Regarding Mahler's use of cowbells, Ian Crisp amusingly writes:

>I've heard it done as if an entire herd of cattle was waiting in the
>wings to cross the stage in front of the violins and cellos on their way
>to being milked on the other side.  We are high in the mountains, way above
>any dairy pasture, and the sound of cowbells is the last tenuous link to
>the world below, not a warning that the conductor is about to be trampled
>to death by a stampeding herd of crazed livestock.

So true.  I like Chailly's Mahler 7th very much, except that the cowbells
in those grand chords of the finale are just too pronounced for my taste.
I was wondering if anyone else demanded sublimity in their cowbell sound.

Oh, the things we have to deal with....

John Smyth