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
Christiane Eda-Pierre Chicago, and New York. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1980 as Konstanze, and went on to sing other roles there: Antonia in "Les contes d'Hoffmann" and Gilda in "Rigoletto". She became a teacher at the Paris Conservatory in 1977, while continuing her career in opera and in concert. The possessor of a beautiful, rich and agile voice, which enabled her to succeed in a wide variety of roles, Eda-Pierre can be heard on several recordings, her three most famous being on the Philips label, as Konstanze in "Abduction from the Seraglio" and Teresa in "Benvenuto Cellini", both under