Works with one or two uses of percussion

[Maestro267]

I've just finished listening to Franz Scharwenka's 4th Piano Concerto, and for the first time, I noticed in the finale a single cymbal crash. This is the only use of percussion other than timpani in the entire 40-minute piece. It got me thinking about other works which call for percussion, but it's only used once or twice in the entire work.

Dvorák 9 - Bit of triangle work in the scherzo, then a single cymbal scrape in the finale. Wonderfully effective for that moment, but they're paying one guy to just do that in the entire symphony?

Bruckner 7 & 8 - Slow movements. No. 7 might climax with cymbals and triangle, depends on who's recording it. No. 8 does too. Other than that, Bruckner uses no non-timpani percussion in any of his symphonies.

[Brian]

Dvorák 9 - Bit of triangle work in the scherzo, then a single cymbal scrape in the finale. Wonderfully effective for that moment, but they're paying one guy to just do that in the entire symphony?

It's not percussion, but Dvorak 8 famously has a 5-second-long cor anglais solo and the instrument doesn't play a single other note the whole symphony long.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Wow, I really need to get out more, my experience of percussion writing is way too influenced by Varèse.

[listener]

It's not percussion, but Dvorak 8 famously has a 5-second-long cor anglais solo and the instrument doesn't play a single other note the whole symphony long.

cor anglais is frequently doubled by the 3rd or 2nd oboe,
Other common  doublings are flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon/contrabassoon, piano/celeste.  Fingerings are similar for these combinations. 
Surinach's Symphonic Variations calls for 2 c.a. and is written so the oboes can double.

[amw]

It's not percussion, but Dvorak 8 famously has a 5-second-long cor anglais solo and the instrument doesn't play a single other note the whole symphony long.

Also the bass clarinet in Tchaikovsky 6 which, iirc, only plays four notes (marked ppppp). Though I think he originally wrote the part for bassoon and it's just unplayable at that dynamic so everyone substitutes bass clarinet, but still.

As for percussion: I know there's a Liszt piece with one single triangle stroke in the entire piece, but I don't know which one.

[jochanaan]

Also the bass clarinet in Tchaikovsky 6 which, iirc, only plays four notes (marked ppppp). Though I think he originally wrote the part for bassoon and it's just unplayable at that dynamic so everyone substitutes bass clarinet, but still.

It's six p's, and yes, it was originally written for bassoon. If there are any bassoonists in the "house," I'd be interested to know just how possible it is to play that softly in that range...

As for percussion: I know there's a Liszt piece with one single triangle stroke in the entire piece, but I don't know which one.

You may be thinking of his Piano Concerto #1, which actually has a fairly prominent triangle part in the third "movement."

Shostakovich tends to write for one, two or three percussionists mostly, but then call for a large number for a brief section.  Symphony #4 needs nine (9!) for perhaps forty measures in the first movement; Symphony #8 needs seven at the transition from the third to the fourth movement--but only in those places; the rest of the work can be played with fewer percussionists.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

It's six p's, and yes, it was originally written for bassoon. If there are any bassoonists in the "house," I'd be interested to know just how possible it is to play that softly in that range...

I've heard that some actually hum the part softly because the clicking of the keys is louder than the intended dynamic of the actual notes.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

In the fifth movement of Ein Heldenleben a triangle chimes in a single time, about two-thirds the way through, signaling a transition. It's a fantastic touch. "After-triangle" the movement begins its descent into a more placid pacing.

Can't recall the triangle's role in the rest of the piece...

[jochanaan]

In the fifth movement of Ein Heldenleben a triangle chimes in a single time, about two-thirds the way through, signaling a transition. It's a fantastic touch. "After-triangle" the movement begins its descent into a more placid pacing.

Can't recall the triangle's role in the rest of the piece...

My guess is that one of the snare drummers picks up the triangle for that one note.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

My guess is that one of the snare drummers picks up the triangle for that one note.

A little moonlighting!

[Jo498]

Meistersinger-Vorspiel also has a single soft triangle stroke at a very "poetic" moment, but I think it is also employed on the loud sections.

Not percussion and not sure, but I think Brahms' German Requiem employs a harp only at one or two comparably brief passages (the one I recall is when the harp and flutes imitate raindrops at the words "Morgenregen und Abendregen" (early/late rain) in the 2nd movement).

And Bruckner's 8th has harps only in the trio of the 2nd movement and maybe a little in the slow mvmt.

[Maestro267]

And Bruckner's 8th has harps only in the trio of the 2nd movement and maybe a little in the slow mvmt.

Yes to both, although in the original version (as recorded by Georg Tintner on Naxos), the 2nd-movement trio is totally different and omits the harps.

[DaveF]

Janáček is a bit of a serial offender here; there are 3 cymbal notes in the Sinfonietta (one brief suspended tap, one huge smash when the 13 trumpets re-enter at the end, followed by one suspended trill - if that's what it's called on cymbals).  And although I don't have the score to cofirm, the only untuned percussion I can think of in the Glagolitic Mass is the side-drum roll introducing the organ solo in the Credo.

On not quite the same subject, I once went to a Mahler concert by a very good semi-pro scratch orchestra in which the baritone soloist in the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen also wielded the hammer in the 6th symphony.

[Maestro267]

And although I don't have the score to cofirm, the only untuned percussion I can think of in the Glagolitic Mass is the side-drum roll introducing the organ solo in the Credo.

I believe there are a couple of tam-tam strikes later in that same movement.

[DaveF]

I believe there are a couple of tam-tam strikes later in that same movement.

Of course - three or four whoppers, immediately after jegože česarstvyu nebudet konca or whatever.  I clearly haven't listened to it enough recently, an omission I must put right.

[Luke]

Plus in the original (and essentially the 'correct') version of the Glagolitic, the side drum has strikingly more to do.

[pjme]

Ferrucio Busoni: two soft tam tam / gong strokes to dissolve this bittersweet composition...


Berceuse élégiaque


https://www.youtube.com/v/Fr65XS4IWJ8

[Maestro267]

Ferrucio Busoni: two soft tam tam / gong strokes to dissolve this bittersweet composition...

Which composition?

[pjme]

And then there is that single tubular bell in Pärt's Cantus in memoriam Britten...


https://www.youtube.com/v/82-xbhfNR2g

[(poco) Sforzando]

The last chord in the Berlioz Fantastique includes a single cymbal clash.