Karl Miller ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>...  I recall that Mendelssohn's Midsummer
>Nights Dream incidental music calls for an Opheclide.

as did (IIRC) the original Symphonie Fantastique.

>...  Antheil called for airplane propellors in his Ballet Mechanique.

And they don't work!  Having attended the fourth-ever performance of the
riginal version (and discussed it at some length with the conductor),
the propellors (although they looked good) had to replaced with sampled
propellors.

Which, when you think of he purpose of the propellor, is hardly surprising.
It was either that or risk decapitating the audience when the propellor
broke loose.

>I recall a work by Arnold which requires vacumm cleaners and in another
>piece...  was it Dennis Brain playing on a garden hose.

Yes it was, but the piece was composed - by Leopold Mozart - for horn.

The incidental music (by Francis Baines?) for William McGonagal's The
Famous Tay Whale included a foghorn and an espresso machine.

Deryk Barker
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