistic usage, the triangle has a short four-note
rhythmic solo, unaccompanied, repeated several times as the statement to which the string
section replies. Listz’s innovation, shown in Figure 31, marks the turning point from the
triangle’s military history to a more aesthetic usage. 14
Figure 31. Piano Concerto No. 1 by Listz. Reprinted from Edgar Brand Gangware, Jr., “The
History and Use of Percussion Instruments in Orchestration,” Ph.D. diss., (Northwestern
University, 1962), 209b
Triangle rolls are played inside the upper angle of the instrument by striking both sides
of the instrument back and forth rapidly, with a loose wrist. Wagner included the tremolo in
the overture to Die Meistersinger (1862-67), as did Edvard Grieg in Peer Gynt (1875), and
14
Gangware, The History and Use of Percussion Instruments in Orchestration, 207-09; Gordon B. Peters, “The
Sistrum and the Triangle,” 55.
60