Geophone (musical instrument) Geophone (musical instrument) The geophone is a percussion instrument, invented by the French composer Olivier Messiaen for use in his large composition for piano and orchestra entitled "Des canyons aux étoiles…" ("From the canyons to the stars…"). It consists of a drum filled with thousands of small lead pellets, and is played by swirling it around slowly so that the noise of the pellets resembles the sound of dry shifting earth. Messiaen commissioned a Parisian instrument maker to construct one to his design, and he carried this instrument worldwide to early performances of the piece (which was given its first
Rimshot rimshot when used to accent the punchline of a joke being told by a live comedian may or may not simultaneously be played with a small cymbal crash. This was popularized in comedy as staged by stand-up comedians performing at one of the resorts in the Catskill Mountain region. Many of these comics were of Jewish heritage and were known as "borscht belt comics." The best illustration of how a rimshot might be applied to a comedy routine is to look at the classic style of Henny Youngman who in addition to playing a violin would tell fast-paced, one-liner type