Radical Chromaticism

#MAKE THE MAHLER HAMMER AS FAMOUS AS THE TCHAIKOVSKY CANNONS

It’s even more awesome if you know the story behind it. See, the orchestral score doesn’t actually specify the use of a huge wooden mallet. In fact, it doesn’t specify any particular instrument at all: it just describes a completely hypothetical instrumental sound - “brief and mighty, but dull in resonance and with a non-metallic character (like the fall of an axe)” - and leaves it to the orchestra director to figure out how to actually produce it. Apart from the Big Fucking Mallet, past attempts have included custom-made bass drums, smacking a wooden crate with a sledgehammer, and dropping heavy objects onto the stage from a great height.

“yeah I practiced for like 9 hours yesterday”

Reblog if you are a music blog.