A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Triangle

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TRIANGLE. This is a steel rod bent in a triangular form, but open at one angle. The beater is of the same metal, and should be somewhat of a spindle shape, so as to give a heavier or lighter stroke at the performer's discretion. It is hung by a string at the upper angle, held in the performer's hand, or more frequently attached to his desk or to one of his drums, as it is seldom that a man has nothing else to play besides this little instrument, except in military bands. It suits all keys, as besides the fundamental tone there are many subordinate ones, not harmonics. The woodcut is from an instrument of the pattern used at the Grand Opéra in Paris. It is an isosceles triangle, the longest side 7½ inches, and the short side or base 7 inches. Thickness 716 of an inch. Rossini and his followers make frequent use of it, and Brahms has introduced it in the Finale of his Variations on a theme of Haydn's. Beethoven has a few strokes of it in his 9th Symphony.