Anvil

As Printed on a Score

Labels the anvil line (Anvil), written on a single line, each stroke a plain note. Where several anvils of different sizes are wanted, as in Wagner, the part may give approximate pitches or separate lines.

How Composers Use It

A hard, ringing clang of struck steel, tied to the forge since Verdi’s Anvil Chorus in Il trovatore and Wagner’s eighteen anvils in Das Rheingold. Few orchestras own an actual anvil, so players substitute steel bars, brake drums or pipes; describe the sound you want and expect it to vary from one performance to the next.

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