Orchestral percussion as trivial or unimportant simply because, to the untrained eye (or ear), they seem easy to play. The truth is, however, that auxiliary percussion often requires the most use of extended techniques and that the parts for these instruments are frequently the most difficult. Other auxiliary percussion instruments include: Crash cymbals have been used in an orchestral setting since the time of Mozart, when he adopted their sound from traditional Turkish bands to be used in his opera "Abduction from the Seraglio". Since then, crash cymbals have become one of the most written for percussion instruments in classical music and
Vladimir Rosing he directed "Tosca", "The Barber of Seville", and "Faust" in 1947 with an up-and-coming young bass named Jerome Hines. In 1948 the National Opera Association of Los Angeles, under his direction, presented "The Beggar's Opera", "The Abduction from the Seraglio", "Pagliacci", "Rigoletto", "Faust", and "La traviata" with soprano Jean Fenn. Productions of "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Queen of Spades", and "Don Giovanni" with the American Opera Company of Los Angeles completed 1948. For KFI-TV in 1949 Rosing presented 46 weeks of live televised opera sequences on Sunday afternoons which were voted Outstanding Musical Program of Local Origin by the