The triangle is the simplest and perhaps the most exotic instrument of the orchestra. Outwardly just a bent steel rod, its sound is astonishing: high, transparent, with an endless overtone tail that “floats” across the hall.
The triangle is a master of the accent. Composers use it when they need a “ray of light” in a dark orchestral texture: Liszt's famous triangle solo in his First Piano Concerto; Brahms's Fourth Symphony, with its delicate accents; the sparkling accents of Bizet's Carmen. The triangle is tiny, yet its absence from the orchestra is immediately noticed — there is no substitute for it.
