Thunder machine (instrument)

A thunder machine is a percussion instrument used to imitate the sound of thunder.^[1] Usually, this is a large sheet of metal that is shaken or a large drum.

Composers

Notable pieces in which the musical instrument has been used include the following:

• Richard Strauss - Eine Alpensinfonie and the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten;
• Giuseppe Verdi - Otello; and
• Richard Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen^[2] and Parsifal.
• Mozart The Magic Flute^[3][4]
• The Grateful Dead^[5][6]

Theatre

Simpler machines were employed in the theatre.^[7]

See also

• Gong

References

1. "Thunder machine". OnMusic Dictionary. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
2. Richard Wagner - Page 404 The thunder machine is used only in Das Rheingold, but Wagner's score does not specifically include it by name. Instead, the score states that, when Donner strikes the hammer in Das Rheingold, ”Ein starker Blitz entfährt der Wolke; ein ...
3. Howard E. Smither A History of the Oratorio: The oratorio in the nineteenth .- 2000 -.. - Page 537 \3The orchestra, with threatening, theatrical effects of brass and thunder (a thunder machine is required), powerfully and dramatically sounds out the Gregorian "Dies irae."
4. Jessica Waldoff Assistant Professor of Music College of the Holy Cross - Recognition in Mozart's Operas 2006 - Page 45 "... in C minor (complete with thunder machine) is transformed into the music of Sarastro's stately proclamation in E-flat major."
5. Rock Scully - Living with the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia ...2001 - Page 33 "The Thunder Machine is huge, like something you'd put in a children's playground. It's also a musical instrument.You can get inside it and bang on the different panels with wooden mallets and hammers. It's like a huge steel drum, so big that ..."
6. John M. Rocco, Brian Rocco Dead reckonings: the life and times of the Grateful Dead -- 1999 Page 55 "That has Kesey a little nervous, because in just a few weeks the Thunder Machine is going on its first tour.
7. The Production of Later Nineteenth Century American Drama Garrett Hasty Leverton - 1936 "The most modern thunder machine is a long, narrow trough with a cannon ball rolling in it. Wooden cleats impede the ball along "Hopkins, op. cit., p. 301. 21 Logan, op. cit., p. 628. the way, and it may be rolled very fast for STAGE AND OFF ..."