Triangle: France musical instrument

The triangle is an idiophone kind of musical instrument in the percussion family of musical instruments. The triangle is a bar of metal that is often made of steel but sometimes other metals like the beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The musical instrument is often held by the loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve of the instrument. The triangle was first produced around the 16^th century.

source of picture: en.wikipedia.org

On the musical instrument, one of the angles is left to be open, with the extremes of the bar not quite touching. This causes the musical instrument to be of unknown or not settled of decided pitch. It is either suspended from one of the other corners by a piece of generally, fishing line, leaving the instrument free to vibrate, or hooked over the hand. The musical instrument is often struck with the use of a metal beater, manufacturing a high-pitched timbre.

Although today the shape of the musical instrument is commonly in the form of an equilateral triangle, early musical instruments were usually formed as isosceles triangles. In the old days, the musical instrument did not have an opening and had jingling tones along the lower side of it.

The triangle is usually the subject of jokes and one liners in Europe and the north America as an archetypal musical instrument that requires no skill to perform. Meanwhile, the parts of the musical instrument in the classical music can be very demanding and James Blades in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians writes that the musical instrument is by no means a simple instrument to perform.

In European classical music, the musical instrument has been used in the western classical orchestra since around the middle part of the 18^th century. Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven all used the musical instrument, though economically, often in limitation of Janissary bands. The first piece of make the musical instrument really popular was Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.1, where it is used as a solo musical instrument in the third movement, giving this concerto the nickname of ‘triangle concerto’. In the 19^th century, the musical instrument was used in some music by Richard Wagner like the ‘Bridal chorus’ from lohengrin.

Most difficulties in performing the musical instrument come from the complicated rhythms that are sometimes written for it, but it can also be quite hard to control the level of the instrument’s volume. By using a much lighter beater, very quiet notes can be achieved from the musical instrument. Knitting needles are occasionally used for the quietest notes. Composers sometimes call for a wooden beater to be used rather than a metal one that gives a duller and quiet tone. When the musical instrument is performed with one beater, the band that holds the musical instrument can also be used to damp or modify the tone of the instrument. For complex rapid rhythms, the musical instrument may be suspended from a stand and performed with the use of two beaters, but this makes the instrument more difficult to control.

In folk music, forro music, Cajun music and rock music, a triangle is usually hooked over the hand of the player so that one side can be damped by the fingers to differ the tone. The pitch of the musical instrument can be modulated a little bit by differentiating the area struck and by more subtle damping. The musical instrument is also well-known in the Cajun music where it serves as the strong beat, specifically if no drums are found there.  The triangle has also been historically linked with calling people for dinner, specifically in the 19^th century portrayals.