Gershwin's Horns

Rainer Hersch argues the musical significance of canons, car horns and tuned anvils.

Gershwin's An American In Paris was part of a growing trend in using unusual musical instruments, such as car horns in Gershwin's case.

Rainer Hersch explores the musical significance of these "black sheep" of the orchestral family - anvils, canons, typewriters, tuned-salad bowls etc. They've all appeared in concert performances over the last two hundred years but who plays them? Who keeps them? And are they really worth a place amongst the back desks of the orchestra?

With the help of two leading British percussionists, Mick Doran and Neil Percy, Rainer demonstrates the soundscape that can be conjured up by bowing a cymbal, rubbing a plastic cup on a gong or bashing a car suspension spring with a hammer. And he debates the legitimacy of using Academy-trained musicians in the business of hitting tuned anvils.
Of course, if it was good enough for Wagner, why shouldn't modern composers push the boat out a bit? In the process, Rainer discovers what can go wrong on the back desks when you lose your tubular bells or inadvertantly wound a conductor with the shrapnel from an anvil.

He also discovers a warehouse containing almost everything that composers have ever asked to be played in an orchestra pit, and even a couple, including the Scaffophone (made entirely from tuned scaffolding pipes!) that haven't.

Producer: Tom Alban

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2008.