Ringing in the Year

Prosit Neujahr!
Cheers New Year!

No musical instrument requires more patience than the triangle, an instrument of unmatched geometric simplicity. It may take only a moment of instruction to learn to play one, yet triangle mastery is only acquired after years of dedicated concentration  measuring the time before its alarm is sounded.


That was the perceptive observation of the artist who produced this caricature of an aged trianglist awaiting the precise point in the music when his instrument makes its trilling entrance.

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This German postcard was posted a bit late for a timely salute in Hamburg on the 30th of January, 1905 to Fräulein Grete Vogt (?) who resided in Grindelberg, a suburb of Hamburg. The regulations of the Union Postale Universalle mandated that the upper corner of the address side should identify this postal rectangle in 13 languages:  French, German, English, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Croatian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, and Danish.  

Though the German word for a triangle is Dreieck, the great German composer, Richard Wagner, knew this percussion instrument by its Italian name, Triangolo. In his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which typically takes 4½ hours to perform (not counting intermissions) and thereby necessitates a change of orchestras midway thru to follow the musicians union rules, Wagner gives the triangle player a generous 4 pages of music containing mostly hundreds of empty measures rests and percussion-less scenes. However there is one prominent part for a triangle that first appears at the end of the overture to the 1st Act. Wagner liked it so much that he repeated it two more times, compelling the hapless musician to stay attentive until Die Meistersinger's glorious end. Here is the last page of the trilateral percussionist's part.

And courtesy of a very capable young percussionist on YouTube
we can hear a splendid rendition of Wagner's clattering music for triangle
without the distraction of opera singers and orchestra.

Alas, that video was removed.
So here is a substitute player,
whose video is taken from an unusual angle.

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So this is the lesson for 1905 and 2016.
Be patience, make life count and your time will come.
My best wishes to everyone for a prosperous new year!

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where oranges are on special at 1¢ apiece all weekend long.